Hedda Morrison’s photographs of Hong Kong’s rural villages, and of rice farming, are some of the earliest images of the territory’s agricultural life – for almost all other photographers focused their gaze on the city and harbour. Her images, seen in the 1946 – 47 sections ‘New Territories’ and ‘Rural Life’, show a way of life that, in Hong Kong, has now entirely disappeared.
 
The New Territories lowlands, bucolic in the 1940s, now are widely urbanized with satellite cities that together hold about one third of the Hong Kong population. On their periphery villages still remain, though the lowlands are beset by various forms of blight: general rubbishing; the concreting of water channels and green corners; unplanned container dumps; and the unsightly sprawl of poorly planned and accessed ‘villa homes’. The upland landscapes have, generally, been preserved. Initially the higher areas were saved from development by the challenges of their terrain; and, from 1967 onwards, by the formation of Country Parks that cover some forty percent of Hong Kong’s land area. Both in and outside the Parks large numbers of old upland villages remain. However, the vast majority of them – now virtually or completely abandoned – are falling into ruin. No preservation policy, or strategic plan, exists to save these striking rural hamlets.