Hong Kong Snapshot (87) Old Ping Shan Police Offlice, humiliation of the Indigenous inhabitants of HK? 香港隨拍 (87) 舊屏山警署，香港新界原居民的屈辱？

Being colony of Britain for 150 years, in the leading of history, HK is now an international city, and the fusion of the Chinese and British culture. We can see a lot of buildings with the mixing of the two cultures. Ping Shan, the north west of HK New Territories, is the opposite. In Ping Shan, we can see the most traditional Chinese buildings and culture. Ping Shan should be one of the places in HK with the least influences by the British. In Ping Shan, you may know more about HK in an opposite angle.

香港曾為英國150年的殖民地，在歷史的引領下，至今已成國際大都會，中英文化融合，各地的建築都極具中西特色。在香港新界最西北邊的屏山，卻仍然擁有很傳統的中式特色，屏山，應該是香港現今受英國影響最小的地方之一，能讓你認識到香港的另外一面。

In HK, we have the Great Five Clans of Hong Kong. The Tang Clan, one of them, moved to HK in around 1100AD. They developed in the New Territories and built villages, temples, markets. We can say the Tang Clan is the leader of the Indigenous inhabitants of the New Territories. Ping Shan is one of the places that the Tang Clan lives. And the leading role of the Tang Clan ended since the arrival of the British.

屏山是新界五大氏族鄧氏的其中一個聚居地，鄧氏是新界五大氏族是首，早於北宋年間已來港定居，開枝散葉，除了清康熙年間遷界令外，一直長居新界，在新界建立多個墟市，在英國租借新界前，隱隱為新界地區的龍頭之一，當然，一切因英國租借新界而改變。

Nowaday Ping Shan 今天的屏山

Today, there are still a lot of old buildings of the Tang Clan preserved. The HK Government opened the Ping Shan Heritage Trail in 2007 and introduced the culture of the Tang Clan. In the trail, 13 stops, there is one stop which is a British building. It is the old Ping Shan Police Station.

屏山至今仍保留了多個古時建築，政府更特意在2007年開設屏山文物徑，為遊客介紹屏山鄧氏，以及香港古代氏族的文化及生活。有趣的是，在屏山文物徑中，竟有一所英國人建立的建築，就是舊屏山警署。

In 1899 when the British officially took over the New Territories, the indigenous inhabitants fought back and we called the war the “Six-Day War”. After the war, to effectively control and monitor the indigenous inhabitants, the HK British built police stations at the main places where the big clans lived. One of them is the old Ping Shan Police Station. And the Tang Clan treated the police station as humiliation.
In Chinese culture, we have “Feng Shui”. It is similar to geomancy. In Feng Shui, we believe that we can use energy forces to harmonize individuals with our surrounding environment. Ping Shan was described as a “crab setting”. When the HK British built the old Ping Shan Police Office at the hill top of Ping Shan, they can monitor the whole Ping Shan and we may treated as a sign of crackdown.
In the angle of Feng Shui, when they built a police office at the hill top, we described as “a stone on the crab”, which changed the Feng Shui from good to bad. Moreover, the HK British painted the roof top of the police office in red, just like a cooked crab. The Tang Clan objected the building of the old Ping Shan Police Office. Of course, the objection was neglected.

話說當年英國接管新界，引來新界各大氏族的反抗，造成了新界六日戰，戰後，英國人為了更有效監管新界鄉民，在各個大族居住的地方建立警署，其中一所就是屏山警署，而這舊屏山警署，竟是屏山鄧氏100年的屈辱所在。原來，不知英方是有心還是無意，竟將舊屏山警署建於屏山的蟹地上，居高臨下，能監視整個屏山，是一個鎮壓的符號，而這蟹地，更是屏山鄧氏風水地所在，將舊屏山建於蟹地，形成了一個「大石壓死蟹」的格局，而舊屏山警署的屋頂更是紅色，無疑就是「生蟹變熟蟹」，屏山鄧氏強烈反對，但當然不獲接納。

In 1993, the HK Government planned to build a landfill in Tuen Mun and requested the Tang clan to move one of their ancestral graves. Again, the Tang Clan objected the request. Under a long discussion, finally the HK Government agreed to rebuild the old Ping Shan Police Office to “Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery” as an exchange. And they repainted the roof top to green. The cooked crab was turned back to a live crab. The Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery becomes the last stop of the Ping Shan Heritage Trail.

直到1993年，香港政府在屯門興趣垃圾堆填區，需要鄧氏搬遷一個祖墳，再次換來鄧氏強烈反對，在多番商討下，政府最終同意將屏山警署改建成屏山鄧族文物館，變相歸還蟹地，一地換一地，並將改建後的屏山鄧族文物館屋頂改成綠色，熟蟹變回生蟹，鄧族文物館就成為了屏山文物徑的最後一站。

The Old Ping Shan Police Station is now a grade III historic building in HK, a traditional British colonized style building. It consists of three buildings. The main building is a two-storey white walled structure with an embracing arched verandah with observation posts at the roof level. It originally had a pitched roof of Chinese tiles. On the north side, a two-storey structure connected to the main buildings forms the Annex Block. This annex building also has white walls, open verandahs and a pitched Chinese tile roof with prominent chimney stacks. Besides, there is a small single-storey detached building with a pitched roof and overhanging eaves. The original chimneys also remain.

屏山鄧族文物館今天是三級文物建築，是傳統的英式殖民地建築。舊屏山警署由三座建築物組成，主樓是一座拱形長廊的雙層建築物，外牆為白色，屋頂設有瞭望台，原來的屋頂則為金字瓦頂，並鋪以中式瓦片。北面兩層高的附翼大樓與主樓相連，亦建有白色外牆，開於式走廊及金字瓦頂，屋頂上矗立兩座煙囱。另外，單層的獨立建築物以磚塊建成，有金字瓦頂及飛簷，且保留原來的煙囱。

In the Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery, we can learn about the culture of feature of the Tang Clan. It is also the traditional culture of HK and Guangdong. But let us stop here. I will introduce it next time!

在文物館內，我們可看到很多鄧氏當年的生活文化及特色，這也是香港以至廣東一帶的傳統生活文化，不過，這次就不說了，留待下次再為大家介紹！

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Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！