Heung Yee Kuk

{{Original research|chapter|date=February 2023}}

In 1906, eight years after the lease of the New Territories from the Qing China began, the British colonial government of Hong Kong interceded in the land rights of indigenous male villagers by converting those rights to block crown leases (on which crown rent was payable) over village land, creating significant discontent among villagers. The growing antagonism between villagers and the administration was exacerbated when, in 1923, the government imposed restraints on building of village houses on land held by villagers under the leases, including imposing a tax (known as a premium) on permission to build if granted.{{cite book|title=Resolving Land Disputes in East Asia: Exploring the Limits of Law|last=Goo|first=Say H|editor=Hualing Fu, John Gillespie|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=3 July 2014|isbn=9781107066823}}{{rp|378}}

Tensions, whipped up by the newly formed Chinese Communist Party, boiled over in 1925 and the major upheavals of the Canton–Hong Kong strike crippled Hong Kong.{{cite book |last=Horrocks |first=Robert James |url=https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/1947/ |title=The Guangzhou-Hong Kong Strike 1925–26 |publisher=University of Leeds}}

It was in these circumstances that the Heung Yee Kuk was formed the next year from the New Territories Association of Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Research,{{cite book|title=Marginalization in China: Recasting Minority Politics|last1=Lee|first1=J|last2=Nedilsky|first2=L|last3=Cheung|first3=S|publisher=Springer|date=22 June 2009|isbn=9780230622418|page=169}} to "work and negotiate with the government to promote the welfare of the people of the New Territories".[http://net2.hkbu.edu.hk/~enews/view_article.php?id=12930 HKBU receives HK$1 million to publish history of Heung Yee Kuk N.T.], HKBU Communications Office, 28 April 2011 It was given formal status by the Heung Yee Kuk Ordinance (Chapter 1097), first enacted 11 December 1959 (originally as no. 45 of 1959) amid the construction of the first New Towns in the New Territories. The Kuk then consisted of 27 Rural Committees representing, in turn, 651 villages. All village representatives on the Rural Committees, generally appointed by village consensus but sometimes by election, had to be male heads of households.{{cite book|last=Bray|first=Denis|title=Hong Kong: Metamorphosis|date=2001|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=962209550X|place=Hong Kong}}{{rp|95}} After just one such election was found to have been rigged in 1957, the government withdrew recognition of the Kuk entirely.{{rp|98}} The committees were, in any event, only representative of indigenous villagers, excluding large swathes of the New Territories population right from the Kuk's earliest days.{{rp|97}}

After becoming a statutory advisory body, the Kuk met regularly with the New Territories Administration to discuss local issues and influence government policies. Tension came to a head in 1971 when a gathering of a thousand villagers in protest at government Small House Policy was described by the New Territories Commissioner Denis Bray as a "village uprising".{{rp|380}}

As part of administrative reforms proposed by McKinsey in 1974, the colonial government established the position of Secretary for the New Territories to communicate with the Kuk and prepare for development of the area.{{cite journal | last=Scott | first=Ian |year= 1982 | title=Administering the New Towns of Hong Kong | journal=Asian Survey | volume= 22 | issue= 7 | pages=665 | doi=10.2307/2643702| jstor=2643702 }}

Over the years the organisation has dabbled in charity work. For example, in 1966 it donated HK$660,000 to found the Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School, in Yuen Long.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}

The Kuk is almost exclusively operated by men. In 1994, legislator Christine Loh attempted to allow female villagers the same land-inheritance rights as men, but the Kuk protested, claiming that granting females equal inheritance rights would interfere with rural issues. The Kuk sent 25 members to London to protest against the bill, which eventually passed despite their protests.

The Kuk was also involved with the Wang Chau housing controversy, where a planned development was downsized in the interests of the Kuk.{{Cite web|date=2016-09-23|title=Hong Kong rural leader says opponents exploited 'public misunderstanding' in housing development controversy|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2021974/hong-kong-rural-leader-says-politicians-exploited-public|access-date=2020-11-27|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|archive-date=26 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226224704/http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2021974/hong-kong-rural-leader-says-politicians-exploited-public|url-status=live}}

In October 2023, local news reported that the Kuk did not support building public housing on parts of the Hong Kong Golf Club.{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=James |date=2023-10-03 |title=Hong Kong gov't board sees 98% of public submissions opposed to Fanling golf course housing project, as golf club cites Asian Games wins |url=http://hongkongfp.com/2023/10/03/hong-kong-govt-board-sees-98-of-public-submissions-opposed-to-fanling-golf-course-housing-project-as-golf-club-cites-asian-games-wins/ |access-date=2023-10-04 |website=Hong Kong Free Press HKFP |language=en-GB}}

{{Main|Small House Policy}}

The Kuk advocates for the Small House Policy, a male-only policy which discriminates against female villagers. According to Apple Daily, males are entitled to build a house, worth approximately US$2,600,000 at around a cost of about US$700,000. Some villagers own the land for five years, and then illegally sell it to developers in a process called "flipping."

In April 2019, the High Court ruled that two out of three methods for obtaining a small house grant (private treaty grants and exchanges) would become banned.{{Cite web|date=2019-05-01|title=Small-house policy: why not all Hongkongers are born equal|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3008261/battle-over-hong-kongs-controversial-small-house|access-date=2020-06-27|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|archive-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628185747/https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3008261/battle-over-hong-kongs-controversial-small-house|url-status=live}} The Kuk threatened to ask Beijing for help if an appeal to the April 2019 ruling was not granted, in addition to spending HKD $30M on the first round of judicial review.{{Cite web|date=2019-05-01|title=Small-house policy: why not all Hongkongers are born equal|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3008261/battle-over-hong-kongs-controversial-small-house|access-date=2020-06-27|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|archive-date=28 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628185747/https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3008261/battle-over-hong-kongs-controversial-small-house|url-status=live}} Despite the Small House Policy being a generous government policy that helps male villagers obtain housing, Kingsley Sit Ho-yin, director of the Kuk's think tank, the Heung Yee Kuk Research Centre, said "Rural villagers have no responsibility to help the government solve the housing shortage. Villagers also face a land shortage. Why does the government not take back more land for us to build small houses?"{{Cite web|date=2019-09-18|title=Rural body slams party over proposal to take back land for homes|url=https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3027743/powerful-hong-kong-rural-body-heung-yee-kuk-slams-fellow-pro|access-date=2020-06-28|website=South China Morning Post|language=en|archive-date=29 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200629144920/https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/society/article/3027743/powerful-hong-kong-rural-body-heung-yee-kuk-slams-fellow-pro|url-status=live}}

• United front in Hong Kong

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category|Heung Yee Kuk}}

• [http://www.hyknt.org/ Official Website of Heung Yee Kuk] {{in lang|zh}}
• full text of the [http://www.legislation.gov.hk/blis_pdf.nsf/6799165D2FEE3FA94825755E0033E532/AF7B2030883A1A33482575EF0024BE48?OpenDocument&bt=0 Heung Yee Kuk Ordinance (Chapter 1097)]
• [http://www.nthykyldss.edu.hk New Territories Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School website]

{{Rural Committees}}

{{Government of Hong Kong}}

{{authority control}}

Category:New Territories

Category:Statutory bodies in Hong Kong

Category:1926 establishments in Hong Kong

Category:Sha Tin District