The Indigenous Women’s Inheritance Movement 1992–1994 and after

This chapter outlines the events leading up to the forming of the inheritance movement. It analyzes the nature of the 1992–1994 movement and the political involvement of external interests, especially of urbanites, in order to engage in a critical gendered analysis of the motives and interests promoting the 1994 reform and the subsequent lack of interest. The chapter deals with the stories of the major walled-village women activists and discusses how their frustrations and discontentment led to the 1992–1994 inheritance movement. It also discusses the legal and social implications of overturning the century-old law. The colonial government had tried to adopt a non-interventionist policy because of the sensitivity regarding the property inheritance issue in the New Territories. The 1992–1994 inheritance movement is the first movement to have emerged from the rural walled-village community in the history of the Hong Kong’s women’s movement.