ABSTRACT
During periods of political change and instability, differences among contending values and moralities often take center stage. Hong Kong has been no stranger to political change, having experienced imperial rule, colonial dependence, military occupation, and finally-in 1997-reincorporation into China. Each transition produced fears of instability and, with the exception of the Japanese Occupation (1941-1945), a spirited debate about customary practices, especially as they related to women. People in Hong Kong have always prided themselves on their ability to adapt, to take risks, to “figure the angles” as behooves a society in which the migrant experience runs deep and wide; yet, cultural conservatism has persisted and at times prospered. During the long years of colonial rule (1842-1997) when battles over Western medicine, female servitude, sexual mores, property relations, and family life waxed and waned, there were many who took up the fight “to save our Chinese traditions” against those who proclaimed the necessity of legal change.2
