Indigenous

Indigenous

Indigenous means: belonging to a certain place.Indigenous may refer to:In Ecology and Geography*Indigenous resources, resources which exist within local geography, that are not imported...

 inhabitants refers to the residents in the New Territories

New Territories

New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory. Historically, it is the region described in The Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory...

 of Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, whose ancestor

Ancestor

An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....

s were inhabitants there before the commencement of British rule

Colonial Hong Kong

In the 19th century the British, Dutch, French, Indians and Americans saw Imperial China as the world's largest untapped market. In 1840 the British Empire launched their first and one of the most aggressive expeditionary forces to claim the territory that would later be known as Hong Kong.In a few...

 in 1898 and have special rights to preserve their customs. When the sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

 of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 in 1997, these special rights were preserved under the Hong Kong Basic Law

Hong Kong Basic Law

The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, or simply Hong Kong Basic Law, serves as the constitutional document of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China...

.

Article Forty of the Basic Law

The lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the "New Territories" shall be protected by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Non-indigenous inhabitant (非原居民) is a resident in the New Territories of Hong Kong, whose ancestor

Ancestor

An ancestor is a parent or the parent of an ancestor ....

s were not inhabitants there before the commencement of British rule in 1898 and do not have the same special rights as the indigenous inhabitants.

Special rights

Special rights are restricted the village the indigenous inhabitant is from. In order to protect the tradition of villages, male indigenous inhabitants have the right to apply for small house, known as ting uk (丁屋) in Cantonese. Properties are only inherited by male members of a village.

People living on boats

People have been living on boats in the New Territories for generations, and they do not usually own land or houses. They have no special rights because the Hong Kong government since 1898 only recognises established villages.

Conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants

As a result of a large influx of non-indigenous inhabitants into the rural villages, conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants are surfacing. Because the management of a village was only in the hand of indigenous inhabitants, non-indigenous inhabitants could not participate in the matters of the village.