ABSTRACT
Due to an emphasis on the patrilineal inheritance pattern, existing studies have portrayed villagers as passive followers of tradition (Baker, 1979:9; Freedman, 1966: 55; Potter, 1968; Watson, 1975:188; 1985:109).3 Daughters' attitudes toward inheritance practices were largely omitted in such studies on inheritance in Chinese society, which concentrated mostly on men's rights,4 thus this study of a rare organized rebellion of daughters is quite different from previous works examining how different women resisted the patriarchal control of the family within the context of marriage (e.g., Jaschok and Mier, 1994). Indeed, previous studies on women's resistance to patriarchy were mainly conducted in the context of renouncing marriage; having special living arrangements after marriage; getting a "compensating bridedaughter" by paying the husband a certain amount of money to obtain a concubine; and building girls' houses, vegetarian halls, and houses for spinsters (Stockard, 1989; Watson, 1994).5 This chapter examines women as active agents who openly voiced their grievances on the unequal inheritance tradition. It also argues that both men and women are active agents who engage in the process of interpreting, reinterpreting, and inventing tradition. On such invented tradition, Hobsbawm and Ranger (1983:1 - 2) write
This chapter argues that this tradition was also formed through the continuous process of negotiation between the colonial government and the villagers. It suggests that the over 100 years of colonial rule since 1898 had "respected" the Chinese custom by "fossilizing" the customary inheritance pattern with reference to the legal order in the Qing period (1644--1911). This policy led to the nondevelopment of gender roles and to the invention of tradition. This chapter also suggests that it was the colonial government that fossilized Chinese customary inheritance through the legal order and objectified it as an invented tradition. Such enforcement of this fossilized inheritance law consequently forbade the extension of women's rights of inheritance and the development of gender equality. Ironically, it was also the colonial regime, with its Western ideas, feminist ideology, and increased educational opportunities for women that led to the changing gender dynamics in Hong Kong during the past few decades.
