The politics of wetlandscape: fishery heritage and natural conservation in Hong Kong

The north‐western part of Hong Kong is a marsh with traditional freshwater fish farming; however, this brackish area has been agriculturally diversified to include cultivation of red rice, reeds, shrimp and fish, and has only largely concentrated on freshwater fish farming starting from the 1960s. By looking into the geographical and social changes that have taken place in the brackish area, I will explain how the coastal landscape was changed in the 1910s through the introduction of large‐scale rice production in Tin Shui Wai which has turned into a high‐density residential new town, and the wetland conservation of Mai Po marshes. This article aims at understanding the meanings of intangible as well as agricultural/fishery heritage and the local politics among indigenous communities, conservation groups, the government and developers in post‐handover Hong Kong society. Inland freshwater pond cultivation was actually a major industry in the 1970s since it supplied most of the freshwater fish for the local market. Nowadays, the industry is shrinking because of lack of manpower and high operation costs compared to the mainland. With various kinds of social, economic and physical pressures, the local communities which are located at the buffer areas of the wetland in Mai Po are actually facing the tremendous dangers of losing those fishponds; most importantly, the fishponds have been serving not only as mitigation zone and source of a traditional local food but also as a major food supplier for migratory birds, adding to the conservation value of the Mai Po marshes and Inner Deep Bay in Hong Kong at large.     

Book Reviews

THE THOMPSON INDIANS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. By JAMES TEIT. Edited by FRANZ BOAS. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Vol. II., Anthropology. The Jesup North Pacific Expedition. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

MADRAS GOVERNMENT MUSEUM. BULLETIN, Vol. III., No. 1. Anthropology. Notes on some of the people of Malabar; Mala Védars of Travancore; Miscellanea. With six plates. Madras: Government Press. 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

THE WELSH PEOPLE. Chapters on their Origin, History, Laws, Language, Literature, and Characteristics, by JOHN RHYS and D. BRYNMÔR-JONES. T. Fisher Unwin. 1900. Reviewed by Alfred Nutt.

HORNS or HONOUR, AND OTHER STUDIES IN THE BY-WAYS OF ARCHÆOLOGY. By F. T. ELWORTHY. Murray. 10s. 6d. Illustrated.

DAS BLUT IM GLAUBEN UND ABERGLAUBEN DER MENSCHHEIT. MIT BESONDERER BERÜCKSICHTIGUNG DER “VOLKSMEDIZIN” UND DES “JÜDISCHEN BLUTRITUS.” HERMANN L. STRACK. Fünfte bis Siebente Auflage. Neubearbeitung der Schrift “Der Blutaberglaube.” München, Beck, 1900. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

DIALOGUES OF THE BUDDHA: Translated from the Pali by T. W. RHYS DAVIDS: (Sacred Books of the Buddhists, translated by various Oriental scholars, arid edited by F. Max Müller, Vol. II.). Frowde, 1899. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

GRETTIS SAGA ASMUNDARSONAR. Ed. R. C. BOER. Pp. Iii. 348. 8vo. Halle, 1900. (Altnordische Saga-bibliothek, 8.) Reviewed by F. Y. P.

ARTUS' KAMPF MIT DEM KATZENUNGETÜM : DIE SAGA UND IHRE LOKALISIERUNG IN SAVOYEN. E. FREYMOND. Halle: Max Niemeyer. Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

SHAKSPEARE'S PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS OF TYRE, A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE. By ALBERT H. SMYTH. Philadelphia: MacCalla and Co. 1898.

JOURNAL OF THE FOLK-SONG SOCIETY. Vol. I., No. 1, 1899, pp. viii., 26. No. 2, 1900, pp. viii., 27–62. Printed for the Society by Spottiswoode & Co.

CARMINA GADELICA. Hymns and Incantations, with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, dying and obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and translated into English by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL. 2 vols., 4to. 1900. xxxii. 339, xii. 350 pp. Edinburgh: Printed for the Author by T. & A. Constable, and sold by Norman Macleod. 300 copies printed. Reviewed by Alfred Nutt.

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS and ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND, COLLECTED ENTIRELY FROM ORAL SOURCES. By [the late] JOHN GREGORSON CAMPBELL, Minister of Tiree. xx. 318 pp. Glasgow: MacLehose. 1900. Reviewed by Alfred Nutt.

BEDD GELERT, ITS FACTS, FAIRIES, AND FOLKLORE. By D. E. JENKINS. With an Introduction by Professor RHYS. Portmadoc: Llewelyn Jenkins. 1899.

SHAKESPEARE'S GREENWOOD. By GEORGE MORLEY. D. Nutt, 1900. Square 16mo., xx., 289 pp. Illustrated. Price 5s.

ALL ABOUT THE MERRY TALES OF GOTHAM. By ALFRED STAPLETON. Nottingham: R. N. Pearson. 1900. Illustrated. 190 pp.

CONTES POPULAIRES DE LA BASSE NORMANDIE. Recueillis et Publiés par VICTOR BRUNET. Emile Lechevalier. 1900. 151 pp. Price 3 fr. 50. Only 100 copies printed.     

What Is Next for Policy Design and Social Construction Theory?1

The study of policy design has made great progress over the past decade in leading scholars to understand why the American political system produces certain kinds of designs rather than others, and the consequences that policy designs have for democracy. This article outlines the distinctive and important elements of policy design theory—the centrality of policy design, the attention to social constructions, the attention to policy consequences (or feed‐forward effects), and the integration of normative and empirical research and theory. It then suggests how policy design theory can complement other policy theories in guiding research and evaluating the conditions of U.S. democracy, and how in its own right it can be further developed and used to guide important inquiry about public policy's politics and social impacts.     

The changing nature of Jemaah Islamiyah

Of all the Islamic terrorist organisations known to be operating in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is probably the best known. But when attempting to combat it and its violence against civilians, security forces need to be aware of its current nature. This article seeks to show from the history of JI that it is a constantly changing, complex and highly flexible organisation; that while its roots lie deep in Indonesian history, it recruits from and adapts to the other countries in which it is operative. Consequently, JI seems to be a different organisation depending on the country from which it is viewed. The article shows that security forces need to be fully aware of both its Protean character and its history if effective measures are to be taken against it.