In 1906, eight years after
the lease of the New Territories from the
Qing China began, the British colonial government of
Hong Kong interceded in the land rights of indigenous male villagers by converting those rights to block
crown leases (on which crown rent was payable) over village land, creating significant discontent among villagers. The growing antagonism between villagers and the administration was exacerbated when, in 1923, the government imposed restraints on building of village houses on land held by villagers under the leases, including imposing a tax (known as a premium) on permission to build if granted. Tensions, whipped up by the newly formed
Chinese Communist Party, boiled over in 1925 and the major upheavals of the
Canton–Hong Kong strike crippled Hong Kong.It was in these circumstances that the Heung Yee Kuk was formed the next year from the New Territories Association of Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Research, to "work and negotiate with the government to promote the welfare of the people of the New Territories". It was given formal status by the
Heung Yee Kuk Ordinance (Chapter 1097), first enacted 11 December 1959 (originally as no. 45 of 1959) amid the construction of the first
New Towns in the New Territories. The Kuk then consisted of 27 Rural Committees representing, in turn, 651 villages. All village representatives on the Rural Committees, generally appointed by village consensus but sometimes by election, had to be male heads of households. After just one such election was found to have been rigged in 1957, the government withdrew recognition of the Kuk entirely. Over the years the organisation has dabbled in charity work. For example, in 1966 it donated HK$660,000 to found the
Heung Yee Kuk Yuen Long District Secondary School, in
Yuen Long. The Kuk is almost exclusively operated by men. In October 2023, local news reported that the Kuk opposed against building public housing on parts of the
Hong Kong Golf Club. == Small House Policy ==