The Tang clan
The Tangs are one of Hong Kong’s oldest families, and can trace their lineage back 30 generations in Hong Kong and 86 generations in the Mainland. In China, their surname is romanised as Deng, and they originate from Jishui in the Jiangxi province, the first out of the five great clans to settle in Hong Kong in the eleventh century. The Tangs are mostly based in Kam Tin, and their most famous village is Kat Hing Wai, which is a traditional walled village with a moat.
The Tangs based in Lung Yeuk Tau in Fanling even have claims to be of royal descent, as they are descendants of Tang Lum, who was the eldest son of a princess in the Southern Song dynasty. She was married to Tang Wai-kap, and their oldest son Tang Lum moved to Lung Yeuk Tau towards the end of the Yuan dynasty.
Within a few centuries, the clan prospered and branched out into the surrounding areas, establishing five walled villages (all ending with the Chinese character wai, meaning walled) and six villages. These are Lo Wai, Ma Wat Wai, Wing Ning Wai, Tung Kok Wai (also known as Ling Kok Wai), and San Wai, as well as Ma Wat Tsuen, Wing Ning Tsuen (also known as Tai Tang), Tsz Tong Tsuen, San Uk Tsuen, Siu Hang Tsuen, and Kun Lung Tsuen—collectively referred to as the “Five Wais and Six Tsuens.”
Because of their long history being in Kam Tin and Lung Yeuk Tau for more than 900 years, the Tangs still practice their traditional village customs to this day. Apart from communal ancestral worship during the spring and autumn equinoxes every year, they also hold lantern lighting ceremonies to bless newborn baby boys from the twelfth to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
The Lung Yeuk Tau Tangs will normally host such ceremonies at the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall, and the Kam Tin Tangs at the Tang Ching Lok Ancestral Hall. Built in the early sixteenth century, the Tang Chung Ling Ancestral Hall is one of the largest such halls in Hong Kong, and sits between Lo Wai and Tsz Tong Tsuen. It was built and named for a sixth-generation Tang descendant, and houses the soul tablets of the Song dynasty princess and her husband Tang Wai-kap. It was declared a monument in 1997.
Even though younger members of the clan will have chosen to live outside the traditional village compounds and closer to the city instead, ceremonial gatherings and festivities will usually draw them back. Additionally, the clan also celebrates a Taoist ritual called the Tai Ping Ching Chiu Festival along with people from the neighbouring villages. Performed to invoke peace, this festival is held every decade, and the next one will be in November 2025. The Tang lineage are now spread among the New Territories, in the areas of Kam Tin, Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, Lung Yeuk Tau, and Tai Po Tau, but they jointly hold an ancestral worship ceremony at their ancestral graves on the seventeenth and nineteenth days of the ninth lunar month every year.