* The visit was arranged for me personally by China Travel Service in the course of a standard 12-day tour of China. Most of the data was provided in a question and answer session presided over by the factory manager and several workers, during which labour force composition, forms of remuneration for labour, recruitment and apprenticeship, and mechanization were discussed. A tour of the factory premises confirmed that the overall division of labour and organization of production were virtually identical to Hong Kong firms of similar size in the mid- to late 1960s. The tour enabled me to question workers about their careers, apprenticeships, relatives in the trade, place of origin etc. One older worker of Dongyang descent, with work experience in Hong Kong in the 1950s, provided information on the close connection of Dongyang county with the carved furniture industry, the tendency of the craft to run in families, and the nature of the Dongyang community in Shanghai. He was seen again in a subsequent visit to the factory by one of my students at the University of Hong Kong, Mrs Wendy Luk Pik-chay, and questioned further on the co-operativization movement, forms of remuneration and incentive schemes and factory organization and management.
The information was provided spontaneously in the course of questioning and no written records were made available. In general I am reasonably certain of the reliability and accuracy of the information presented here, although the data are unavoidably sketchy. Further investigation will, I am confident, confirm the general accuracy of my findings.
