Pseudo-landed water people: Experiences of informality in Tai O village, Hong Kong

This article interrogates the structural processes and neocolonial agendas that perpetuate informality in Tai O village, Hong Kong which is famous for its traditional fishing culture and stilt houses. Unlike land-dwellers in Hong Kong's peri-urban villages, stilt house inhabitants suffer tenure insecurity and inconsistent regulations, even as their lifeways are promoted as cultural heritage. To gain insight into this paradox, we reviewed archival materials and conducted ethnographic field research into twenty stilt household's lived experiences. Literature and archival review uncovered historical land tenure reforms in Hong Kong which created categories of informality, which were manipulated to strategic ends. Colonial tenure reforms followed a Chinese lineage village model, supposedly to formalize customary tenure structures. Colonizing governments did not develop consistent water occupation policies, so tenure reform reinforced Chinese social structures which marginalized boat people. Water-dwelling Hong Kongese faced their own contingencies of colonial policy making that privileged or punished illegal land usage unevenly. In Tai O, transitional housing patterns over water were eventually given their own, ambiguous, pseudo-landed tenure category. In light of boat people's distinct history living in informality, this in-depth case study reveals and contextualizes the unique lifeways of boat people and their customary housing and spatial practices.