Reminiscence of a borrowed place and time ( novel)
Forward
Even without my mentioning of the place the majority of my readers will no doubt correctly guess the place I intend to write about and, in fact, dream about because it no longer exists in the real sense except in my own sweet memory. A pearl cultured by eastern and western as well as ancient and modern traditions since the middle of the Nineteenth Century she has experienced a wild and exciting roller coaster ride along her path in history. Despite all the perils she has always come shining through. The sad fact is that she has time and again been the victim or beneficiary ( depending on how one looks at it ) of circumstances beyond her control. Fortunately, she always come out on top. Like a phoenix emerging from the ashes she has been gracefully reborn as an exemplary and colourful metropolis that is the melting pot of eastern and western cultures. Miraculously this delicate fusion process has resulted in a unique culture of her own. So miraculous is this cultural fusion process that it is the birth place of the Canto-pop music ( or Cantonese popular music and songs ) enjoyed worldwide by at least one hundred million Cantonese speaking people of all nationalities.
More than that she has produced one economic miracle after another whenever the going gets tough. Call it ingenuity or creativity or even magic. One cannot but admire the special qualities of her people over the years in their zeal and will to succeed without consideration of whether or not they are actually rewarded by results commensurate with their hard work done. It has always been an overkill of their efforts with more than their share of blood, sweat and tears to get the desired results. There is a very pragmatic school of philosophy that has always been adopted by the majority of Hong Kongers which they call the “ Lion Rock Spirit “. It was named after a rocky escarpment of some 1,603 feet in height resting like a lion overlooking the city of Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island to the south and the New Territories to the north as if to provide care and protection. Despite her modern make up this Pearl of the Orient is still tinted with oriental superstition and beliefs such as Fung Shui – the geomancy or so-called “ science “, if you will, of the wind and waters. Under this ancient discipline land forms like the resting Lion Rock is very auspicious and it promises an eternity of joy and happiness for the inhabitants of the city. To me, our future is what we want it to be. Well, a bit of dreaming and a little hope placed on the divine can be reinvigorating on the proper occasions.
Being a life long and die hard subscriber to the Lion Rock spirit yours truly is naturally a bit prejudiced in favour of the everlasting invincibility of my home state which has now become an autonomous region called the Hong Kong Self Administrative Region (HKSAR ) of the Peoples' Republic of China. Under a mini constitution known as the Basic Law promulgated as a result of the Joint Declaration by Britain and China on the Question of Hong Kong which had been a British Crown colony since 1841 another new era was born in this pearly city. Just how self governing Hong Kong is ? This has been a constant question since the Hong Kong SAR was established on First July, 1997.
Don't worry. This little novel is definitely not a political one as politics always kills the human spirit and feelings which are the only qualities that make life worth living or at least bearable. Instead, this novel is all about fond memories mine and others' of this pearl with a view to drumming up the Lion Rock spirit that is so vital for the survival and continued success of my home city state of Hong Kong.
Incidentally, this is my first novel written in English I having authored one in Chinese back in 2013. I hope this one will not disappoint my readers. I do not have the least intention of implying that my previous one was in any way successful. Anyhow, the aim in all my writing is simply to express a little personal emotion and to expose a few idiotic and eccentric personal views. That is about all yours truly can dare to hope for.
Let us begin at the beginning not Hong Kong's but my own story's as my life intermingles with that of the Pearl of the Orient. With all possible optimism which is the essence of the Lion Rock spirit I look forward to the realisation of my personal goal of getting some lessons learned for our future good. After all, life is a drawn out learning process whether one realises it or not. Mine as everyone else's must end in a foreseeable future of different distances. This is as certain as the sun rising from the east every beautiful morning. So, let us get the better of our past follies and hopefully become better persons and in turn build a better world.
Without further ado let me get my story started before more of my fellow baby boomers who are capable of really appreciate my story answer the higher calling and ascend to a better place which I sincerely hope does not happen for a long, long time.
Good old days and bad
Chapter One - Darkest hour in her history
Those were the days as all childhood memories of all people are fond episodes in their own differently mysterious ways. Strangely enough even unpleasant childhood episodes can turn out to be sweet on hind sight. Perhaps that is a promising sign that people do learn as life progresses.
This is the same for Hop C who is a baby boomer a term given to those babies born after the recovery year following the Second World War from 1946 right up to 1964.
Hong Kong has just gone through the “ three years and eight months “ of the darkest chapter in her history. World War Two and the Pacific War called at her door steps on the Eighth of December , 1941 when the evil Japanese Military Government staged a long awaited invasion from over the Chinese border closely following the wake of their surprise attack on the naval establishment of the United States of America in Honolulu, Hawaii one day earlier. Hong Kong fell under Japanese occupation on December 25, 1941 ( infamously known as Black Christmas ) and her citizens suffered immensely through starvation, cruelty and forced labour during those three years and eight months reducing the population from some 1.5 million to a mere half a million. Of the reduction of a million people at least half escaped or were forcefully repatriated to their home villages in China due to shortage of food supply in the city. The majority of the other half a million inhabitants died of starvation and sickness from malnutrition. At the closing stage of the Japanese occupation people were reduced to mere skeletons some eating grass roots and tree saplings for food.
Luckily, Hop C was born after the war in 1948. Having said that the social and economic conditions were still at a limb for a decade or so following the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. This being the case every new born child during the post war decade including Hop C had gone through a materially deprived childhood. There are a lot of antithesis in life though. Material deprivation surprisingly leads to a simple life. And it also made people more human as everyone was then pitted against the same uphill battle of their overbearing economic burden and the struggles for daily necessities.
Hop C is among the lucky few for he and his family lived in a three storey house built by his maternal grand father in Wanchai District on Hong Kong Island. This peculiar suburb is inhabited by a mixture of the rich along Kennedy Road ( named after one of the colonial governors of Hong Kong ) on the mid-level area and the more common people living between the main thoroughfare of Queen's Road ( running along the northern waterfront of the island westward from Wanchai to Central business district ) and Kennedy Road. Hop C's family dwelling was located just half way up the hill slope towards Kennedy Road.
North of Queen's Road is the infamous red light district consisting of numerous bars along Lockhart Road that was made world famous by Hollywood movies such as “ The World of Suzie Wong “ ( starring Nancy Kwan and William Holden in 1960 about a Wanchai bar girl ) and the eternal love story of “ Love is a Many Splendored Thing “ ( starring Jennifer Jones and again, William Holden 1955 about a female Chinese author and medical practitioner Han Soo Yin ).
While Hop C's grand father used to be a well off property developer before the war the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong had taken its toll on the family business. So much so that his grand father was forced almost at gun point to sell the family home to the Japanese military government for a few thousand dollars of Japanese military currency plus a hundred sacks of much needed rice to tie the family over the latter stages of the darkest days of “ three years and eight months “ of Japanese occupation.
To teach his children and grand children about sacrificing for the family in times of hardship his grand father used to recount this unfortunate episode of the forced sale of the family home to the Japanese as a real life example. From this sad family tale one could also see the cunning but well planned conspiracy of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.
A neighbour living in the next house since 1931 was a Japanese merchant with genteel manners who befriended his grand father. On Boxing Day right after the surrender of the Hong Kong British garrison on Black Christmas Day this Japanese “ merchant “ appeared at the front door of his house in full military uniform with a samurai sword hanging from his belt. It turned out that he was the head of the Japanese military intelligence division in Hong Kong who had been embedded among the local population for the past ten years posing as an innocent merchant.
Well, Hop C's family was astonished to say the least. Despite the wounded pride of having been cheated his grand father said this high ranking enemy officer told him later that because he lived so close to them he had ordered the Japanese invasion air force bombers not to drop bombs on the entire street where the family lived. So, it could be considered as a blessing in disguise. Wanchai is less than one kilometre from the British naval docking facilities located at HMS Tamar. A carpet bombing around the HMS Tamar area by the Japanese air force could have taken place had it not for the order to stay away been given. Again, a bad thing can turn out to be less than a misfortune. Fate works in mysterious ways at times. It was also the same Japanese officer who forced Hop C's grand father to sell the family home when he needed to expand his dwelling to accommodate more high ranking officers of his intelligence unit in 1944.
Anyway, by the second year of the war most of the younger family members including Hop C's parents had escaped to Chung King in the Mainland to join the war effort against the Japanese invasion. Hop C's second uncle was a railway engineer who lost in life in an enemy air raid on the Chung King section of a strategic railway line for transporting military supplies to allied soldiers in 1943. After the war the surviving young members of the family all returned to stay in the family home once again in late 1945.
There was yet another twist to the fate of the family home. As it was sold to the enemy during the war the Hong Kong colonial government had taken over possession of the home in 1945 as enemy property. The colonial government decreed a payment amounting to the then prevailing market value pf the property before ownership could revert to his grand father. Failure to redeem the property within a ten year concession period later led to the family being forced to move out in 1955. That was a cruel blow as the whole family with uncles, aunts and cousins having to split up and to rent different dwellings. A closely knit traditional Chinese family of three generations living together under one roof was shattered. That was really the hardest part of all the adversities encountered by the family as a result of the war. That was darkest hour for Hop C's family and extended family as the war was for the whole of Hong Kong.
As Hop C's story began in 1948 there was still some seven years before the whole family was required to vacate the family home. Sometimes, the best is very often saved for the last. Those were the seven happiest years of Hop C's early life and he could say the same on behalf of the other cousins living in the same house. The number of cousins grew immensely during the baby boom after the war. When Hop C came on the scene in July 1948 the third generation staying in the family home had dramatically increased to 17. The family of the fourth aunt and uncle had four girls and one boy, Hop C's mother was the sixth daughter in the family with three boys and two girls, Hop C being the third son in their family having one of each elder sister, elder brother, young sister and younger brother. Seventh uncle and aunt had three sons. Ninth aunt and uncle had two boys and two girls. That was the huge total tally of young children under the same roof. It was really one big happy family. To complete the human census there were four grand parents from the maternal and paternal lines. The second generation of inhabitants were fourth aunt and uncle, Hop C's parents ( sixth aunt and uncle ), seventh uncle and aunt, ninth aunt and uncle, tenth and eleventh uncles both of whom were singles making a total of ten aunts and uncles. Thus, there was a surprising grand total of thirty one family and extended family members spanning three generations living under one roof. Just imagine how warm and exciting and noisy the atmosphere would be during various important festivals of the year.
To help with the house keeping there was an amah ( a female servant who had sworn to remain single all her life ) who was a distant relative had lived with the family since 1946. In those days enjoying the service of an amah was considered to be a tremendous luxury envied by most neighbours. However, the amah was more an extended family member than a servant because she only asked for a symbolic monthly wage of twenty Hong Kong dollars. Sometimes, the amah would voluntarily request that the payment of her wages be deferred whenever she sensed that there was a cash flow problem in the family.
Nor was the living arrangements in the family home particularly spacious or comfortable. The ground floor was occupied by ninth aunt's family of six in a room located in the front portion. The rear portion of the ground floor was taken up by fourth aunt's family of seven plus maternal grand parents. Hop C's family of seven plus the paternal grand parents stayed on the first floor. Second floor was occupied by seventh uncle's family of five plus tenth and eleventh uncles. The amah had to sleep in a collapsible bed made of canvas in the ground floor corridor leading to the kitchen. It went without saying that the amah's collapsible bed had to be packed and stowed on the verandah during the day and reset again at night.
Despite all the inconvenience and the insecure financial situation of every bread winners in the huge family everyone seemed to be content and happy during this trying times.
Chapter Two – A devastating piece of early memory
The earliest of Hop C's memories can be traced right back to 1951 at the age of three. This is quite remarkable because it is generally thought that a child can only trace his or her memories back to five or six years of age. Hop C's apparent strength in this area could have been the result of a devastating event that had occurred during that year.
His paternal grand father who was only 59 passed away suddenly of a heart attack in 1951. He was quite close to his grand father who worked in a public utility company called Hong Kong Electrical Company. Sometimes grand father used to bring candies home for Hop C after work. As a result Hop C would very often stand close to the window overlooking the street where his grand father would come back from the office. Whenever he saw his grand father from afar he would wave and shout out loudly to greet him. That had become a heart warming habit that tied him close to his grand father. His death was a devastating blow to his grand son.
One gloomy winter's day grand father complained of a chest pain and did not go to work. He took a few pain killing pills and went to rest hoping that the chest pain would go away. Sadly, it did not. When grand mother tried to wake grand father up for dinner he had already passed away in silence. He did not even called for help such a gentle soul as he always had been. Hop C could still remember grand mother's loud and heart breaking wails while she sat with her head dropped over grand father's stiff body. Hop C's parents also rushed home from the office within the hour upon learning the sad news. Hop C could not understand what was going on and simply thought that grand father had gone to sleep. Why did grand father refuse to wake up for dinner ? That was the only question that he would like to ask but he kept his silence as there was a lot of commotion going on. A doctor was called but it was all too late. The only thing the doctor could do was helping to complete the death certificate for grand father. That was all. When the angel of death is determine to make a house call we can only oblige. That is the harsh reality. That was the very first time Hop C had witness death. Nor was it his last time.
In those days not every family could afford to hold funeral service in a funeral parlour. So it was for his family. His grand parents were Taoists so that his paternal grand mother insisted on arranging monks to come to the house to pray for the grand father. This would supposedly make his passing to the heavens easier and less tumultuous. The undertakers too would come to prepare grand father's body for burial. A traditional Chinese coffin painted in bright yellow varnish was carried into the house via a scaffolding walk way reaching from the ground level to the verandah where grand father's room was located. Of course, there were a lot of incense burning and candles lighting to show the deceased the way in the dark. To ensure that grand father would not be in need of anything a paper mansion, a car and other stuff such as paper clothes and huge amount of fake money in unbelievably enormous denomination running to hundreds of million dollars for each note were incinerated.
Just imagine the chaos in the moderate family home of four hundred or so square feet. Six monks praying frantically; four undertakers attending to the corporal remains of his grand father; most of the thirty odd relatives in the house and some twenty close friends from around town all crowded into the house. On top of all these, there were noisy chanting by the monks accompanied by constant striking of ceremonial bells and wooden drums; some wailing, crying or sobbing sounds from heart broken people; burning of incense and fake money and so on. The children were only allowed to attend the ceremony during the very final stages of the all night ritual and rites. They were all staying at the back of the room.
Even so, Hop C was stunned by fear and confusion as he sat at the back of the crowd. He could not help noticing his grand father's stiff body being held up by the undertakers to be put to rest in the open coffin. The sight has, from time to time, still haunted him in nightmares. The conclusion of the funeral rites came in the form of paying last respects by each and every participant in turn including children carried by adults to do the “ three bows ceremony” in front of the coffin. The next day the coffin was transported to a Chinese cemetery at the foot hill of Kowloon Peak next to the Anderson Quarry for burial. That again involved a good whole day of ceremony and travelling with the whole entourage all together a very tiring affair. Perhaps this was the single most devastating episode in Hop C's early life which had been deeply imprinted on his memory so much so that he could still recall the vivid details after more than six decades.
Chapter Three – Celebration fit for a queen
Not all early memories of Hop C were as frightening and devastating as his grand father's passing. Soon he was back to his good old jolly self again playing with his cousins and neighbourhood kids in the back street free of any traffic much to the delight of the adults in the neighbourhood. The back street doubling as a children's play ground only consisted of a long flight of steps leading down to Queen's Road the city's main thoroughfare with a very heavy and constant traffic flow. Those were the beginning of his happy days devoid of any worry except having to decide which games should be enjoyed in the company of hilarious kids in the morning and evening.
Before the Hong Kong economy had taken off in earnest in the 1970s all that was available to children as far as toys were concerned were improvised games such as “ jumping the aeroplane “ ( a figure of a plane drawn by a piece of white chalk on the ground with numbers running from one to ten on different parts of the plane – the play would hop on one leg to reach different numbers consecutively without falling. If one does fall one will have to start from number one again ) and “ tick tack toe “ using a piece of white chalk and the ground as paper. The more well off children would have glass marbles and colourful cards printed with figures of super heroes such as superman, cartoon figures Disney's Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry ( cat and mouse ), Mighty Mouse ( that flew with a superman's cape ) and other heroes from Chinese legends like the Monkey god ( from “ Journey to the West “ depicting the story of a saintly Tang Dynasty monk journeying west with his disciples - the Monkey god, the Ugly Pig god and the River Dragon god ) to seek Buddha's holy scripts. So, Hop C and his cousins did have to count their winnings of glass marbles and check on the missing colourful printed cards in the evening in preparation for another day's games.
Life slowly returned to normal. Uncles and aunties went to work in the morning. All came back around sunset for dinner. On the other hand, all the children were busy with their play times in the morning and late afternoon when their daily nap was over as supervised by the grand parents and the amah. In those days there were no important social celebrations ( such as concerts or TV premieres ) except the important Chinese festivals at Chinese New Year, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn or Moon Cake Festival and, of course, at Christmas. Once in a blue moon when such a celebration was called for every citizen would be very excited.
Hop C and his cousins were about to have their first taste of the excitement of such an occasion. It was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second in June, 1953. It was declared a public holiday. All over the city different preparatory committees were formed. Other working groups were also set up to supervise the decoration in the streets and government buildings. Different tea parties and celebration dinners were organised. Every citizen big and small was given a coronation souvenir gift in the form of an tin mug with the royal emblem imprinted on it. There were also some coronation pins and small British flags. Along the main streets such as Nathan Road in Kowloon where the celebration floats and procession pass through were decorated with red ribbons and flags. There were also a few huge and colourful pavilions erected along Nathan road and in Central District. All were fully lit up by flood lights during the whole week earmarked for the celebration culminating in a public holiday on coronation day.
The festive atmosphere was so overwhelming that the children were all appealing to the adults to take them out at night to view the colourful lighting around the city. Reluctantly, the adults agreed. As tenth and eleventh uncles were still single and very energetic it was decided that they would lead the older children ( not including Hop C who was then only five years old and other younger cousin ) to view the decoration and lights.
The evening before the public holiday which would be coronation day proper the whole group of some twenty people under the leadership of two uncles set out on their joyful and exciting lights and decoration tour of the town.
The children were taken on a tram ride to Central District from Wanchai after dinner everyone being equipped with a water bottle, some biscuits and candies. It was really an eye opening little trip for all of them. None of them had ever taken a night ride on the tram before. This by itself was already exciting enough for the kids not to mention the spectacles that were to meet their eyes upon arrival in Central District.
The main decoration was located in Statute Square in front of the grand Hong Kong Bank Building. It was a towering pavilion over a hundred feet in height with the royal emblem prominently displayed at the top under the spot light. The entire pavilion was adorned with electric bulbs, ribbons and tin foils representing all the colours of the rainbow. All the lamp posts in the square were decorated with long pennants and flags leading all the way to the Star Ferry. In those days, there were only a few high rise buildings around Statute Square in Central. Hong Kong Bank Building was the tallest one around being fifteen or so storey high. Others like the Supreme Court Building ( still standing now ), the Hong Kong Club and the Queen's Building ( now Prince's Building ) were all of the same height of some five floors or there about. So, one's views were unimpeded all the way to the harbour.
Shimmering and blinking lights together with sounds of ships' horns blasting were clearly seen and heard. These sights and sounds had attracted the children's attention because they had soon grown tired of the immobile decoration in the square. Eleventh uncle being only twenty-two was barely an adult but just a grown up kid himself suggested that the group should be redirected to the waterfront to take in the actions there. He probably noticed the children's changing mood awhile back and made the timely suggestion. That was why eleventh uncle had been dubbed the scouter leader in the family home by other senior members of the household.
Tenth uncle being a bit older at twenty five had a more mature disposition. While agreeing to move on he insisted that the children should take fifteen minutes of rest in the square and enjoy the biscuits and candies everyone had brought along. More importantly, he directed the children to drink some water to prevent dehydration in the warm summer weather. All his actions reflected his partial military training during the war as he was an interpreter working along side the US Army in Kunming , the provincial capital of Kwang Xi Province in south west China. His unit was supporting the guerrilla campaign of General Joseph Stilwell in Burma where the famous jungle fighters, the Chindits so feared by the Japanese, had a strong foot hold. At a later stage of the war in 1943 Stilwell's field commander General Merrill and his Marauders succeeded in cutting off the Japanese military access to India through which the Nazi army had planned to join force with their Axis allied of Japan in the Middle East to complete their failed Axis world domination. Thank God for that.
Finally, the group arrived at the Star Ferry pier. Next to it was Queen's Pier named after Queen Victoria which was constructed back in 1925. All royalties and dignitaries on their visit to Hong Kong would land here on route to Governor's House during their visit. It commanded a breath taking view of the harbour lights glittering across the beautiful Victoria Harbour over on Kowloon side to the north. In those good old days when there were no blocking caused by high rise buildings one could survey and pan one's line of vision all the way from Tsim Sha Tsui (where the Kowloon Star Ferry pier and Harbour City is now located ) eastward to Kwun Tong near Lei U Mun Gap leading out to the South China Sea. And westward along the foreshores of Kowloon Peninsula all the way to Tsing Yi Island near Tsuen Wan. To the right hand side of Queen's Pier as one faced the harbour one's view could reach the waterfronts of Wanchai, Causeway Bay ( and its famous typhoon shelter marked by Kellet Island of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club ) all the way to North Point.
Within this perimeter of spectacular and glittering harbour lights the hustles and bustles went on constantly – hustles and bustles of ferries, wala-walas ( small motor boats that ferried passengers across the harbour after regular ferry service ceased after midnight or some kind of water taxi ), junks, freight barges towed by tug boats, ocean liners and freighters criss-crossed the waters ever so skilfully missing one another. Accompanying this flurry of exciting commercial activities were the welcome by products of sights, sounds and lights that delighted the eye of the beholder. These were so much appreciated by the children that they were mesmerised and bewitched to the point of total silence ever so difficult to achieve at home even under the pain of penalty imposed by their parents.
After half an hour of total immersion in the famous Hong Kong harbour night vista the group took the same way home carrying with them the soothing memory of the beautiful harbour lights right into their sweet dreams that evening.
When coronation day finally arrived the next day the whole city of Hong Kong was whipped up into a frenzy. Everyone went about their business especially those designated to specific tasks relating to the official celebration with a light heart and holiday spirit. There were a few procession of festive floats of royal theme as well as social themes like peace and prosperity. The main celebration procession was held on Hong Kong Island. There was the half a mile long procession starting from Causeway Bay and ending in Central District at Statute Square where the governor, Sir Alexander Grantham presided over the ceremony and represented the Queen to take the royal salute from the British garrison. Some of the floats were stunning beautiful and meticulously decorated with all sorts of royal symbols and delightful figures such as galloping horses and gilded unicorns. In other places like Kowloon along Nathan Road and Yuen Long Main Street in the New Territories there were similar processions to allow the participation of the entire population.
When the evening came there was a fire work display on a grand scale over the harbour fronts in Central and Wanchai. Hop C's family home was up at the mid-level and commanded a panoramic view of that particular part of the harbour. The fire work display was due to commence at nine o'clock in the evening. Consequently, the family arranged an earlier than usual dinner at seven. At eight o'clock the whole family including the amah slowly strolled up the long flight of steps and climbed up to the hill slopes near Kennedy Road to choose the best vantage points. Everyone including most of the neighbours were already waiting anxiously in the vicinity. Many people brought along fruits and confectionery. Some even carried binoculars and precious few cameras to take photos of the memorable occasion.
Right on the dot of nine o'clock the display started with a explosion of a golden yellow fire ball shooting up to a thousand feet in the night sky. In a few seconds a thundery bang followed. The children were some what taken aback and immediately covered their ears with their hands by conditioned reflex action. A gigantic round and golden floral pattern of a few hundred feet in diameter appeared in front of everyone's widely opened eyes. Then it suddenly changed into purple colour and slowly faded into the darkness. Everyone present were clapping their hands in admiration after the premiere display and waited eagerly for more. Other smaller fire work followed closely after the initial grand display. They were of various colours and designs. The whole fire work show lasted for some twenty minutes of closely orchestrated popping of colourful flowers, brightly lit shapes of stars and spirals. The grand finale came with the spontaneous explosions of a dozen gigantic flowers of different shapes and colours like that one at the beginning. The piece of star fire work of the show was the one in the shape of a crown intermingled with red and gold bursts. That was a very fitting finale for the occasion.
When the noise and smoke finally cleared after five minutes it was time to get home. So the whole family slowly walked down the steps following other spectators and concluded the whole day of celebration.
Admittedly, it was not the real concern of Hong Kong citizens as to who was the sovereign of the British Empire. Most people like Hop C's family subconsciously wished that the Pearl of the Orient had never been part of an unfair or at times evil colonial system. The irony was that in reality the Communist regime across the border was just too intimidating. At that time, the Peoples' Republic of China was in the middle of a cruel purge. The Three Anti / Five Anti Movement was in earnest progress resulting in thousands of executions of landowners and the past upper class. Later in 1958, the Great Leap Forward was also put into effect. This economic policy was simply ill conceived and was a purely a political move that would lead to wide spread famine killing millions. As everyone outside China knew so did Hop C's family because they had to send the most basic food stuff ( cooking oil and cloth which were subject to payment of heavy Chinese import duties ) and old clothes back to fifth aunt and uncles' family who were trapped in Canton after 1949.
For the common citizens they could not care less who were in power as long as there was a fair deal for them. The Chinese population has always been a tame and content lot. A fair deal simply means that two meals a day ( not even three ) and some kind of roof overhead. Of course, it would be better if they need not fear political purges and persecution from time to time by those in power or those close to those in power. This scourge had plagued the Chinese civilians ever since China had become a nation under the sixteen years of cruel rule by Qin Shi Huang ( The First or Original Emperor who built the Great wall ) who founded the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. Bullying of civilians by those in power did not cease even after the Chinese Republic was formed by the Father of Modern China Dr. Sun Yat Sen in 1911.
This has unfortunately remained true with all governments since then regardless of which political party was in charge. This is the real sorrow of China – not the Yellow River ( Hwang Ho ). It seems logical to think that before one can liberate one's country one must be able to liberate one's heart ( emotion ) and head ( thinking ) from past feudal ideas. These erroneous ideas include the idea that those in power must be treated as gods ( as the emperors were ) and those who have fought and bleed to secure that power are entitled to hold onto power indefinitely ( as the lion is always the king of the jungle because it possesses shear brute force ). No less erroneous is the idea that one's family and relatives must be given privileges after one has succeeded in gaining power. To rule the people is an honour and privilege not a business transaction that is aimed at the maximisation of benefits. Besides, the people should come first as they are the ones that vested the power on the governing lot in exchange for a peaceful life and a fair deal from the ruling lot. Power is the most corrupting agent on earth. Perpetual control of power must lead to perpetual abuse of unbearable proportions.
Very often it is the common people who do not want to know about politics that will fall victim to political confrontations between political parties and factions within the ruling party. What could the common people do ? Frankly, the options are just limited – period. All that the people want is to live in peace and a bit fair treatment. That is all. That is the sad, sad reality.
Chapter Four – Full moon over Wanchai
Time is a river that is continuously rushing towards the sea. It waits for no one and cares for nobody. The only thing one can do is to seek and enjoy the possible moments of value to oneself such as family time and personal experiences that will make one a better person.
For the kids play time is learning time. It is part of the process of maturing. In the meantime, adults can only try their best to ensure that their children do not hurt themselves too much in this learning process. Same as the process of learning how to walk falling is unavoidable though in the metaphorical sense when growing up. The ability to stand up again despite the pains endured in a fall is of paramount importance to achieve success in life. So it was time for Hop C to embark on this learning process.
It was getting close to 1955 the fateful day that Hop C's family would have to be separated from their extended family on account of the surrendering of their family home to the colonial government resulting from its forced sale to the Japanese military government in 1944. Meanwhile, they just have to somehow get by and even to enjoy a bit as everyone does during festivities such as Mid-Autumn or the Moon Cake Festival.
This festival like most Chinese festivals has a family theme. In particular, Mid-Autumn Festival celebrates the harvest of crops. Before the times of the discovery of the miracle rice specie southern China could manage only two crops of paddy within the lunar year cycle. The second harvest is usually done in early September ( the eighth lunar month ). So by the end of the month it is a good time for the family to get together for a good rest before the cold winter months set in. Of course, some celebration is in order especially after much hard manual work hopefully rewarded by a good harvest of crops. The fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month is Mid-Autumn Festival marked by the brightest full moon of the year.
It was a very big affairs to prepare the family get together dinner for Moon Cake Festival. Preferably, there should be nine main
courses. The kind of dishes are also meticulously specified. There must be chicken or duck followed by pork ( either barbecued pork or stewed pig's knuckle or trotter ), then beef ( not steaks which were expensive and considered to be too western ) in the form of stir fried beef with vegetables. Next comes the fish ( either steamed live or pan fried stuffed fish – the pronunciation of the word fish resembles the meaning “ plentiful “ ). The fifth course may be mush room with vegetables and the sixth course probably black moss with mixed vegetable in Buddhist style. The seventh and eighth courses could be fried egg with shrimps and fried scallops respectively. The ninth and final one is most important as it must be sweet round dumplings in sweet soup for dessert. Sweet means happiness for all ( no pain which is bitter ) and round means everyone is always gathered around the home as a complete unit ( the word “ complete “ in Chinese is pronounced in the same way as the word “ round “ ). Hence, the sweet dumplings must be in a round shape to attract auspicious blessings from heaven. Incidentally, the costs incurred in preparing and enjoying the Mid-Autumn get together family dinner could take up half a month's food budget or there abouts. So, one can easily imagine the great value we, Chinese have placed on harmonious family relations and unity just as one would expect in all societies built upon centuries old traditions arising from an ancient civilisation.
It was quite an enjoyment for the children as well because the Moon Cake Festival was one of the precious few occasions in their family when the children were allowed to join in the preparation of dinner. However, their activities were only restricted to the making of the round dumplings. As a matter of fact, the younger children were taught by their grand parents on how to make the star dessert of the evening. Although they would inevitably make a mess of the round dumplings as well as their clothes it was gladly tolerated by the adults because every member of the senior generation loved to pass on this meaningful Chinese tradition that would bind the family closely together to the younger generations.
Mid-Autumn Festival has always been a public holiday in the official Hong Kong calendar. As all working adults could stay home and earn a well deserved rest. Usually the male adults in the house would take the kids out to buy paper lanterns of a huge variety of shapes and colour. There were star fruit lanterns, fish and rabbit lanterns adorned with very colourful and eye catching trimmings. For the boys, there were airplane lanterns and even tanks with big guns. The more traditional ones were the fold-up ones that resembled the concertina.
For the general public there used to be a big lantern display in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay during the Moon Cake Festival with huge replicas of lanterns originating from the royal Chinese palace. These would turned round and round when lit up because of the hot air from the burning candles. Some of the adults in the family would go there after dinner to view these traditional works of art and this had become a sort of festival tradition and high light for them as well. As for the children they were all preoccupied with their lanterns and their date with other children living along the street after dinner to show off one another's beautiful lanterns in a sort of unofficial lanterns parade. The total number of attendants could run up to a hundred or there about. This was a great and important affair for every child in the neighbourhood. It also provided a good chance for socialising under the supervision of the female adults to prevent fire hazard and possible fights being initiated by the naughty elements of the younger population.
Even the sumptuous family dinner could not succeed in anchoring the children to the dinner table. All of them simply ate the minimum amount of food that was prescribed by the adults and then they started to complain about being late for the unofficial lantern parade in the back street. As the complain was made in unison by all the children they were allowed to proceed to the back street play ground after just one bite of the sweet round dumpling. Not long after the children's departure some of the young adults also set out on their journey to Victoria Park to enjoy the artistic replicas of the royal palace lanterns.
Once the children had rushed out of the door with the grand parents following closely behind what caught their eyes was just like another fire work display but at the ground level. Numerous children from the neighbourhood were there before Hop C and his cousins' arrival. Other children had already started the parade. Beautiful and brightly lit lanterns of all descriptions were carried by their proud owners one after the other to form a winding and colourful fire dragon of over a hundred feet in length. As the steps in the back street were running downhill. The entire length of the lantern parade could be viewed unimpeded. This made it a really exciting spectacle. While most of his cousins were still looking downhill Hop C noticed that a no less spectacular fire dragon was also running uphill towards Kennedy road. Being only six at the time and getting so excited Hop C could not help it but shouted aloud in a less than articulate mumble :- “ Look...look up there. Beautiful....! “ So everyone followed Hop C's pointing finger and simultaneously caught sight of another even more spectacular lantern parade moving uphill. There upon everyone cheered in unison.
After the initial excitement his cousins agreed to form a parade of thirty odd lanterns on their own and made a circle in front of the house to show off their treasured possession. Then there were moon cakes and fruits of all kinds such as star fruit, pomelo, persimmon and banana. There were also special Mid-Autumn food like boiled yam and water chestnuts and littles piggy moon cakes. These were all welcomed by the children because they were a bit hungry after a good two hours of play. Especially as they did not fully filled their stomachs at dinner time due to over excitement then. Their special treat was their favourite soft drinks like Coca-cola and some Watson's cream soda and so on which they were not allowed to consume except during special occasions like this.
At around ten o'clock the grand parents tried to persuade the children to go to bed. There were a lot of noisy objections from the older children. Consequently it was decided by concession that there was to be an extension of half an hour more of enjoyment for them. Since it was their last swing for the evening the older ones suggested that they would play boiling of the wax from candles which was and still is a popular game though a really risky one. A few metal moon cake boxes were used to hold a dozen burning candles each. After some fifteen odd minutes the whole box would fill with melted wax. Then there were allowed to cool and form a hard cake of wax. So they simply imagined that they had succeeded to “ bake” a cake of wax. All the time, the supervising adults acted as stand in fire wardens holding two buckets of sand in stand by for any emergency. This last game was the high light of the evening. After safely surviving a risky game all the children were rushed to take their bath before going straight to bed. So ended an eventful and warm Moon Cake Festival that would remain in their fond memories forever.
Chapter Five – Kung Hei Fat Choi came Chinese New Year
Autumn swiftly turned to winter after sailing through a fine spell of weather as the dry season for Hong Kong spans the months from October to January. The most important festival is just around the corner and more delightful time for the children and the adults as well but to a much lesser extent. For the adults Chinese New Year has always been a mixed blessing. While it is true that it provides more quality family time with the longest stretch of public holidays lasting from New Year's Day and the following two days of the lunar new year. When Chinese New Year Day falls on a Sunday there will always be an extra holiday to compensate for the overlap.
On the other hand, it poses an extra and heavy financial burden for adults who must by tradition give away lucky money in a red packet to all their juniors regardless of age so long as they remain unmarried. Furthermore, it was a some what feudal and a bit corrupting practice for employees to present Chinese New Year gifts of fruits and wine and even expensive dried seafood like abalone and fine quality mushrooms to their bosses. Under the colonial system officials were induced to extract the best possible gifts from their subordinates. The pretext of has always been to follow Chinese traditions which seemed to be pretty innocuous but, in fact, amounted to corruption by civilised standards. Now, of course, it is forbidden by law. Even in the private sector the presenting of Chinese New Year gifts to superiors was in a certain sense a means to secure continued employment and a fat year end bonus. All these disguised corruptive practices were simply very common in those days.
Anyway the children would not be bothered at all by these complications of the adult world. They were just happy to be given presents in the form of new clothes and shoes as everyone was expected to wear new attire in the new year. One would lose a lot of face if one could not renew one's attire especially those of their children. As a result, loan sharks were very active at the end of the year to lure people into taking up back breaking loans with interest rates being charged up to over 100 % per annum ( although the legally allowable maximum loan interest rate was only 48 % per annum at the time ). Thus, daily and yearly financial burdens could be unbearable for financially deficient families especially at the end of the year.
On the lunar calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different days annually. Roughly, Chinese New Year's Day usually falls between the last week of January and the second week in February. It was then 1955 - the fateful year when the huge family would be split up surrender of the family home to the colonial government. Maternal grand father had already received a formal notice in the form of a registered letter from the colonial government advising that First of June, 1955 would be the final day to vacate the family home. This being the case, the Chinese New Year in late January of 1955 would be the last Chinese New Year – the most important festival in the lunar calendar – that the whole family and extended family would celebrate together as a single unit. No one could be sure what would future Chinese New Year be like for each and every member of the house hold after the removal.
The grand parents on both sides insisted that there should be a family meeting of all adults to decide on how the last celebration in the family home should be done. All the while the children were unaware of what was going on with all the serious meetings and so on. Finally, it was decided that all family members ( including every children and the amah ) would go out together as a group to the new year's fair in Victoria Park after a specially elaborate and sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner. More importantly, the whole family would ask a professional photographer to take a group photo of the entire family at the family home. This would cost a good hundred precious dollars as photographic supplies were still in short supply and thus very expensive in the post war period. Despite the cost and trouble the adult all agreed that it was definitely worth their while to get it done.
The next step was the difficult task for the adults to pool their cash be it from hard earned saving or from borrowing at stiff interest rates to meet the spending budget. Fourth uncle was an assistant accountant employed by the international public accountant firm of Lowe Bingham & Matthews ( later Price Waterhouse & Co. ) which was relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong after the Communist takeover or liberation as they said of the Mainland. Thus, Fourth uncle was put in charge of financial planning for the huge and important project. After growing up the children later learned that the spending budget for the final Chinese New Year celebration at the family home ran up to over five hundred precious dollars.
Recalling the incident from a more mature angle now Hop C could really appreciate the tremendous value his grand parents as well as his uncles and aunts had placed on family values. Very obviously, these deep family ties and bonds were developed as a result of the unconditional commitments by everyone towards the unusually large family unit. In turn such selfless commitments could only have arisen from fine examples set by the older generation and passed on to the second generation and beyond. All contributed according to their ability and all accepted what they needed without reference to the amount contributed. This is raw Communism pure and simple and it can only happen within the family unit period.
As the Chinese New Year of 1955 drew near the busiest members of the family were the grand parents and the amah who also chipped in some of her own savings proving that she also considered herself really part of the family. The two grand mothers spent the whole week prior to Chinese New Year's Eve to go to the market with the amah to stock up the right cooking ingredients. This involved the important task of going to the famous dried seafood district of Sheung Wan situated about a mile west of Central District. They spent close to two hundred dollars in buying the right dried seafood like dried shrimps and scallops. They had to forego the more expensive items like shark's fin and abalone though a minimum amount of high grade black moss was purchased for preparing the Buddhist vegetarian dish. Black moss symbolises prosperity because it as pronounced as “ Fat Choi “ ( Choi sounds the same as money ) from whence came the Chinese New Year greeting “ Kung Hei Fat Choi “ which means “ May you be blessed ( Kung Hei ) with lots of ( Fat ) cash ( Choi ) “.
Preparing for Chinese New Year's Day is a round the clock affair starting from the very early morning of New Year's Eve. This is especially true for the grand parents and the amah. Luckily, there was usually an unofficial half day off for office workers to allow people to leave the office early on New Year's Eve to get home to help out. This last New Year's Eve before Hop C's family would move out of the family home was particularly important to every member of the house hold. Some aunts and uncles also took leave to assist in the preparation work. Tenth uncle had to meet the professional photographer, a friend of his who was to come and take the family group photo after dinner.
Then fourth, ninth aunt and Hop C's mother would have to take the older children to the shops for new shoes and clothes. The younger ones would have to take over the old shoes and clothes of the older ones for the new year as the family budget was limited especially everything had to be spared for the grand celebration. Strangely enough there was no complaints from the young ones as the old shoes and clothes were to them as good as new because they had not worn them before. To them New Year games and gifts were more important.
Talking about work New Year's Eve dinner was just the beginning of the numerous New Year tasks to be meticulously performed the grand parents and the amah. Once dinner was over and the family photo taken the senior generation was off again to the kitchen to make a variety of Chinese New Year food items for further celebration and to treat friends and relatives visiting during the spring season. The extended celebration period runs all the way from New Year's Day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month known as Chinese Valentine's Day to mark the end of the New Year period. The last day of celebration is called Valentine's Day because it is the day on which young people gather together to celebrate the end of the New Year period. The tradition is observed by everyone bringing a classical lantern to a park or public square to be displayed. Attached to each lantern is supposed to be an envelop containing a literary puzzle. If a boy is attracted to a certain girl he can step up to her lantern to open the envelop and try to solve the puzzle. If he shouts out the correct answer he will have proven his intellectual superiority so winning the heart of the girl. That will be the start of their dating and blossoming romance. A pretty romantic way to end the New Year celebration and start a meaningful relationship isn't it ?
Coming back to New Year food the grand parents and the amah had to make a lot of fried doughnuts in all shapes and sizes all of which are auspicious symbols for the New Year. For example, a huge round doughnut ball with sesame on top called Jin Dui means lots of gold and silver come rolling into the house because of the round shape. There is a Chinese New Year saying relating to the Jin Dui that goes like this when translated into English :- “ Jin Dui roll and roll - comes a full house of silver and gold .” It can rhyme, too.
Then, there must be Chinese New Year sweet sticky pudding topped with red dates for good luck and rice pudding made from white radish with dried shrimps as toppings. Furthermore, different auspicious fruits must be presented to visitors during the New Year period. These include mandarin for good luck ( on account of the Chinese name of the mandarin pronounced as “Kit” meaning luck ) and apples for the red colour and pomelo for the big round form ( similar in meaning to the roll and roll Jin Dui ).
Most important of all, there had to be a classically decorated round serving plate with eight compartments to store sweetened lotus seeds, lotus roots, water chestnuts, dried red melon seeds again for good luck. This plate must be the first item to be presented and served to visitors upon their entry into the home. Then host and guests will exchange auspicious blessings followed by the distribution of lucky money in red packets to the children. As mentioned before all juniors regardless of age is entitled to receive the luck money. In practice, however, most single adults like tenth and eleventh uncles would refuse to take the red packets. For unmarried maidens they would be very much embarrassed to let people know they are still single after twenty-five years of age. Consequently, some of them may go on a holiday or something to avoid social occasions during the Chinese New Year period. Again, this is purely outdated thinking as the choice of staying single is entirely a personal one.
With dinner over and family photo taken it was time for the adults to enjoy a bit of wine which was a pure luxury. They chatted among themselves while the children were busy trying out their new shoes and clothes getting ready to go to the New Year Fair at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay. Normally, the children would have gone to bed at ten o'clock. Chinese New Year's Eve is always an exception. The whole family started their journey to the fair by tram. The streets normally deserted by this hour were still full of people rushing in every direction to complete their last minute preparation for Chinese New Year as most shops were still open.
In 1955, letting off fire crackers in the streets was still permitted by law during festivities. It was only until 1967 that it was banned because radical elements of the Communist organisations used the black powders to create home made bombs during the riots instigated in support of the destructive Cultural Revolution in the Mainland. These home made bombs dubbed “ pine apples “ by Hong Kong citizens did killed a few policemen including a high ranking superintendant. Most unfortunately, a pair of toddlers - a boy of four and his sister of six were blown to death in North Point by these deadly weapons. As the tram rolled along Hennessy Road towards Victoria Park loud noise from fire crackers were heard all over the town. Sometimes the sudden bursts of exploding crackers were so overwhelming that the younger children ran for their parents protection. Apart from this noisy but happy disturbance everyone enjoyed the leisurely night tram ride ti the fair.
As usual the entrance to the Victoria Park Chinese New Year Fair was elaborately decorated with red lanterns and large bunches of imitation fire crackers hanging there for show. Flood lights were used to illuminate the whole entrance pavilion which attracted everyone's attention. There were even professional photographers setting up equipment there to take photos for visitors at a fee. The whole park which was only about one third of its present size as reclamation was not yet complete was fully occupied by rows of bamboo sheds selling everything under the stars.
The most numerous were those selling Chinese New Year flowers of peach blossoms, gladiolus, and chrysanthemum. Of course, there were the auspicious mandarin fruits hanging to twigs and branches growing in big and small pots all lined up on the ground. To the delight of the children there were plastic toys of guns and cars as well as multi-coloured balloons filled with helium hanging in mid air. To complete the excitement lots of candies and best loved chocolates were prominently displayed in trays piling up to six feet high. To make them happy the parents bought some chocolates and candies for the children's immediate consumption. So the whole entourage moved on to the eastern end of the fair towards North Point direction. What attracted the adults' attention most was one shop that sold plastic household goods. They found useful home appliances such as plastic buckets, broom sticks and water proof plastic sheets that would be useful for their expected home removal which never strayed far from their minds. Nevertheless, it was a Chinese New Year's Fair. So, the aunts bought a pot of auspicious mandarin and some treated peacock feather for good luck. The night was getting deep. So the whole family took the tram home when midnight drew near.
It had really been an eye opening experience for the kids and it was the most enjoyable Chinese New Year's Eve they had experienced in their young and tender lives.
Chapter Six – Sunday beautiful Sunday
Apart from celebration during major festivals during the year the children's welfare regarding entertainment was being taken care of by eleventh uncles who was himself a mere over grown kid. This was so fortunate for the children and a great relief to other adults in the family. Being a single young male who was financially independent but not yet interested in courting other young maidens eleventh uncle spent most of his free time entertaining the children. Therefore, he was nicknamed as “ Scout Leader in the House “ by other uncles and aunts. The children owed a lot to him for having a happy and memorable childhood.
While other adults were happy to enjoy a Sunday break from work the children and eleventh uncle usually had a busy day of tightly packed schedule for enjoyment. The typical Sunday for these busy bees used to start at eight o'clock in the morning. The amah would help to pack the lunch boxes of every child over the age of six on Saturday night before going to bed. At eight sharp eleventh uncle would lead a group of twelve children to start a leisurely walk of about two kilometres along Kennedy Road to the Botanical Garden in Central District next to the Governor's House.
During those days the Botanical Garden was the most high class public garden in Hong Kong. Being so close to the Governor's House it was kept perfectly neat and tidy with a few hundred varieties of beautiful flowers and plants. It was a sort of show case spot for tourists and locals alike. In the main square after a flight of steps up from Lower Albert Road where the Governor's House was situated there was a big fountain of some fifty feet in diameter. The big attraction here was the pleasing sights of hundreds of gold fish blowing air bubbles in between the fresh green floating lotus leaves interlaced with pink lotus flowers. Coupled with the freshness of the sprouting fountain at the top which reflected golden sparkles of light from the sun the water display had created both a serene and elegant setting. It made one like to whisper. Despite this calming effect one or two naughty ones of the older children would try to put their hands into the water attempting to catch the gold fish. It goes without saying that they were immediately reprimanded by eleventh uncle. Finally, eleventh uncle set a strict rule that those who meddled with the gold fish would not be treated to ice cream as the other well behaved ones. That did the trick. From that day onwards everyone kept their hands off the fish. All the children just sat around the pound to admire the grace of the swimming fish and the elegance of the water lilies and lotus blossoms.
They usually spent half and hour or so on contemplating the gold fish and then played games like skipping the rope around the fountain for another twenty minutes. Everyone who behaved well would be treated to some ice cream. It was sold by pedlars using a bicycle carrying an ice box bearing the famous Dairy Farm label that guaranteed top quality. Hop C always went for his favourite mango flavour. Lunch would followed right after the ice cream. They reversed the order by putting the ice cream first because everyone was a bit thirsty and hot after the activities. They preferred something cold to start their meal. That was understandable. Besides, children seldom stick to what was considered proper in the adult world anyway.
In those days when society as a whole was not prosperous such a good start for the Sunday for children would be considered a luxury and they all appreciated it very much. Notwithstanding this generous gesture provided by eleventh uncle on a regular basis there was more good things to come.
After spending about an hour in the beautiful Botanical Garden another even more exciting entertainment for the children had already been arranged. It was going to be a cartoon movie for them to enjoy. As Sunday is family day as always some theatres in Hong Kong used to provide cartoon movies at a reduced ( in fact half the regular price for a ticket ) price for children under twelve years of age So eleventh uncle decided that they would all take the tram back to Wanchai to watch cartoons in Oriental Theatre located on Johnston Road by the side of the tram line running through Wanchai to Causeway Bay with terminus at the entrance of Victoria Park. The whole group was simply too excited to wait any longer. Some of the older children started to run down Garden Road to the Central tram stop near the Hong Kong Bank Building. They were all duly stopped by eleventh uncle who ushered them back into a line of two by two. Of course, the older ones just had to oblige on the pain of some penalty designated by eleventh uncle before hand. Such penalties might involve doing without ice cream or candy but most importantly repeated offenders would be put under a curfew for Sunday activities for the coming week. That would be sufficient to act as an effective deterrence against misbehaviour.
The cartoon movie started at noon so there was plenty of time for the group to arrive at Oriental Theatre before the show. The most popular cartoon in those days were Mighty Mouse ( a super mouse wearing the red superman's flying cape ), Papi the Sailor ( with his girl friend who fed him the spinach for super strength when fighting the bad guys ) and Tom and Jerry ( the dumb cat and the wise mouse purposely to reverse their roles in real life ). The show lated for an hour during which the children laughed at the hilarious scenarios to their heart's content and clapped their hands loudly so many times that they hurt after the show. After the show everyone would go home with a happy heart but a pair of sore feet resulting from the enthusiastic activities.
If the weather did not allow out door activities on a particular Sunday eleventh uncle would let the children read his precious collection of comic books featuring other comic heroes and heroines. Other cartoon heroes included Superman and Charlie Brown. Heroines for the girls would be Wonder Woman and an elegant lady detective called LuLu. Comic book reading would then be followed by other group games like treasure hunts using Ritz biscuits and Cadbury chocolates to hidden treasures.
Eleventh uncle worked as a draftsman in an architect company. When he was occupied with weekend overtime duties which were unavoidable for urgent building projects tenth uncle would stand in as group leader for that particular Sunday. Tenth uncle was the more quiet type of person but he still loved the children a lot. He worked in the Government Treasury so Sunday was a certain holiday for him. In the morning he would play some marching music on his gramophone which is a pure luxury in those days using his precious and expensive 78 rounds per minute vinyl records. This was supposed to be invigorating music that would raise everyone's spirits before out door activities.
Unlike eleventh uncle tenth uncle used to take the children to the Wanchai waterfront to watch the maritime activities and to fish by the embankment. Hong Kong has always been a port – a fishing port as well as international cross road for shipping and commerce. Along the Wanchai waterfront as well as Sheung Wan ( adjacent to the west of Central business district ) and Western waterfront cargo junks, barges and tug boats abound. These acted as feeders for the freighters and large cargo vessels moored off shore and load and unload thousands of tons of endlessly flowing cargo brought by all enormous amount of shipping activities in the harbour. There were also hundreds of river barges moving much needed cargo up and down the Pearl River which is the largest river in Southern China. As a matter of fact, Hong Kong and Macau are situated some thirty five miles apart on the eastern and western sides of the Pearl River respectively. Between them is the Pearl River Estuary getting narrower and narrower northward up to Canton or Guang Zhou.
As far as the Wanchai waterfront was concerned there was a ferry pier with busy passenger traffic operated by the Hong Kong Yaumatei Ferry Company. That company also ran the vehicular ferry service as well as most other ferry routes in Hong Kong. All along the two miles waterfront running from the British naval base at HMS Tamar in Central to the Causeway Bay Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in the east there were lorries parked up to the water's edge to transport cargo. The children would count and identify the type and brand of parked lorries under the guidance of tenth uncle who used to work in the US Army during the war making him an expert in many mechanical systems. That was the favourite games for the boys while the girls would make themselves busy by inspecting the kind of fish caught by anglers sitting on the embankment.
Once they arrived at the wooden benches next to the ferry pier they would start to prepare their fishing lines and baits assisted by tenth uncle. The most common kind of fish one could catch there was mud mullets which survived around rubbish and even sewer for food. Therefore, mud mullets would be found in great numbers at the outlets of sewer ducts leading from the embankment into the harbour. In those days treatment of sewer discharge was minimal so that not much effort was required to catch mud mullets next to the ferry pier. All that was needed to catch them was some stale bread put onto a special mud mullet fishing hook which consisted of six different fishing hooks moulded into a single unit.
Just a few minutes after the children had lowered the mud mullet hooks into the water they were rewarded with a few small fish wagging their tails and caught by their mouths on the mud mullet hook. This easy catch generated a lot of excitement among the children who eagerly consulted one another on their fishing skills. After an hour of fishing they happily went home with two dozen small fish swimming in the milk powder tin cans they brought as part of their fishing gear. Sometimes, the children would beg the amah to help them cooked their catch in congee as a special course for dinner. In those days, thee was a popular song called “ Never on Sunday “. Tenth uncle would change the song's title to “ Always on Sunday “ to make fun of the children. For the children they would always remember their childhood Sundays always as beautiful Sundays.
Chapter Seven – The long hot summer
As the date for surrendering the family home to the colonial government drew near. Everyone in the household including the children were getting more and more anxious. They could feel the pressure from changes in their weekend routines. Instead of enjoying every Sunday they noticed that even tenth and eleventh uncles were required to use their weekend to pack up things and to do some minor repairs around the house. Then the other adults would go out at the weekend to look for a new home or, in fact, a few new homes for each and every family. It was close to impossible to get another compact house like the existing family home which was purposely designed for the huge extended family.
In those days there was no such thing as purchasing a home by instalments. One simply had to pay up the total purchase price all at once. This made it impossible for the common people to own their home. The only other alternative was to rent a place. As the requirement for accommodation varied with each family unit within the household it was simply impossible to get the appropriate units all in a single housing block.
The house searching process started in February of 1955 right after Chinese New Year. Unfortunately, it was not at all certain that the new home searching could be complete by the end of June. Maternal grand father knew this and appointed a lawyer to make legal representations to the government on his behalf to try to reverse the take over order. He was actually making a desperate attempt to save the day and was just hoping for a miracle. Luck was obviously not on his side. His request was rejected but was granted a reprieve with an extension or deferment of the surrender date for a further six months till First of January, 1956. Everyone breathed a sigh of temporary relief. So it was better than nothing. Who knows ? Anything could happen as long as they still stayed in the family home together.
Spring soon turned into summer. It was particularly hot that year making everyone very impatient and restless. The extension of the repossession order granted by the government did little to calm their nerves as it was only a temporary relief. The main problem at hand was still to find a suitable and most importantly affordable rented home for each and every family unit.
For some of the older children who had started school summer simply meant a long and supposedly happy summer vacation lasting eight weeks from the first week of July. There were millions of little plans on their tender and simple minds. Moving house was the headache of the adult world. They could not care less.
Ninth uncle made his living as a driving instructor and owned a third hand Morris Minor which was a rough and tough work horse. He bought it for one thousand odd dollars from a well off friend who wanted to buy a new car a few years back. Once in a while during holidays ninth uncle would take the older children for a ride along the twisting and winding Island Road on the southern district of Hong Kong Island from Aberdeen in the west end of the south coast to Shek O Beach in the east end. Along the way one could enjoy the beautiful scenery of Repulse Bay ( dubbed the Riviera of the Orient ) , Tai Tam Reservoir with its huge tam. There were also the pleasant views of the off shore islands of Lamma Island before the days of the ugly chimneys of the electric power generating plant there and Wagland Island where there was a light house.
On the first weekend of July maternal grand father proposed to take the entire family to Repulse Bay for a swim. His main purpose was to let everyone relax after the tense negotiations conducted with the government to delay the surrender of the family home. Just a few weeks before most of the adults were involved one way or another in the negotiation or in supporting the negotiation process. Those dull and stressful legal matters had literally drained all the energy out of every adult.
It was decided that ninth uncle would drive the younger children. His car could take eight young ones – two in front and six in the back seats. Then uncle ten had borrowed another car from his old army buddy to take another eight. The older children would take the public bus operated by China Motor Bus Company accompanied by the other adults. As the whole group consisted of fifteen people including the amah they knew they might not be able to get everyone in the same bus to Repulse Bay from a bus stop at Wanchai Ship Street where the family home was located. Therefore, everyone would take the tram ( probably on different ones ) to meet at the bus terminus in Hong Kong Yaumatei Vehicular Ferry Pier in Central District where route number 6 bus going to Stanley Beach via Repulse Bay originated. During the summer months buses to the beach would be very crowded as not everyone could afford to own a private car then. The frequency of service by number six bus was some twenty minutes intervals depending on traffic conditions which were heavy around the beaches in summer.
On top of the passenger load there were also a lot of food, drinks and other beach mattresses and children's swimming aids and toys not to mention an indispensable set of mahjong game for the ladies who did not want to get sunburnt and a dark complexion which was considered to be ugly. These were all tightly packed in the booths of the two private cars.
By eleven o'clock in the morning everyone safely arrived at Repulse bay. The sandy beach was already crowded with hundreds of people most of them families like Hop C's. Along the beach front were the high class Liddo Beach Hotel which was second only to the iconic Repulse Bay Hotel up the hill slope above Repulse Bay Road. These were exclusively reserved for the well to do who spent up to fifty dollars for a full five courses western lunch serving fancy desserts like the banana boat and crepe baked Alaska much loved by children – the rich ones exclusively. The common people like Hop C and his family would enjoy their packed lunch with banana and apples for dessert.
As soon as lunch was over the children started to build sand castles under the supervision of their architects, tenth and eleventh uncles. The other adult males began to go for a swim towards the floating pontoons some hundred feet off shore. The grand parents immediately started the majong game while the aunts chatted enthusiastically with one another no doubt about moving their home. The amah was the busy one preparing afternoon snacks of sandwiches and sweet red bean soup with lotus seeds. So everyone seemed to be having a good time.
After all the initial activities had died down Hop C began to view the beautiful scenery along the beach. The azure water was dotted with hundreds of swimmers' heads some wearing brightly coloured head gear rising and disappearing among the gentle waves that ultimately breaks along the water's edge in white foams. Some swimmers were lying on top of floating mattresses and paddling away towards the three floating pontoons in the bay with their friends swimming closely at their heels to catch up. There was a light hearted holiday atmosphere permeating the entire environment sending out a happy message of an endless sunny summer vacation ahead. Hop C could not help but feel the warmth and closeness of family presence around him. He could not imagine what it would be like after the splitting of his large extended family in the coming year. At the time everything was so nice and soothing. Who cared if the sky would fall tomorrow.
At around two in the afternoon there was a pleasant surprise in store for all the swimmers. From the public address system used by the life guards came an exciting announcement to the public. In half an hour there would be a dragon boat race off the beach. Dragon Boat Festival was celebrated some two weeks before. This belated dragon boat race was an international charity race to raise funds for the under privileged children of Hong Kong. Apparently. It needed some complicated coordination thus leading to the delay but it was nevertheless good news and welcomed entertainment for the swimmers.
Upon the announcement most swimmers started to swim back to the beach and took up good vantage positions in anticipation of the start of the race. Hop C and his whole extended family did the same and excitedly looking forward to the commencement of the belated dragon boat race. There were six teams competing – fore from local organisations while two others represented the International Lions Club and the American Chamber of Commerce. The starting point was set in the west end of Repulse Bay where the Yu Family Castle was situated. There was the loud sound of a big gun firing followed by the immediate splashing of a hundred oars paddling in the water. Every dragon boat seemed to be stationary at first but upon the sounds of metal gongs and beating drums all the boats started to cruise forward in a progressively faster pace. White foams could be seen at the front of each boat beneath its dragon head as the speed picked up. However, after a quarter of the way three boats started to fall out of a straight line which would make the course to the finishing buoy at the eastern end near the Goddess of Mercy Statute longer.
To compensate for this wrong move the drum beats from those three boats became more frequency. This successfully made them move faster than the others but unfortunately some contestants could not catch up with the tempo while others were overdoing it. The whole dragon boat belonging to the American Chamber of Commerce began to roll to one side and took in so much water that it finally sank half way through the race. There were cries of disappointment while some American swimmers on the beach clapped their hands loudly in support of the rescue efforts by motor boats carrying the referees of the race. Luckily, no one was hurt and the mishap just added fun and laughter to the event. In the final tally Two local boats got the top and second honour while the second runners up were the Lions Club boat. Well, that was a good finish and great efforts by the visitors who were cheered by the crowd as they received their trophy from the guest of honour who was a British colonial officer from the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
After the dragon boat race which was enjoyed by all the beach goers everything returned to normal. Swimmers started to enter the water again while mahjongs players carried on with their games to catch up on the losses incurred earlier by some. The children had moved to the water's edge to wade in the water having got tired of building sand castles. Tenth and eleventh uncles was also trying to teach some of the older children to swim or correct their swimming posture to enable them to swim faster and better.
After two more hours of playing everyone enjoyed a much needed afternoon snack so meticulously prepared by the amah. By this time the children were pretty close to the point of getting sunburnt. Therefore, maternal grand father gave the signal for everyone to get ready for home. There was yet another exciting game for the younger children to play on the way home. As both cars driven by ninth and tenth uncles were over the passenger carrying limit of five passengers four of the eight passengers had to duck their heads whenever there was a traffic policeman riding a motor cycle past their cars. The children treated this avoidance procedure as a funny game but to the drivers they could be fined up to thirty dollars for each passenger they carried in excess of the legal limit. It was, in fact, a traffic offense but in those days every driver did that on a regular basis. Things have improved a lot with traffic safety in Hong Kong such as the requirement to wear a seat belt for all passengers and the driver. Hong Kong has come a long way from those days. It is really a very good thing.
Chapter Eight – Christmas of crisis
The long hot summer quietly turned to autumn and then the cool winter also slowly crawled onto the stage of life. The holiday season was only two weeks away. More importantly, the fateful date though already extended for surrendering the family home was quickly drawing near. Which would be January 1956. During the summer all the family units had successfully found their new home which might not be entirely satisfactory in financial terms or practical terms. Fourth aunt and uncle were better off financially because the husband worked for a well known international accounting firm. They had rented an apartment in North Point. Maternal grand parents and tenth uncle would also share their new home. Hop C's family whose mother was sixth aunt had found a cheap apartment unit in Kowloon City at the outer fringe of the infamous Walled City facing the primary school where Hop C's mother had taught as a teacher since 1946. Eleven uncle would also share their home. Seventh uncle worked for the government as a senior clerk and was lucky enough to be allocated a civil servant's quarter in Hung Hom on Kowloon side very near to the now well known Hung Hom Stadium where concerts are held throughout the year. Ninth aunt's family would also stay there with them. Of course, Hop C's paternal grand mother would stay in Kowloon City. As a result, the huge extended family originally staying in the old Wanchai family home on Ship Street would be relocated to Kowloon City at the foot hill of the Lion Rock and to Hung Hom near the eastern waterfront of Kowloon Peninsula and to North Point east of Victoria Park on Hong Kong Island. It was really each new home at a different direction – to the north, to the east and to the west.
Despite the nick name of of Pearl of the Orient, Hong Kong has always been a very westernised society placing very strong emphasis on western festivals. Christmas being a joyous occasion that lends itself to the easy manipulation of commercialism like all festivals, is particularly popular with most Hong Kong citizens who are brought up in the mercenary culture of making the best of her borrowed time. Christmas in Hong Kong had always been a very big affair whether or not religion can hold its fort there because the Yuletide fits perfectly into the work hard play hard attitude of this sophisticated metropolis. The Christmas tree as well as all the colourful festive trimmings are indispensable decorations during the Christmas season in Hong Kong.
Hop C's poor childhood was not unusual during the post war years. People then were struggling to meet their daily materialistic needs so that they had neither the spare cash nor the jovial mood to celebrate anything although the rich and well to do were happily excepted. The way common folks like Hop C's family could afford to celebrate Christmas was in the form of a rare family outing to the more affluent part of town to view the colourful Christmas decorations displayed in show windows of a few big department stores in Central District which were out of bounds for them because they could only afford to be window shoppers.
On the second weekend in December, Hop C's parents took him and his two brothers and two sisters on a window shopping trip to Central District. The other members of the extended family were mostly busy with packing up their belongings in anticipation of the upcoming home removal in early January. His parents were able to sense their children's low moods and had decided to cheer them up in the holiday season. They took the cheapest means of transportation to Central which was by tram.
The whole family got off at a tram stop on Des Voeux Road Central near the General Post Office and took the newly installed escalators in Man Yee Building up to Queen's Road Central where the iconic Lane Crawford Department Store was located. It was the first time Hop C ever saw a real and lavishly decorated Christmas tree. The spectacularly blinking lights covering ever colour of the rainbow were really an eye opener. The gold and silver tin foil ribbons that entwined the lush green Douglas fir tree on some ten feet in height stood out like heavenly spirals from above. Most conspicuous of all were the big gleaming and reflective glass balls of various sizes and colours. One could actually see one's own rounded facial image reflected on their shining surfaces that displayed the false impression of a well-fed child. Such images had a profound and lasting memory imprinted on Hop C's mind because they would inevitably lead him to his run away imagination of a perfect Christmas world where there was the best of everything for him and his family. This soothing and wonderful thought was easily shot down once Hop C turned his head to catch sight of the over dressed passers-by in that affluent business district of Central who made him feel so inadequate in every way.
The highlights of their first Christmas escapade ended with an unusual treat of cracking and consuming a precious few roasted chestnuts sold by some street pedlars followed by a tram ride home back to the reality which was their poor but warm little dilapidated home in Wanchai Ship Street and the upcoming crisis of the removal from the family home in early January.
On Christmas Eve the hold extended family decided to attend midnight mass although only the grand parents, fourth aunt and Hop C's family were of the Catholic faith. The grand parents implore everyone to attend mass so that they could pray for the future of the whole extended family after the surrender of the family house. Because of this special family crisis everyone was willing to attend mass.
It was a very big affair attending midnight mass. Everyone was expected to put on the best clothes and shoes. The closest Cathedral is situated on Caine Road near the Governor House. The church would be fully packed so they had to arrive by half past eleven in the evening at the latest. The bishop of Hong Kong would preside over midnight mass. That was the reason why many social elites would go there to attend midnight mass to receive the bishop's Christmas blessings.
Upon arrival at the Cathedral entrance they children were already very excited to see a live size manger with the figures of the Holy Family and the Christ child. The statutes of the three magis ( wise men ) or the three kings from the east who came to pay tribute to the holy child were also installed. Other animals like sheep and cows or even a camel though made of cardboards were put in the nativity scene. Colourful spot lights were train onto the Holy Family to high light their prominence. Despite the crowded church they were able to squeeze into the back from where the raised altar was just visible. The children were allowed to sit on small stools provided by the church. The midnight mass lasted for a whole hour and ended at one o'clock at which time all the church bels were ringing to bring good tiding of great joy of the birth of Christ. The atmosphere was a bit overwhelming when the bishop bestow the final Christmas blessings upon all faithfuls present as the ceremony was done with the deafening chiming of the church bells in the back ground.
Following the Catholic tradition the whole extended family went home to enjoy a hearty late Christmas dinner with ham and turkey deliciously prepared by the amah and served with Christmas pudding to the great delight of the children. Despite the upcoming crisis all members of the household appeared to feel the peace of Christmas and have an earnest hope in their hearts that the future would be a bright one for all of them despite the surrender of the family home. So, the Christmas of crisis surprisingly became a season of peace and hope. That is a great mystery in life and a pleasant surprise that life very often brings contrary to our pessimistic expectations brought about the gloomy set of circumstances.
Life and Times Beneath the Rock
Chapter Nine – At the edge of the Walled City
Moving house is always a troublesome undertaking. During the first week of 1956 Hop C's family moved to their new home in Kowloon City right at the edge of the infamous Kowloon Walled City. This peculiar spot of only seven acres in area was a freak of history. When the imperial Qing Dynasty lost the Opium War to the British in 1840 Hong Kong was ceded to the British Empire. Then came the Second Opium War in 1860. Likewise, Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street was permanently ceded to the victors. However, the New Territories north of Boundary Street right up to the Chinese Border were leased to the British for ninety-nine years from 1898 and ending in 1997. To allow the Qing Dynasty officials in accessing the sea for supplies and customs purposes relating to the leased area they were allowed to build a fort which became the Walled City. In reality, the Qing Dynasty officials never quite exercised their territorial rights there. Instead, local traders would go in and out of the fort for trading purposes ( including opium ) and to pay bribes to the corrupt Qing officials for the privilege. The Walled City was beyond British jurisdiction but was abandoned by Qing officials who only stayed on and off within the city walls. Therefore, in reality it was a lawless place where criminal elements conducted all sorts of illegal activities like the narcotics trade and vice activities including brothels.
There was no city management so that the sanitation and utilities like water supply and later power supply were all done by unlicensed suppliers without any regards to safety and sanitation standards. There were open sewers all over the place in which rats and insects thrived. The water supply was mainly from wells and human waste was emptied by private cleaners for a fee payable by residents to individual operators. The main sources of lighting were candles and kerosene lamps thus creating serious fire hazards.
Hop C's new family home was a flat of about three hundred square feet in area consisting of three small rooms and a sort of living room. It was a multi-purpose room with three desks for the children to do home work, a collapsible square table for meals and half a dozen stools. That was all the furniture. The amah had to sleep in a collapsible canvass bed in the living room at night. Same as it was back in the old family home in Wanchai the amah's collapsible bed had to be stowed away in the small kitchen at the back of the flat during the day. The three bedrooms were just large enough to put in two double decker bunk beds in one of them for three boys and eleventh uncle. The other two had double beds for the parents and paternal grand mother staying with two girls respectively.
Hop C was seven and a half years old by this time and he was overdue for his schooling. As Hop C's mother taught in a free primary school run by a charity he was admitted to primary one there. The school was located right opposite his new home less than fifty feet away. It was just so convenient. His older sister and brother also studied there in primary five and three respectively. Even though they were not required to pay school fees yet it was still a burden at the beginning of each school year to buy new text books and stationery. They could only used second hand text book to save on the heavy education budget. Luckily no school uniforms were required. Otherwise, the financial burden of educating three and later five children would have been unbearable to their parents.
The dreadful living conditions had left a lasting impression all the children. The home was on the ground floor of a three storeys house built at the base of a concrete embankment at the end of street called Lung Kong Road. This street started from Prince Edward Road and ran north towards the Walled City. Prince Edward Road was the main thoroughfare running through Kowloon City from Nathan Road in Mongkok to the west.
As the house was below street level there was a flight of steps leading up to Lung Kong Road. This also meant that there was no street view from their home. It was like a prison cell all blocked off from the outside world. When there were cars and trucks passing along the street above all the dust and exhaust fumes would settle on their home entrance. As a result all the front windows had to be closed during the day to avoid pollution. Worse still the shop next to their house traded in building materials including sand and crushed granite for mixing concrete. They also made sand bricks which was the cheapest kind of brick manufactured by pressing sand in some metal moulds in a manually operated machine press. Those hateful machinery would constantly create loud thumping sounds during the day. It was both noisy and dusty next door. That was how bad the living conditions were. Once in a while sewer rats could be seen roaming the narrow lanes leading into the Walled City. The only commendable facility available to his family was that they had electricity supply because the house was by the side of Lung Kong Road where electric cables could be linked to their house. Otherwise, Hop C's family would have to use candles and kerosene lamps for lighting in the evening like most of the other houses inside the Walled City.
Hop C's first time in attending school was at primary one of the evening class in the school where his mother was a teacher. As a matter of fact, his mother taught in both the morning, afternoon as well as the evening classes to make ends meet in the family budget. The school was called Lok Sin Tong free school ( meaning happy to do charity ) run by a charitable organisation of the same name. The odd hours for classes were between six to nine in the evening. There were also regular day classes which required the payment of fifteen dollars monthly fee. His mother thought Hop C should try the evening class first to see whether he could adapt to this learning environment.
Hop C could clearly recall his helpless feeling when he spent three hours alone for the very first time with some thirty other kids who were total strangers to him. Hop C was a bit short for his age so that he was given a seat in the front of the class facing the teacher who was a colleague of his mother. It was not the teacher but a few naughty classmates that he felt uneasy about. The students in the evening class all came from poor family because there was no school fees to be paid. The families of some of the his classmates were engaged in dubious businesses or less than proper ways in making a living. To put it in a more direct way some parents were drug addicts or even petty traffickers. Others worked as bouncers in illegal gambling dens or vice establishments within the Walled City. Thus, it was not surprising that these naughty children made it their habit to bully their quiet and timid classmates.
In Hop C's case, he was even made a target by the bullies because his mother was seen as on the side of the school authority – the repressive forces so to speak. Therefore, they purposely turned their attention to him. During recess on the first evening of school Hop C was cornered by three bullies from primary five aged around ten and eleven. They were directly up to the point by explaining that new comers had to pay respects to the senior students by either presenting them with some money or in kind. Otherwise, the new comer would be cold shouldered and shunned from all group games and social activities during recess and after classes. Hop C was flatly intimidated by the strongly built bullies and offered some of his precious and beautiful glass marbles to the as “ gifts “. He was further warned not to report the incident to the teachers or any one or else they would “ show him “ and flexing their muscles. Hop C was so afraid that he could only nob his head in agreement. This kind of blackmail was in reality a crime but in Hop C's tender mind he was confused and in a panic. He simply did not know what to do. He was scared stiff and thought that by quietly paying for the bullies' “ protection “ everything would be fine. He did not even dare to mention it to his mother who accompanied him to and from school every evening.
Obviously, it was not a one off deal with the bullies. They found it so easy on the first occasion that they were greedy for more. When Hop C ran out of glass marbles he would give away his stationery and his candies every few days. So much so that there was nothing more for him to give for protection money. After about two weeks Hop C was so afraid that the pretend to be sick to avoid school. Of course, this silly excuse could not last for long. Eventually, his parents had a serious talk with him to find of the real reason for avoiding classes. Reluctantly, Hop C disclosed the secret to them in some unorganised manner but his parents got the truth out of him finally.
They were both angry and very much worried about their son's mental well being after the bullying and stressful encounter. Although what the bullies did amounted to petty blackmail but no money was involved so Hop C's parents decided not to make it a police matter. Instead his mother called on a janitor working at the school to discussed the matter with the bullies' parents who turned out to be petty members of the Triad criminal society. The school janitor, Uncle Wai, was a retired fireman who had friends in the police force. So, Uncle Wai brought along two of his policemen friends to call on the culprits' parents unofficially to warn their sons not to do it again to Hop C. That did the trick and peace was finally restored in Hop C's school life.
After this unhappy incident Hop C's parents decided to apply to a proper government day school for a place in primary two for him. However, this government school was located in Sham Shui Po District which required Hop C to take bus ride for half an hour to attend classes. Most reluctantly, their parents accepted the placement but had to solve the problem of transportation and the question of who should take him to the government school everyday. Ultimately, the problem was solved when it was decided that Hop C would make the journey by himself as a means to train him to be more independent and hopefully would become more self confident and would no longer be so timid.
The change of school for Hop C took effect two months after the unhappy incident. It was a government day school called Fuk Wing Street Government Primary School. Going there from Kowloon City would require taking route number 6B operated by the Kowloon Motor Bus Company. Luckily for him there was a bus terminus operated at the junction of Lung Kong Road and Prince Edward Road. Buses were very often fully during the morning rush hours. If it were not for the fact that Hop C could start his journey from the terminus it would be difficult for him to get on at some intermediate bus stop. In those days there was a bus conductor in every bus controlling a movable gate made of two horizontal iron bars attached to another upright one at the other end which was used a a handle to move the gate. Once the bus was full the conductor would ruthlessly slide to close the gate at the tail end of the bus. By the time the bus stopped at the intermediate bus stops there would only be a few passenger quota available for additional passengers to get on the bus. As everyone were eager to get on the bus conducted would customarily use brute force to push the late comers away from the steps forming the entrance gate at the back where the movable iron gate was installed. Neither children nor female passengers were given priority. That was the kind of situation Hop C's family was worried about. He might get hurt if trying too hard to board the bus to avoid being late for school.
As it happened he could get to the Kowloon City bus terminus a bit early every morning at seven o'clock sharp to make sure he could be on time for classes. Notwithstanding this favourable condition Hop C's paternal grand mother still accompanied him to the bus terminus to ensure that he was safely on board. This arrangement was put into effect for two whole school years when Hop C was studying in Sham Shui Po District. He was very grateful to his paternal grand mother for her meticulous care and attention and so developed a very close bond with her.
Chapter Ten – Troubles on Double Ten
Life went on normally for Hop C and his family after he comfortably settled down in his new school. In fact, he was getting very good grades especially in English and Chinese languages but he found mathematics a bit tough going and was only able to get passable grades for this important or compulsory subject. Being aware of his weakness in mathematics his mother was giving him extra mathematic exercises at home to keep him on course. His older sister and brother had also changed to two renowned Catholic girls and boys schools respectively. The two younger sister and brother were also admitted to kindergarten. The education for all the children was gladly on course to the great relief of the parents.
Throughout the summer of 1956 Hong Kong's economy was picking up steadily. Most citizens seemed to be quite content with the ways living conditions were slowly improving. For the less well off citizens like Hop C and his family there were additional help in the form of canned food ( including meat, beans and fish like sardines ) and clothing ( second hand ones naturally ) provided by the International Red Cross and the United Nations also provided cans of free milk powder to children under twelve on a monthly basis. On top of all these, different religious groups ranging from Catholic, protestants like the Baptist Church, the Uniting Church as well as the Anglican Church also provide similar assistance to the poor although you need to attend their church activities and to listen a bit to their preaching.
Hong Kong was and always had been a melting pot for all ethnic groups who flooded in from the Mainland after World War Two and especially during the Chinese civil war between the Nationalist and Communist Parties during the period from 1945 to October First 1949 when the Communist regime took over power in the Mainland. Among these refugees up to some two hundred thousand were closely connected with the Nationalist government which retreated to Taiwan in 1949. They were mostly retired Nationalist army veterans and their families. Others were minor Nationalist officials and their families who could not make it in time to retreat to Taiwan. There were all given a resettlement township by the British government in an isolated small bay of their own near the scenic Sai Kung Peninsula in the eastern part of Kowloon called Teo King Ling ( meaning hill where people had been hung ) or Rennie's Mill which was an abandoned flour mill complex. The chef means of transportation between the township and the city were either by small buses or privately run small ferry service to Hon Kong Island or Kowloon east.
There visitors could easily be mistaken that they were in Taiwan because on top of every house, school and public building the National Chinese flag were prominently display while the British flag wad only displayed at a small police station there. As the British colonial government did not allow Hong Kong residents to discuss politics they had made it a point to isolate Rennie's Mill and the pro-Taiwan residents there from the rest of Hong Kong. Even though politics was discouraged yet most residents living in resettlement blocks who were mainly refugees from the Mainland fleeing from Communist rule were mainly supporters of the Taiwan Nationalist government at least in their sentiments if not in actions.
Double Ten means the tenth day of October. It was on this day that the father of modern China, Dr. Sun Yat Sen successful toppled the imperial Qing Dynasty in 1911 in an armed uprising in the city of Wu Chang to establish the first republic government in China. Most Chinese people commemorate this important date in Chinese history by displaying the Nationalist flag which symbolises the first Chinese republic. In resettlement estates numerous families would proudly displayed this important national day. As a result resettlement housing blocks would all become engulfed in sea of the flag known as the “ blue sky, white sun and red earth “ flag describing its design.
Despite the colonial government's policy to discourage expressong political sentiments towards either the left ( Communist Chinese government ) or the right ( Taiwan Nationalist government ) such massive display of national flags was nevertheless tolerated if it did not lead to clashes or confrontations on both sides. On the tenth of October 1956, a senior British police inspector was trying to order the removal of a large Nationalist flag displayed from the window of neighbourhood centre in Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate which was a public building residents around the vicinity angrily refused to do so. In the commotion it was alleged that the police inspector tore off the flag and threw it into a rubbish bin. He was physically assaulted by the angry mob and was wounded in the head. He called for more police support and when reinforcement arrived a big fight ensue during which a policeman shot dead one of the attackers. It immediately escalated into a huge riot involving a few hundred rioters. A few police vehicles were set on fire and some criminal Triad elements took advantage of the chaos and started looting the nearby shops. More police reinforcement arrived but more residents were misled by blind patriotic emotions to fight the police now being seen as the evil colonial repression force humiliating the Chinese people by desimmate the Chinese national flag.
On the instigation of the Triad members the riots quickly spread to Sham Shui Po, Mongkok, Kowloon City and Yaumatei Districts. The scale of the rioting was so extensive that it went beyond the capability of the police in terms of man power and equipment. So, the then Governor, Alexander Grantham ordered the British garrison to restore order by deploying five thousand troops equipped with rifles, machine guns, armour cars and Centurion heavy tanks under a forty eight hours total curfew. Nobody was allowed in the streets and orders were given to the military to shoot and kill for curfew violators. It was just like returning to World War Two all over again. The residents were only allowed three hours from nine to twelve in the morning to replenish their daily food supplies. The atmosphere around the whole city was very tense indeed.
Despite the curfew, some Triad members in Kowloon City still continued to loot at night. When the British troops and police moved in to arrest them they would escaped into the Walled City to avoid being caught. As Hop C's home was situated at the edge of the Walled City the whole family was scared to death as their house was in harms way when the army troops chased the looters and were firing at them with their rifles. All that Hop C' s family could do was to place the heavy furniture like beds and cupboards against the front door. All the children had to stay on the second floor in a neighbours' home to stay away from the ground floor in case the looters should break in through the flimsy front door made of ply wood only. It was literally a war zone in front of their house.
The most dangerous incident occurred in the evening of the eleventh of October. After a generally peaceful afternoon when the streets were all empty on account of the curfew the looting started again at around eight o'clock at night in the nearby shops. Ten criminals were trying to break open the iron gates of a rice shop. The owners inside called for help by banging on some metal gongs used in fire drills. Over twenty policemen and army troops raced to scene in just a few minutes in armour cars and army trucks. The children were watching from the second floor balcony having been startled by the commotion.
As the looters were out gunned and out numbers they fled in different directions to distract the law enforcers. Unfortunately, four of them chose to run down the flight of steps in front of Hop C's home to escape into the Walled City. The pursuing policemen backed by British troops armed with machine guns started firing down the steps. The loud ear piercing of gun shots rang through the night air. The disoriented adult neighbours on the second floor immediately rushed to the aid of the children on the open balcony and pushed their heads close to the floor. Then came a loud explosion followed by some thick clouds of white smoke rising quickly to the second floor and scattering all around on the ground level. The smoke gave out the smell of a peeled banana. In a second Hop C and their siblings all felt a severe pain in their eyes and tears ran down their face like the rain. It was the explosion of a tear gas canister. The pain in their eyes was so acute that all the children cried out loud for help. The adults realised that it was tear gas and so they quickly rushed into the kitchen to get a bucket of tap water and to spray them in the children's eyes and did the same to their own eyes. The acute pain did not go away until the third round of rinsing. Then it subsided gradually.
Meanwhile, the siege was still in progress. There were a few more gun shots followed by a lot of shouting. The police was ordering the looters to come out to the open with their hands up which they were forced to obey as they were all disoriented by the tear gas and the acute pain in their eyes. As the army troops trained their search light on the looters who had the hands up in the air the policemen ran down the steps to arrest them and put the hand cuffs on their wrists. The culprits were marched up the flight of steps and hurled into the back of the police truck equipped with a cage for prisoners. The whole escapade lasted for over half an hour. Hop C and his family were finally granted some peace for the time being. As a result of the incident the children were allowed by their neighbours to sleep in the second floor living room for the night.
Luckily, the curfew was lifted after the third day and order was restored throughout the city. The riots revealed the sensitive nature of the social structure in Hong Kong. Despite the apparent calm on the surface there were reconcilable differences between the rulers who were no doubt the instruments of an unfair and exploiting colonial regime and the ruled who had their own long and deep cultural values that still inspired patriotism on controversial issues. This could be expected as Hong Kong was taken by under duress from the British gun ship policy of the Nineteenth Century.
Chapter Eleven – Weathering the storm
As the financial situation of Hop C's family improved in the few years after the Double Ten incident. Their parents decided to move away from the edge of the Walled City to prevent their children from mixing with bad company. In early 1959 they moved their home to Fuk Lo Tsun Road which was five streets west of their Walled City home at the end of Lung Kong Road. Although it was still in Kowloon City proper it was a flat of some six hundred square feet on the fop floor of a six storey building constructed after the War and, therefore, built of concrete and with much better facilities than the old one. It was still close to Lok Sin Tong Free School where their mother taught. By this time Hop C's sisters and brothers were all attending reputable Catholic girls and boys schools respectively.
Due to his good grades Hop C was also admitted to La Salle College on Boundary Street near the high class residential area of Kowloon Tong where famous movie star like the late Bruce Lee and the rich Harelila Family had their beautiful mansions. His school was run by the Christian Brothers ( monks ) of de La Salle Catholic order originated in France. The school building was a magnificent structure based on the design of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and constructed on top of a flattened hill of ten acres in area. There were two sets of grand and symmetrical steps on the left and right leading up the hundred feet hill slope from Boundary Street which as one may recall set the boundary line between Kowloon Peninsula permanently ceded to Britain and New Kowloon and the New Territories to the north leased to Britain for ninety-nine years from 1898. It was only a short walk of ten minutes from Hop C's new home on Fuk Lo Tsun Road to La Salle College. So, it was very convenient for him. He would spend ten years of his education in this school which basically shaped his character as well as his career for which he was forever grateful.
Better was just a comparative term. Their new home though an improvement over the old one at he edge of the Walled City was still short of satisfactory. That was because it was an illegal structure built on the roof top of the building proper. The building materials used were a bit substandard. For one thing the roof was made of corrugated wrought iron sheets anchored to a wooden frame with screws and nails. When there was a strong wind blowing the roof would flutter and make a loud crackling noise that would disturb their sleep at night. Another hazard was that the building was right in the landing path of airliners some of which were modern jet planes like the British de Havilland Comet IV jets and Boeing 707 airliners. By the time jets had come in to land in Kai Tak Airport now with an eight thousand feet extended runway to accommodate the jet planes' landing all aircraft would be just three hundred feet above the ground and only two hundred feet or there about from the roof top. Apart from the huge risk of a plane accidents which would definitely result in a great number of fatalities the roaring jet engines would wake everyone at night.
Although it was a set policy to direct all night landings from the eastern approach path over Lei U Mun gap as far as the wind direction allowed but sometimes night landing over Kowloon City was necessary due to changing wind conditions. As it was, there would be three to four nights every week that overhead landing and take off actually took place. Fortunately for the thirty-five years duration of this arrangement no accident ever occurred during landings or take off over Kowloon City. Strangely enough there had been three or four landing and take off accidents towards the east in Lei U Mun direction killing over one hundred passengers in total.
One good thing came out from this unsatisfactory situation. It made Hop C and his older brother an aircraft spotting enthusiasts. When they got older his older brother even purchased a camera and telephoto lenses to take numerous photos of aircraft as they took off and landed. They kept many albums of aircraft photos classifying them into different types. During the Vietnam War period in the sixties many direct types of American military aircraft were making their landing and take off thus making the two brother experts in military aircraft as well. That was really a very good hobby. Hop C would later write articles and get them published in the relevant aircraft magazines to earn some pocket money at the then ongoing rate of ten Hong Kong dollars for every thousand words written by him in his articles. Sometimes, life has its strange ways of rewarding one's patience and forbearance. The foregoing is a practical example.
Apart from the hazards of low flying aircraft Hop C's new home on the roof was also susceptible to natural disasters such as typhoons and rain storms. Ib fact, the whole of Hong Kong sits on the usual path of seasonal typhoons often occurring between July to September every year. In 1962, Hong Kong suffered a frontal attack by a super typhoon officially named Wanda as it passed directly through Hong Kong and landed in the Mainland which is the final destiny of all typhoons. It is just a question of where it makes its landfall. Once a typhoon hits land it will dissipate in strength because all its destructive energy was drawn from the sea water which the whirlpool of strong air current churns upwards within its centre. The original spinning air current is usually formed when hot air rises quickly in a low pressure area and the surrounding colder air rushes in to take the place of quickly rising hotter air. As the water vapour rises to forty thousand feet ( just below the stratosphere beyond which them temperature will stay constant ) it condenses and becomes heavy rain. When water vapour which is a gaseous element with lots of kinetic energy changes back into rain which is a liquid form with less mobility the kinetic energy is released into the atmosphere causing the air current to move faster and faster resulting in destructive gale force winds.
In August of 1962, Typhoon Wanda whipped up strong winds of up to one hundred sixty miles per hour accompanied by heavy downpour. The strong wind also created very strong tidal waves that caused wide spread flooding especially in Tolo Harbour leading into Sha Tin and Tai Po in the eastern New Territories. This is still the strongest typhoon on record to hit Hong Kong directly and Hop C's family was so severely affected that they had to be admitted to temporary typhoon shelters set up by the colonial government as their house was totally ruined. That was one of the saddest episode in their family's memory as far as natural disasters are concerned.
Typhoon Wanda came into existence over the western Pacific Ocean east of the Philippines on August Twenty Seven in 1962. It finally hit Hong Kong with its strongest wind of up to one hundred sixty-one miles an hour on September First. It originally started as an average typhoon with winds of only seventy miles per hour but it gather huge strength as it crossed the South China Sea between the Philippines and Taiwan.
During its passage of Hong Kong, Wanda produced ten and a half inches of rainfall. The typhoon moved ashore during the daily high tide, resulting in a of storm surge at least seventeen feet above normal, especially around , which caused widespread flooding and damaged or destroyed thousands of huts and houses in The strong winds and waves blew fishing vessels from the water onto the streets. Maximum sustained winds were ninety miles per hour , while gusts reached one hundred and sixty-one miles per hour, stronger than any previous typhoon on record. Additionally, the lowest pressure during its passage was 953.2 millie bars which was the lowest on record at the Royal Hong Kong Observatory.
Overall, the typhoon caused 434 deaths and left 72,000 people homeless. There was never a finalised damage total, although it was estimated in the millions of dollars. Over 2,000 boats in the colony were either wrecked or damaged. As damage was so severe in Hong Kong, there were little reports of impact elsewhere, although the storm did move across portions of southern China. It is estimated that a storm identical to Wanda would cause 2.6 billion Hong Kong Dollars in losses if it were to strike today. In view of the damages suffered in this storm, land in Sha Tin and Tai Po were to three metres higher above sea level than other areas of Hong Kong during the development of those two new towns later in the 1970s.
In Hop C's memory, the first two days were as usual like all other average typhoons. All classes were canceled and offices closed. During typhoon passage everyone would treat it as an extra holiday or two. Hop C's family like most Hong Kong people were playing mahjong games during the day. As they could not go to the market they just had to eat steamed rice with canned food. However, the conditions worsened considerably on the last day of August when the radio broadcast of Royal Hong Kong Observatory hourly weather reports predicted that Wanda would hit Hong Kong face the next day. They could tell because their corrugated tin roof was fluttering more frequently with louder and louder bangs. To be exact, not the entire roof was built with corrugated tine sheets. Only the front portion facing the streets about half of the total house area were under tin roof.
As the strong gusty wind was rapidly increasing in strength the adults ordered the children to retreat into the rear portion of the house which were the living room with two bedrooms and the kitchen. At the end everyone ended up sleeping in the living room floor. They could not close their eyes during the night and could only managed to dose off intermittenly. At around three o'clock in the deep of the night there was a very loud explosion sound that scared the hell out of everyone. Those sleeping near to the front portion of the house suddenly discovered that the dark stormy night sky appeared before their eyes and gusty wind and heavy rain rushed into the living room soaking everyone to the skin.
The children began to cry loudly and the adults rushed to their aid. Hop C's parents ordered everybody to retreat into the small kitchen which was immediately crowded with over ten people. The children were shivering in their wet clothes but the adults could not help it. The only thing there could do was to hold them closely to warm them with their own body heat. When dawn finally came Hop C's parents carefully venture to the front to inspect the damaged. The whole front roof was ripped off and carried away by the strong wind which was still blowing as if it was going to last forever. They felt for the first time what it would be like to become refugees.
After another six hours the heavily destructive Typhoon Wanda finally left Hong Kong behind and moved inland. Of course, they were not the only family affected. They later learnt that Typhoon Wanda passed right over Hong Kong at midnight of September First and took six hours to crossed into the Mainland as the Typhoon Wanda was some one thousand miles in diameter. Hop C's family joined up with some neighbours living on the same street and everyone moved into Lok Sin Tong Free School in Lung Kong Road which was used as a temporary typhoon shelter. Dry clothes and blankets were provided and hot soup and canned food were served. They stayed there for two days before returning home to patch up their roof with cardboards as a temporary measure. The roof was not fully repaired until the end of September at the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Hop C's family counted their lucky star as it could have been much worse and injuries or even fatalities could have occurred. At the end of the day the total number of people killed by Typhoon Wanda were over four hundred people in the whole of Hong Kong making it the worst typhoon ever to hit Hong Kong.
Ten years later on June Eighteenth, 1972 another great calamity hot Hong Kong again. This time it was a very heavy rain storm that caused two major landslides. One occurred in Kwun Tong in the eastern part of Kowloon Peninsula. A huge retaining wall collapsed after the rain storm and buried fifty squatter huts at the hill side. Seventy-one people were killed. The other one was even more tragic as it occurred in the high class residential district of Mid-Levels on Hong Kong Island along Kotewall Road where a whole residential block collapsed killing forty-one residents. On top of these two tragedies hundreds were made homeless by the flooding.
On this particular occasion Hong Kong's most valued Lion Rock spirit was most magnificently manifested. An urgent fund raising show was staged at Hong Kong Television Broadcasting Limited studio the next day. All famous entertainers and musicians took part. Furthermore, a city wide call was made to collect donations for the victims of the rain storm. The show ran all through the night and raised over nine million Hong Kong Dollars. The main bulk of the funds came from each and every resettlement estates where special residents committees were set up to organise the collection of donations city wide. Many taxis provided free trips to donors to go to the television station to donate their money. All the efforts were spontaneous and swift. It was very moving as even common people like street pedlars and housewives donated most of their personal savings and hard earned cash to help the victims. This charity show set a fine tradition of joint community efforts in helping victims of all future natural disasters.
Chapter Twelve – Currents from the Cultural Revolution
Hong Kong was not immuned from politics across its borders in China. The Cultural Revolution was a social-political movement that took place in the from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Ze Dong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve “ true “ Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward. The movement paralysed China politically and significantly affected the country economically and socially.
The Revolution was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these “ revisionists “ be removed through violent class struggle. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guards groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shao Qi and Deng Xiao Ping. During the same period Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions.
Millions of people were persecuted in the violent struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Country Side Movement. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked.
Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. After Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiao Ping gradually began to dismantle the Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution. In 1981, the Party declared that the Cultural Revolution was "responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic. “
The Hong Kong branch of the Chinese Communist members which were illegal in Hong Kong were mostly represented by leftist trade union members and leftists newspapers and movie actors and actresses guilds. In support of the Cultural Revolution which was at its height in May of 1967 the leftists made use of a labour dispute in an artificial plastic flowers factory in San Po Kong next to Kowloon City to go on strike and violent demonstrations supported by members of the leftist workers unions. The striking workers attempted to storm the factory premises the police was called in. The demonstrators clashed with the police and burnt a police car. Anti-riot squadrons were called in to dispersed the rioters who threw stones and hard objects like dust bins and dismantled street traffic signs. The more violent elements even threw gasoline bombs made from glass bottles containing petrol. There were injuries on both sides. The next day more leftists elements came to support the striking workers and more violence was perpetrated. The troubles escalated and spread quickly during the next few days when leftist bus company unions organised a total strike of the buses serving both Hong Kong Island and Kowloon including the New Territories.
The leftists transportation union was not fully supported by all bus drivers many of whom continued to report for work. At this point the Communist elements paid Triad members and some radical elements within the union to throw stones at buses that remain in operation crashing the wind screen and injuring many drivers who refused to support the leftist call to strike. Some police vans were used to escort buses running on the main urban routes but they could not protect every operation bus driver. Hong Kong was so much paralysed that all schools and offices were closed until further notice.
By this time Hop C's family had agin moved from Fuk Lo Tsun Road in the west end of Kowloon City to Ta Ku Ling Road sevens streets to the east and only three streets from Lok Sin Tong Free School where Hop C's mother had worked as a teacher since 1950.
Their new apartment was on the sixth floor overlooking Kai Tak Airport with an unobstructed view. It had a very good of the whole length of Prince Edward Road running in front of the airport towards San Po Kong. That was the origin place where the riots first started and still remained as the main trouble spot as it was facing Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate where numerous young people from the underprivileged class were recruited by the leftists to make troubles and to confront the police. By now the British garrison was again mobilised to support the police and night curfews were again in force during evening hours from nine o'clock to nine o'clock next morning.
Worse still on the fifth floor of the same building was the premises and head office of the leftist Stone Cutters' Trade Union controlled by the local Communists. In those troubled days the offices of some leftists unions were used by rioters for rest and manufacturing of home made weapons like sharpened iron water pipes and petrol bombs.
At the height of the riots in July that year the violence had escalated even further. Hard core Communists in Hong Kong started to manufacture home made bombs known as “ pine apples “ because they used a lot of gun powder from firecrackers and stuffed it inside a tin milk can which was then wrapped up into a roundish shape with newspapers. Four Chinese characters written in red paint would appear on the wrapping paper with the warning “ compatriots not to get close “. Apart from creating chaos in the street to scare people away from going about their normal daily activities these home made bombs ended up killing a senior British police officer and maiming another by blowing off his right palm. More tragically, a pair of young sister and brother aged seven and two respectively were blown to their deaths in North Point when they picked up one “ pine apple “ thinking that it was a toy. To the grave worries of Hop C's family such “ pine apples ' were known to be manufactured in some trade union premises.
There was a further tragic incident during the four months of rioting in 1967 which became an infamous piece of international news. A famous radio presenter working with Commercial Radio of Hong Kong who had been very outspoken against Communist atrocities called Mr. Lam Bun was murdered in broad day light. While he was going to work he and his brother were burnt to their death in their car by a petrol bomb right at the entrance of their home in Waterloo Hill. It was a bloody and savage attack on their lives as well as a blatant attack on press freedom and freedom of speech. They remained heroes in all the hearts of the righteous citizens forever.
Nor were the troubles merely confined to the city limits. At the border between Hong Kong and the Mainland in Sha Tau Kok Village. Sixty or so armed local miltias from Kwang Tung Province in China crossed over and attacked the border police station in August 1967 killing five Hong Kong Chinese policemen and wounding nine others. The elite British Gurkhas troops were immediately despatched from barracks in Sek Kong just a few miles away and repelled the invaders killing over ten of them. This was the most serious border confrontation ever to have occurred between the colony and China. It was only after the more moderate Chinese Prime Minister , the late Mr. Chu En Lai intervened and ordered a stop to armed confrontation that no more border conflict had flared up again.
To complicate things further, Hop C's elder brother had joined the Royal Hong Kong Regiment known as the Volunteers. It was a British army unit composed entirely of local residents including mostly European citizens as volunteers. It was created in Hong Kong in the 1860s when the city was plagued by piracy and needed to defend fishing fleets and the coastal population from pirate raids and attack. The members were entirely amateur or part time soldiers over two hundred of whom were killed during the Battle of Hong Kong against the Japanese invaders during the Second World War. Hop C's brother joined the Volunteers back in 1964 and completed his military training during the three summer months in that year. The Volunteers had fort nightly training sessions and would be called up whenever emergency situations arose in Hong Kong. During the 1967 riots Hop C's elder brother was called to duty for two months in July and August which were at the height of the violence confrontations.
Once in a week he was allowed to return home to take a rest and to freshen up. Every time he came home from the weekly break he would be wearing his army uniform and basic equipment like his helmet and pistol. Since there was the leftist Stone Cutters Trade Union on the fifth floor of there building his brother had to be very care not to be attacked by the leftist union members there. Although all was well throughout the four months of rioting the family was all worried about him and to a certain extent about the whole family who could be targeted by the extremists for being seen to support the British colonial government.
One very ugly incident occurred on June Fifteen on Prince Edward Road in front of their building and at the entrance gates to Kai Tak Airport. The leftist transportation workers union called a strike one week earlier to try to stop all buses, trams and ferries from operating normally in order to paralyse Hong Kong. Other bus drivers loyal to the general population defied the order to strike and kept to their normal daily servies. However, the leftists tried to disrupt their services by burning car tyres and placing public dust bin and home made bombs ( “ pine apples “ ) on Prince Edward Road to create obstructions. Furthermore, they even paid for Triad members and their own radical elements to attack the working bus drivers by throwing stones at them. The most heinous tactic was that they would force some young children of eight to ten years of age to go in front of their attack columns to protect themselves and to make it more difficult for the army and police to shoot at them. This was the lowest of all the low tricks they could play to achieve their sinister objective. Such evil acts revealed the true face of the philosophy behind such autocratic regime which would stick at nothing to achieve there political objective. They had so mistakenly thought that the end would justify the means which is a down right immoral principle.
It was precisely such extreme policies that would ultimately lead to their downfall. When the Cultural Revolution finally ended in 1976 with the conviction of the Gang of Four including Chairman Mao Ze Dong's wife Gwan Chin an estimated five million people were either murdered or killed under harsh conditions in the country side after they were forced into hard labour there under the so called “ Go Down to the Village “ movement. A huge tragedy in Chinese history.
Chapter Thirteen – Life in the ivory tower
On account of the personal intervention of the moderate Chinese prime minister Chu En Lai the disturbances slowly die down and vanished all together in September of 1967. Life in Hong Kong slowly returned to normal. Hop C passed his Secondary School Certificate public examination in a satisfactory manner to the great delight of his parents and went on to matriculation class in La Salle College for two years until 1968 in preparation for the very important entrance examination in order to apply for admission to the university.
When the time came for his matriculation examination Hop C was studying so hard that he had to spent most of his time in the school library. As a matter of fact, he had to study twelve hours daily to cover and revise his matriculation syllabus. The examination was very demanding. He had to study four subjects, namely, English and Chinese Languages, English Literature, and Geography in the advanced level. To secure a pass in these subjects all students had to sit three for three papers in each subject lasting for three hours each. In other words there were twelve papers of three hours each to be completed satisfactorily. Failure in any one paper would lead to a failure in the entire subject. Furthermore, in subjects such as Geography the student would have to sit for a practical paper like map surveying in Geography or laboratory testing for Chemistry which Hop C did not take. The matriculation examination took place in April every year. So, Hop C and all his classmates were given three weeks holidays from the second week in March to prepare for this very important examination at home. That meant no more formal classes at school. Of course, his teachers would make themselves available in school every Tuesday and Friday to allow any student to ask them questions about anything they did not understand in the syllabus. Hop C and most of his classmates would naturally make use of the opportunity to approach the teachers so that he and his classmates could reinforce their knowledge as well as their confidence in the subjects for which they were sitting at the upcoming examination. They would also take the opportunity to get together for lunch on Tuesdays and Fridays to take a break and to chat with one another to reduce their stress.
These extra revision sessions arranged by their teachers could have been avoided if it had not been for the 1967 riots. Hop C's matriculation course actually started from September of 1966 but all classes were interrupted from May to August in 1967 due to the riots which was actually an overflow of the Cultural Revolution in China. The cutting short of the 1967 school year meant that the required syllabus was not properly completed and was merely rushed through in the previous year. This undesirable way of teaching the school subjects to students was necessitated by the fact that nobody could predict in May 1967 when the riots would end. Therefore, the teachers had to push the students to cover the syllabus in less than half the normal time required to thoroughly cover the subjects for the matriculation examination.
After a very stressful two weeks of sitting through his examination starting from the first week of April Hop C started his early and prolonged summer vacation which did not usually start until July. As his family still needed his financial contribution he spent the months of May and June working as a temporary teacher in Lok Sin Tong Free School where his mother was working. Since 1964 Hop C had already been earning his own pocket money by giving private lessons to his more well off classmates' younger brothers who were studying in primary school level thus earning close to two hundred dollars per month. He mainly taught English in Lok Sin Tong. He felt a bit strange coming back to his old school where he spent almost a whole year in 1956 attending the first classes in his life. Of course, things had changed a lot here during the past decade. The students came from wealthier and less complicated families as the economy in the whole of Hong Kong had been steadily improving. All the desks and chairs and even the class room seemed smaller because he himself had grown up a lot.
Many of his old teachers had become his colleagues. That was the most uneasy situation he had ever experienced. Anyway, he slowly got used to it.
His job was finally done in July when all schools in Hong Kong closed for the summer holidays. The results of his matriculation examination would not be known until early August. So, he and his classmates decided to do some social work by joining a summer work camp organised by the Hong Kong Federation of Students. Hop C and his friends undertook a project to build a concrete path for the underprivileged residents of Mount Davis squatter area who were mainly refugees from the Mainland. All building materials were donated by construction companies and there were a few university students belonging to the engineering faculties who acted as supervisors. The volunteers including Hop C and his friends were required to carry all building materials using a wheel barrow up the hill slope along a muddy foot path which was to be rebuilt into a concrete passage. During the rainy season the rain water running downhill made it very hazardous for the residents to climb up or down the hill slope. There had been numerous accidents especially involving the young and the old residents. That was the major reason for their summer work camp project.
Once every few hours the volunteers were given a break. They would sit on the hill side to enjoy some biscuits or bread with some soft drinks. Meanwhile, there could enjoy the panoramic harbour view starting from Green Island to the west end of the harbour all the way across Stone Cutters' Island near the Kowloon Peninsula as well as Star Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui , Hung Hom Bay towards Kwun Tong. The panorama would be complete when their field of vision covered North Point back on Hong Kong Island to Causeway Bay and Central business district. The local residents were very much appreciative of their voluntary service and would bring out some fruits and rice cakes for them once in a while. Once again, Hop C and his friends could deeply feel the much revered Lion Rock Spirit of mutual assistance in time of need.
At the week end when there was a break from work all volunteers including those from other boys and girls schools would go out together to enjoy a movie followed by afternoon tea in Tsim Sha Tsui. Quite a few new friendship or even romance started during this summer work camp. However, it was not yet time for Hop C because he was a very career minded person and he preferred to finish his university study and to find a job first before seeking romance. As it was, he actually got excellent grades in his matriculation examination obtaining high credits for the three main subjects which was equivalent to nine credits because there were three papers in each advance level subject he had sat for during this most important University of Hong Kong entrance examination. His family was so proud of him because he also awarded an annual scholarship of three thousand dollars by the Sir Robert Black Trust Fund based on his high academic achievement. In those days, the average monthly salary for an office clerk was only around two hundred dollars. Even the tuition fee charged by the University of Hong Kong was only one thousand two hundred dollars per annum. That meant he would have one thousand eight hundred dollars left over for pocket money. Hop C loved his family so much that he used this surplus funds to subsidise his family rents so that they could move to a larger family dwelling on Prince Edward Road facing Kai Tak Airport. It was a brand new building, too with teak wood flooring which was very luxurious by the then prevailing living standards.
To be awarded this scholarship the applicant could not simply rely on good grades alone. There were hundreds of candidates with even better grades but were unsuccessful because they did not passed a three tier interview carried out by an award committee of four members each from senior staff members of the university, the government, professional firms and the Legislative Council. Many applicants did not pass the first and second interview. At the final interview only five candidates remained and at the end only two were chosen to be receive the award. It was a very generous grant, indeed. That was because the three thousand annual grant would be given every year as long as the holder continued to study in the university from bachelor degree right up to the doctorate degree subject to satisfactory report from the University Registrar. Despite this generous offer Hop C did not carry on his study after his bachelor's degree in accounting in 1971 because he wanted very eagerly to share his families financial burden.
Hop C was successfully admitted into the University of Hong Kong which is the highest and most reputable academic institution in Hong Kong. His bachelor's degree was related to accounting and economics. Originally, he planned to become a teacher like his mother. Being a university graduate teacher would be the top tier of educator in Hong Kong. He was very naïve at the time and all that he thought he could hope for was to gradually move up the teaching ladder to the top grade graduate teacher in ten years with a maximum monthly salary of one thousand eight hundred dollars. If he could achieve that he would be very proud, indeed. When Hop C was admitted to the University of Hong Kong it was already a feat in itself. For a start none of his parents' children had ever been admitted to this highest academic institution in Hong Kong. Secondly, again none of their relatives' children had ever achieve that honour either. The best university that one of his older cousin had gone to was the Chinese University of Hong Kong which though very reputable was nevertheless considered by most to be only second best behind the University of Hong Kong.
In those days there were only a total of six hundred available places in the freshman or first year in HKU. This included every faculty from medicine, engineering, science, arts and social sciences. The total number of students sitting for HKU matriculation examination was about twelve thousand. Of these only a third or four thousand had achieved basic entrance requirements. As as a result, there were four thousand applicants for six hundred places or about one in seven could get in. In 1968, there were over one thousand applicants for the one hundred and ten places in Hop C's Social Sciences Faculty. Therefore, the competition was very fierce in deed.
This is one of the proudest achievements in Hop C's life so far. Without the scholarship his family could not have afforded to send him to university. The tuition fee at HKU was actually only one thousand two hundred per annum at the time so that while other undergraduates queue up to pay their fees twice every year Hop C used to go to the refund window to collect nine hundred dollars twice a year as allowance under the envious eyes of the crowd. That gave Hop C the biggest satisfaction he ever had. The end result was a happy one for Hop C because while his examination was only third in the La Salle College matriculation class in 1968 in terms of academic results he got the most grant in money terms perhaps I did better in the three different interviews conducted by four panel members including some socially prominent committee members.
University education is different from primary and secondary education. Apart from academic training the undergraduates have to take part in compulsory sport activities on a weekly basis to ensure a health body. Then they must also take part in extracurricular activities such as various faculty societies and the student union to cultivate their initiative, organising ability and more importantly leadership. Hop C became the chairman of the current affairs committee of the students union. This would later lead him into participation in the pioneering students movement in Hong Kong. He actively took part in the Anti-Japanese protest in connection with Japan's claim on the sovereignty of Diaoyutai Islands in 1971. Furthermore, his committee together with other tertiary student organisations like the Hong Kong Federation of Students enlisting the help of some liberal Legislative Council members successfully pressured the colonial British government into recognising Chinese as an official language in Hong Kong in 1969. These were all the things that Hop C was very proud to have been a part of. Being socially conscious and fighting for social justice was one of the best things Hop C had learned during his tertiary educating which he is still clinging to till this day.
Chapter Fourteen – Being a civil servant and a professional
In Hop C's final year in HKU big corporations like Hong Kong Bank, Standard Chartered Bank as well as the Hong Kong Government undertook staff recruitment drive within HKU by conducting career talks to entice prospective graduates to join their organisation. Universities were operated on the traditional elite system training only the top talents and ignoring the rest. That had always been the established British colonial thinking. The colonial government was simply recruiting or monopolising the cream of the crop – the new elite university graduates – to work for them in running the colony. This was the infamous policy of “ using Chinese to manage the Chinese “. Every prospective graduates in HKU was eager to attend those career talks to learn more about their career prospects. Big British corporations even conducted pre-recruitment interviews to target their potential candidates.
As it happened, Hop C was interviewed by the personnel manager of Standrad Chartered Bank for the post of bank officer trainee. They were trying to employ five candidates that year which according to them would be groomed with the prospect of becoming their chief financial officer. There were over one hundred interviewees. Again a three tier interview system was adopted. After three interviews over three weeks Hop C was chosen by Standard Chartered Bank to be one of their five new bank officer trainees for 1971. They sent him a formal letter of appointment subject to satisfactory results in his bachelor degree final examination.
Concurrently, Hop C also sat for the government's entrance examination for both Tax Assessor in the Inland Revenue Department as well as Executive Officer in the Public Works Department. It was an open examination for all applicants who met the basic requirements one of which was being a university graduate. There were over one thousand applicants competing for some fifty openings. A written examination was also followed by two interviews to allow the recruitment board to assess the suitability of the candidates.Very luckily, Hop C was also accepted as for appointment as an Executive Officer again subject to his obtaining satisfactory examination results. As regards, the Assessor of Inland Revenue Department the result of his application would not be known until his accounting examination results were known because the Inland Revenue were looking for the top accounting students to fill the Tax Assessor positions which required high quality skills in applying accounting knowledge.
Hop C had at least two choices for his future career. He could either work as a bank officer trainee at the Standard Chartered Bank or he could work for the government as an Executive Officer while waiting for the result of his application to become a Tax Assessor which was more in line with his studies at HKU. Hop C's first choice was, of course, to become an accounting professional as Tax Assessor. So, after his graduation in 1971 Hop C first became an executive officer in the Hong Kong Government's Public Works Department with a starting monthly salary of one thousand eight hundred dollars which was the top salary he was hoping for after working for ten years. Well, he felt like winning the lottery because he had successfully achieved his ten years target in one shot.
Better still, he was later also accepted as a Tax Assessor in the Inland Revenue Department after just three months of working as an Executive officer in the Public Works Department where he was put in charge of two hundred forty five clerical staff in government hospitals, car depots, incinerators and abattoirs as well as all aviation radar stations. This time his starting monthly salary was even higher at two thousand two hundred dollars. He was also lucky in that he was posted to the Corporation Profits Tax unit which dealt with tax assessment of all big companies in Hong Kong. Here Hop C learned a lot from his immediate superior who was a Chief Assessor and he later became the Commissioner of Inland Revenue. Hop C was very grateful to his superior for his guidance. Under the mentorship of his Chief Assessor boss Hop C slowly learned everything about the operation of banks, real estate developers, construction, shipping as well as insurance companies. He was also taught the specialised skills in tax investigation and tax evasion cases. Such expertise later proved to be most valuable to him when he set up his own tax consultancy service. Let us not jump the gun because Hop C would first work for the famous international public accountants firm of Price Waterhouse & Company before he went on to set up his own practice in 1982. Hop C was vey lucky in the sense that newly appointed Tax Assessors were usually posted to the Salaries Tax Section because the cases were relatively more simple and straight forward as all the cases relate to individuals and very few legal issues would arise. On the other hand, Corporation Profits Tax unit dealt with big locals and international corporations which involved very complicated and new legal issues that would sometimes be put up to the Supreme Court for hearing and judgment. Therefore, very highly trained legal skills especially in writing lengthly legal arguments and opinions were required. Hop C was accepted to the Corporation Profits Tax unit because he possessed very good English language skills and standards both orally and literally.
The office of the Inland Revenue was situation in the west wing of the Central Government Offices on Ice House Street in Central District. Hop C used to return to his office much earlier than nine o'clock in the morning to read past leading tax cases in the old files to learn more about the complicated legal arguments and procedures in the prosecution of disputable tax claims by big corporations. How tax cases were lost or won. He would also write out his own queries and arguments relating those cases for presentation to his boss for guidance and counter argument. His boss would sometimes make use of the lunch break to discuss these cases with him. As a result Hop C's progress in his work was very fast and encouraging thus getting very good progress reports from his boss. To motivate the performance of all assessing officers there was a weekly report compiled to set out the number of cases completed and the amount of tax collected. Hop C's would constantly end up on the top three postions. This sometimes led to friction with other colleagues as the tradition within the civil service was to stay mediocre and not to rock the boat like what Hop C was doing. For this reason Hop C decided to leave the civil service and to start working for the private section international accounting firm of Price Waterhouse & Company in 1974 as a tax manager.
That was a smart move because he now began to learn his tax consultancy trade from the other side of the fence so to speak. That was to say how the private sector and commercial field do their business. This in depth knowledge would later lead Hop C to be a very shrew tax planner as well as an expert tax attorney. Since Price Waterhouse & Company was the largest accounting firm in town it had all the major corporations as his clientele. Furthermore, Hop C was put in charge of all the big local Chinese companies as regards tax matters. He was working under the supervision of the principal tax consultant who was of British decent and, hence, tend to be very arrogant especially towards his Chinese subordinates. When his opinion differed from those of Hop C in a particular tax case he boss would hold the files for a long time before he would approve all outgoing correspondence which had to be signed by him. In all the big cases involving huge amount of tax payments his boss would even put up Hop C's letters to the weekly partners meeting for discussion before approving them. This would inevitably delay Hop C's work progress by slowing his output. On the other hand, clients would chase after Hop C when they got reminders from the Inland Revenue Department regarding their tax queries.
Hop C remembered a particular important case very well. It concerned a property developer very well known in Hong Kong called Cosmopolitan Properties Limited owned by the renowned Hotung Family which was among the top five wealthiest family in Hong Kong. They were about to become a publicly listed company in the local stock exchanges. The company held a lot of property both for rental or long term investment as well as for short term sale purposes the profits from which would be subject to Profits Tax assessed by the unit of the Inland Revenue Department where Hop C was working in.
Before a company could be listed for public investment and funding in the stock exchange it had to publish an investment prospectus certifying the value of assets they owned and the specific purpose of their listing to obtain investment funding from members of the public. In order to maximise the value of assets and in turn to make the value per share higher the principal tax consultant advised the client Mr. Eric Hotung ( the grand son of the late founder of the family Sir Robert Hotung ), the chairman of Cosmopolitan Properties Limited to change all long term investment property into trading stocks which could be revalued higher to their market value above their original historical cost. While that was allowed under generally accepted accounting principles it had serious tax implications which was overlooked by Hop C's boss. Hop C argued based on recently past tax cases decided in the Privy Council in Britain the highest court in the British Commonwealth that such revaluation would be subject to Profits Tax although the long term property had not yet been sold but just remained as short term trading stock. This might sound illogical and ran counter to commonsense but, in fact, there was a very sound rationale in taxing the revalued amount as trading profit.
As Hong Kong did not and still do not have capital gains tax any gain on the sale long term property previously held for rental income would be considered a capital gain not subject to any tax. On the other hand, property developed to be sold once they are completed will be subject to Profits Tax on the excess of the sales price over their building cost. So far so good, the above situation is easy to understand. But in the case of transferring long term investment property into trading stock as suggested in Cosmopolitan Properties Limited's listing prospectus by the principal tax consultant of Price Waterhouse & Company Inland Revenue Department would lose out because the increased amount of the revaluation from historical cost to the market value would escape taxation. This is because when these particular long term properties which had been transferred to trading stock were sold later the company would only be ''taxed on the excess'' between their ''future selling price'' and the ''revalued cost. ''That is why the Inland Revenue Department must assess tax on the revalued amount immediately even though the newly converted stock of properties originating from long term investment had not yet been sold. Otherwise, that part of the increase in value from the historical cost to the revaluation up to market value at the time of going public would escape tax altogether in the future sale.
Anyway, Hop C and the principal tax consultant was a logger heads against each other. There was a dead line to meet as the prospectus and share valuation had to be finalised before the share offer document namely the required audited prospectus could be printed in time for the stock market listing. So, the case was put to an emergency partners' meeting where Hop C was pitted against his boss. By this time, Hop C had even managed to dig up three more similar tax cases to support his argument. Furthermore, Hop C put it to the partners that had the revaluation gone ahead and no tax was provided for the revaluation surplus the audited accounts of Cosmopolitan Properties Limited would not represent a true and fair view of the state of the company's affairs as required by law. Also, the client, namely Mr. Eric Hotung could sue the auditors, Price Waterhouse & Company for the amount of tax relating to the revaluation on the ground of erroneous tax advice. The partners were not taxation experts and they were not willing to support a junior staff against the opinion of the senior one. Finally, it was decided to refer the case to their London head office which ultimately agreed with Hop C's opinion. The head office's decision came back in two days just in time to complete the required prospectus. The principal tax consultant was much embarrassed by this incident. Apparently, he was not quite up to date with his tax cases and high court rulings as he was about to retire in three months. Hop C was later promoted to senior tax manger for saving the accounting firm from a potential law suit. Due to that incident his client, Mr. Eric Hotung had come to admire Hop C's legal mind and even proposed to grant him a law degree scholarship from his Hotung Family Trust which Hop C politely refused. Nevertheless, he refer a lot of friends to Hop C when he started his own practice in 1982.
Chapter Fifteen – Being juror in the Body in Box murder case
Hop C's career was on track and he was respected more and more by his colleagues as well as the managing partner of Price Waterhouse & Company. He was generally recognised as a top tax expert. That was something to be treasured to this day.Whenever there were any changes to the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Ordinance Hop C would be asked to give a lecture to all professional accountants on the practical implications of the new tax laws. That made him well known in the whole office comprising of two hundred fifty staff members. At the time Price Waterhouse & Company occupied three complete floors in Price's Building on Chater Road and Ice House Street. This made him known even to other top professional firms.
Under the Hong Kong legal system all adult citizens who possessed a satisfactory standard in English had to serve as jurors in jury trials in the Supreme Court dealing with serious criminal cases like murders. In November 1975 he was called up to serve in one of the most infamous murder cases in Hong Kong legal history. Even after almost half a century the case was still known to many senior citizens and recent talk shows dealing with Hong Kong social history still brings up this case for discussion because it was the very first case in Hong Kong's criminal history that a murderer was brought to justice by forensic evidence in the absence of any witness to the crime.
Coming back to the horrific facts of the case. It was dubbed the Body in a Box case because the murder victim was put in a large cardboard box previously used to pack a big television set and left in the back lane in Happy Valley behind an ice cream shop at the tram terminus there on Wong Nei Chung Road. The tragic fact was the victim was an innocent sixteen school girl of just sixteen years of age. The murder was committed in September 1974. The murderer was apprehended four months later. He was a lone salesman on night duty in the ice cream shop at the Happy Valley tram terminus.
The relevant facts were as follows. On the evening of September Sixteenth 1974 the victim was supposed to a classmate of hers there at six thirty to go to evening classes together. The police learned of this from the victim's family. Furthermore, she called home at around seven o'clock to enquire if her classmate who was also a girl had called her home. As it happened, her classmate arrived there at seven fifteen but could not find the victim there. The next morning a female street sweeper discovered the victim's naked body all curled up inside a big cardboard box with a famous TV brand name on it in a back lane behind the ice cream shop. The exact location of the box was at the rear entrance of a veterinary surgeon's clinic adjacent to the ice cream shop. The port mortem conducted on the dead body confirmed that the victim was strangled to death the previous day between eleven and one o'clock. The time of death was determined by the rectal temperature which normally drops by one degree Fahrenheit for every hour after death until the dead body's temperature becomes the same as its environment. All these forensic knowledge was presented to the jury during the trial and all the horrific post mortem photographs of the dead body were shown to Hop C and other members of the jury.
The police criminal investigation unit set up a special task force to deal with the case as it had attracted a lot of adverse opinion and comments from the public regarding the bad state of law and order in Hong Kong at the time. The police originally suspected somebody in the veterinary clinic was the culprit because there were also cuts made by a sharp instrument on certain parts of the victim's body which might imply torture. A warrant was issued for a thorough search of the clinic but after questioning all the staff and owner there the police found that everyone had a very credible alibi for the evening of the murder. As there was little progress in the investigation the police extended their search to the ice cream shop.
They became suspicious because there was a machine repair work shop at the back and a telephone inside the office behind a locked office where there was a safe to keep the cash from sale of ice cream locked up until the bank opened for business the next morning. In those days there were no mobile phones and even land line phones were not easily available. Also, there was no telephone booth within easy walking distance from the spot where the victim was supposed to meet her classmate. The police developed a theory that the victim was lured to the back office to make her telephone call home at seven o'clock that fateful evening. She was subsequently restrained inside the work shop till the lone salesman closed his shop at around ten o'clock that evening. Between eleven and one o'clock he strangled the victim after she refused the murderer's improper advances towards her. However, it had to be mentioned that thee was not evidence of actual sexual assault but some of the victim's pubic hairs was burnt. There were also some cuts to her upper body apparently made by a sharp instrument consistent with a screw driver which was available in the work shop.
The initial search of the ice cream shop did not provide any definite physical evidence. However, the lone male salesman on duty that evening confirmed that he saw no other person entering his shop before he went home at eleven. Furthermore, he was the only person who possessed the key to the premises which had not signs of any break in. This was most crucial because his own confirmation on the above two points together with some very convincing forensic evidence collected fro the work shop and the accused home would lead to his conviction by the jury of which Hop C was a member.
In December of 1974, the police took further actions and executed a search warrant at the accused home taking away some of his clothes including a woollen sweater and the uniforms and a cotton shirt he said he wore on the day of the murder. After forensic examination of the clothing some fibres from the woollen sweater and the cotton shirt were found to match similar fibres from the victim's body. More importantly, some small pieces wall paint trapped in the accused trousers folded edges also matched the wall paint samples taken from the walls of the work shop inside the ice cream shop. With such further discoveries the accused was place under arrest for the murder of the young female student.
When the case came up for trial in November 1975 there were a lot of opposing public opinions on the strength and reliability of the forensic evidence presented during the trial. It was the first time ever in a Hong Kong murder trial that there was no human witness to testify against the accused. More controversial still was the use of forensic evidence to convict a murderer. In those days forensic medicine was only in it early stages of implementation and the public was still a bit sceptical about its reliability.
The trial dragged on for a whole month. The prosecution also made a very special request to the judge to take the whole jury and the judge himself to inspect the scene of the crime. To convince the jury that the police had a sound theory and to show them what the police thought happened during the murder a female detective with similar body build to the victim stood in as the victim in the box to act out the complete scenario. Another male detective with similar build to the accused showed the judge and jury how the body in the box was removed from the work shop to the back street lane. As a matter of fact, the similar size box with the female detective curled inside it was just able to pass the door in the rolled up iron gate of the ice cream shop.
On the last day of the trial the jury including Hop C retired into the jury room to discuss the facts of the case. Hop C set out his arguments as follows. He explained to the other members of the jury that his main reasons for finding the accused guilty were four. Firstly, the wall paint discovered on the victims body matched the wall paint in the work shop. Not just in colour but also in colour and shade concentration. In those days there was no computerised mixing of paints. Therefore, each time one use a different bucket of paint the mixing process would have been a bit different from previous bucket. That meant the same white colour which was the colour of the wall paint inside the work shop had to be slightly different in shade and concentration. The paint found on the body matched different mix from two adjacent walls. That proved that the body had been inside the work shop.
Secondly, the clothing fibres on the body matched those seized from the accused home. The clothing fibres were only of secondary importance but the paint found in the accused's trousers in the folded parts also matched the paint from the work shop. Thirdly and of utmost importance was the accused own admission that he had not seen any other persons entering the ice cream shop that evening. Also, he was the only person who possessed the shop key. Again, there was no signs of break in at the ice cream shop.
Putting all the above points together it meant that the body was inside the work shop. The accused was alone at the shop that evening. There was contact evidence between the accused and the victims body. Even if there were no contact evidence the above two established facts were enough to convict the accused. So, at the end it was not just the forensic evidence on the accused but the contact evidence between the dead body and the work shop plus the accused own admission which is human evidence that had caught the murder. The public opinion saying that it was not a fair trial which was based on forensic evidence alone was not justified.
After the first trial Hop C and other jurors were under great psychological pressure due to the adverse public comments in the press. Luckily, the accused's lawyer appealed against the conviction and there was a second trial by a different jury six months later. The same guilty verdict was delivered. Ultimately the case went all the way to the Privy Council in London and still the original verdict was upheld. This put Hop C's mind at rest once and for all.
There was a subsequent twist to this infamous murder case because the accused was finally released in 2010 after he had served thirty five years of his life imprisonment and was released due to good behaviour while in prison. Hop C learned something important from a talk show on Hong Kong criminal history recently. A fellow inmate was the special guest in that talk show. He was incarcerated in the next cell to the murderer of the Body in Box case. The guest speaker was also on death row on account of shooting dead a policeman during his robbery of a gold smith shop. He also had an early release on good behaviour. He said that the death row prisoners often chatted with one another. On one occasion a few inmates on death row were talking among themselves. As a passing comment the guest speaker asked the Body in Box murderer who still protested his innocence why the real culprit was so stupid as to leave the body so close to the place of murder. The guest speaker said the murderer instantly replied without any hesitation that :- “ Don't you know that the dead body was very heavy ? “ The guest speak said that the instant response strongly implied that the murderer, in fact, killed the victim. This reply was a conditioned reflex resulting from his true state of mind. The other inmates present at the discussion all agreed with the guest speaker.
Despite the unfair colonial system in Hong Kong the British nevertheless left behind a good legacy in the for of a properly function legal system. The rule of law is the most important pillar of a civilised society to protect the basic human rights of the citizens.
Chapter Sixteen – Among the rich and famous
After a whole month of serving justice Hop C returned to his normal office routine. Apart from the usual accounting and auditing jobs which brought him to his clients offices very often his tax cases brought him even closed to his clients especially the owners of big local Chinese corporations. As the huge companies made their profits their management team also had to save on their tax payment if at all possible. To achieve these two purposes their professional advisors like Hop C would assist his clients in claiming tax deductions in best possible way according to the law. Furthermore, when there were new business ventures the top management of those companies had to consult Hop C's accounting firm to plan well and properly to minimised their exposure to tax. Such need for professional advice led to personal and confidential meeting between Hop C and the rich and famous in Hong Kong with particular reference to the local Chinese billionaires.
For the common citizens who did not cross path with these privileged class they could be under the mistaken impression that these rich and powerful personalities were all supermen. In those days, there were extremely few female billionaires. In fact, most of them were pretty normal apart from their luxurious life styles. They were all very nice to their advisors and respect them a lot because the advisors saved them huge amount of money in reducing their tax bills. In those days when Hong Kong had still got the Estate Duty in effect all their personal matters were fully disclosed to their tax advisors like Hop C. Among Hop C's biggest clients included a world number one shipping magnate who was the father of a past Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, The Hotung Family with their huge property empire, a top jewellery trader, the three top Hong Kong Chinese banks in Hong Kong and the biggest oil drilling company in South East Asia who operated from Hong Kong.
In 1972 when the biggest Hong Kong container shipping company went public and had its shares listed in the Hong Kong stock exchange Hop C was in charge of its tax planning as well as the shipping magnate's personal Estate Duty tax planning. This being the case Hop C had the happy experience of being invited to a three hundred thousand tons super tanker's launching ceremony in Korea. It was a very big affair with the Korean's First Lady as the guest of honour who smashed the champagne bottle on the huge ship's bow to launch the tanker into the water. The Korean president accompanied by many high ranking officials from Britain and financing countries like Japan and USA were also there. Afterwards there was a huge state dinner attended by over a thousand guests including Hop C. The best part for Hop C was that had enjoyed three days of paid holiday with his boss and managing partner from Price Waterhouse & Company. That was quite a memorable experience.
Nor was it the only time Hop C was given an overseas assignment. In order to carry out the audit job on the off shore oil drilling company Hop C had to fly in the client's private helicopter from one of the Kota Kinabalu in Sabah Province of Malaysia to the off shore oil rigs and drilling platforms to take physical stocks of the heavy industrial equipment. That was the first time he had ever landed on an off shore oil drilling platform. Surprisingly the workers quarters on board was quite comfortable with most of the home comforts like air conditioners and other home appliances. The engineers were very patient in explaining the details of the actual operations to Hop C and satisfactorily answering all his audit queries. That particular trip took him fore days in June, 1974.
For the other local clients Hop C used to have working lunch with the big shots at their office. Once in a while, Hop C would be invited to lunch in the top luxury hotels such as the Harbour Room in Mandarin Hotel and the Golden Lotus room in Hilton and the Gaddi's Restaurant in the Peninsula Hotel which is the oldest luxury hotel in Hong Kong and the location of hundreds of movies including the famous James Bond movie - “ The Man with the Golden Gun “ in 1974. People generally think that the above would be the best and most extravagant dining spots for business meetings. In fact, this is not the case. The top dining spots with the best food were located in the office penthouse suites of Hop C rich and famous clients. He can still recall the many occasions that he had working lunch with one of his property magnate in his office penthouse in Central district with one hundred eighty degrees harbour view. The whole of the walls in the dining room was lined by antique collections ot jade, Ming Dynasty vase and other china tea set items together with authentic Chinese calligraphy and water painting master pieces worth over fifty million dollars. The meu was prepared at our request with top ingredients like shark's fin soup, abalone and steamed lobsters and so on. But very often his big shot client would ask his personal chef to come in to introduce his best recommendations to us depending on the season and time of the year. Hop C clearly remembered that on one occasion his client ordered the simple red bean sweet soup for dessert. The chef explained to Hop C that some very aged mandarin peels of over thirty years was used to prepare the dessert. It was not the red beans and rock sugar that were the main attraction. The star ingredient was the aged mandarin peel which cost over three thousand dollars just for the few pieces used on that occasion. It was really a classy way to enjoy your lunch. During lunch Hop C and their clients would chat about casual everyday matters as they had already become close friends. Hop C used to learn a lot of funny habits among the rich and famous. Once Hop C was told that when some billionaires went to the horse races they did not actually bet on horses like the masses who studied the past racing records to do their home work before hand. Perhaps they were just too busy. His top jeweller billionaire client who had the same surname as Hop C told him that he and his friends just bad on whether the odd or even number horse would win. He said they simply took the chance to chat or even discuss business during the horse races. This would surprise most people.
Also Hop C had learn a lot during his professional years at Price Waterhouse & Company before he set up his own practice in 1982. His dealings with all the big clients and various businesses enable Hop C to learn the trade secrets of different line of commerce. Such valuable experience coupled with his detailed knowledge of how government worked made him a very capable consultants not to mention the important connections he had created during those years. Two third of his classmates were working in top posts in the Inland Revenue Department and his former boss was the Commissioner and later his own classmates would hold the top Commissioner of Inland Revenue post. That put him in a very unique postion to set up his own practice.
Before his jeweller billionaire client got his company listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange his company was not even a limited corporation. Because of this the Inland Revenue started a back duty investigation or tax audit on his private company which was the top jeweller in Hong Kong. All his staff including the boss were scared stiff because the Inland Revenue executed a search warrant and sent six government trucks to his head office to seize all his accounting records. It was like a devastating military operation that hit the newspaper head lines. The boss immediately called Hop C for help. Hop C told him to relax and contacted the head of the tax investigation section who was headed by one of his classmate. He arranged an official meeting between his billionaire client and the head of the investigation section during which Hop C was the authorised tax representative of the jeweller company as required by law. Otherwise, the Inland Revenue could not allow Hop C to be present at the interview which was completely confidential.
Hop C accompanied his client to the interview the very next day. When they stepped into the conference room they were most surprised to see that both the head of investigation as well a the Commissioner of Inland Revenue who was Hop C's mentor and former boss were there to greet them. His client was a bit shaky because he thought that his case had to be extremely serious as it warranted the presence the Commissioner. He whispered to Hop C saying :- “ I am dead. “ Hop C comforted him immediately and told him it would be fine. The first person to speak was the Commissioner who explained that he was just there to start off the meeting and more importantly to meet Hop C whom he had not seen for over a year since he left the department. Furthermore, the Commissioner immediately shook Hop C's hand to ask him how he was. The Commissioner had learned from Hop C's classmates that a few months earlier Hop C had worked so hard that he had stomach ulcer and was hospitalised for a week. Upon seeing this friendly gesture from the Commissioner his billionaire client immediately gave out a sigh of relief. After five minutes the Commissioner left them to their official business meeting.
Hop C simply proceeded with the normal tactic of offering a professional undertaking to the Inland Revenue Department and requested them to release all seized accounting records to Price Waterhouse & Company for auditing and to revise the previous tax returns submitted to take into account all discrepancies. An extension of time for three months was also granted on the spot so everything started well. It was a satisfactory arrangement to both the Inland Revenue as well as his client because the government did not have to waste manpower to check the records and his client could be certain that he would have a fair deal and top professional advice from Hop C. Finally, the case was settled within three months upon the payment of interest and fifty percent penalty without taking the case to court which could end up in a criminal conviction of tax evasion that was not an option for his billionaire client. The law in fact provided a maximum penalty of three hundred percent on the discrepancy of the original tax reported. His client ended up with such trouble because his jewellery shop was not an incorporated entity and so without conducting an annual audit making a challenge from the Inland Revenue a very real possibility. After this unfortunate incident his clients took his advice and incorporated his business and later got it listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange also. Most importantly Hop C became his billionaire's trusted friend and confidant. When Hop C set up his own practice in 1982 his client gave him all his business and also introduced many of his own business associates to Hop C as new clients. Consequently, Hop C had no need to actively solicit clients to his own practice as so many of his former Chinese clients in Price Waterhouse & Company introduced lots and lots of their business to Hop C. Many of their clients' personal and family accounting and tax affairs were entrusted in Hop C's care. That gave Hop C a very smooth sailing when he first started his own practice in 1982. His relationship with his client was so good that when the jeweller's first born son got married Hop C was invited to the much publicised wedding dinner and seated next to the head table.
While Hop C definitely did his client a great professional service he also learned a lot from his clients in return. This included learning the great traditional Chinese business ethics of honesty and keeping one's word even though a particular promised had not been reduced to writing. That is the much revered gentlemen's agreement. He also learned from his client the sound philosophy in life of being humble. On top of all these Hop C's professional dealings with his client's company also helped to improve his professional skills. Once Hop C was taking his client's huge and valuable stock of jewellery including a eighty odd carat rare and pink diamond worth over five million dollars at the time. He client voluntarily taught him to check on the related insurance documents to confirm its true value as well as its authenticity. He also taught him some trade secrets and business techniques which were actually beyond the scope of his audit assignment. The secret technique was this. When they sold diamonds to other whole salers the goods would be delivered not with a sales invoice but just a bailment note which was only a trust document to be signed by the buyers on the spot. Not until they paid up the whole amount would the seller issue the buyers with both a receipt and the relevant sales invoice. The catch was this. If the buyer default in payment later issuing a sales invoice at the time of sale would rendered the debt owed a common commercial debt. The only recourse available to the seller would be to sue the buyer for a civil debt owed. If the buyers went bankrupt the seller would have to follow in a long queue of creditors to get back their proportional share of debt and very often none at all in most bankruptcy cases. On the other hand, if a bailment note or trust document was issued instead of a sales invoice at the time of passing the diamonds to the buyer the default would involve a criminal offense of theft since the title of goods had not been passed to the buyer before the total payment. The diamonds were only lent to the buyers in their care for inspection in the eyes of the law. As a result the seller could request the police to arrest the buyers for theft. More over, the seller could even recover the value of the diamonds from the buyers personally and the limited liability of the buyers' company could not protect the buyers' company directors who signed the trust document from payment or else they could be put into jail upon conviction of theft. So, most things that occurred in our social dealings with other people are bilateral that goes both ways. They earn or learn something from you and you from them. It goes both ways. That is why we must be fair to one another and the world will definitely be a better place for everyone.
Chapter Seventeen – The great sorrow of our nation
June Fourth 1989 was one of the darkest days in the history of the Chinese nation. In the wee ours of that morning close to eight thousand heavily armed Liberation Army troops preceded by a column of tanks rolled into Beijing Tiananmen Square and crushed and killed hundreds of unarmed students protesting against the Chinese Communist Party members extensive corrupting and outrageous abuses of their power. The protest had been going on for three weeks prior to the one of the saddest days in modern Chinese history. Hop C and other Hong Kong citizens saw with their own eyes on live television broadcast the shooting and chaos inside the square. There were many Hong Kong reporters present to witness the massacre. The next day the whole world condemned the unprecedented brutality of the Communist Chinese government and a United Nations condemnation was also issued. Many other countries immediately extended political asylum to those Chinese students who were studying in these foreign countries. They were all afraid to return to China for fear of persecution and imprisonment as most of these students studying abroad were very outspoken in support of the student protest in China.
The huge student protest started some three weeks before after the untimely death of the then Communist Party General Secretary Hu Yao Bang who was a very good leader and much loved by the masses as he had been pushing forward with much needed reforms to the government to stamp out corruption among the government officials and Communist party cadres. Furthermore, Hu and another reformer hero Zhou Zhi Yang were proposing to liberalise the political system to allow the masses to participate in the governing process and to allow more freedom both economically and politically. However, there was a lot of opposition from the established interests within the party who actually organised these rampant corruptive practices that severely affect people's livelihood. Under the Chinese constitution the government was to be a Socialist state under the sole leadership of the Chinese Communist Party which means one party dictatorship. This is disguised under the Communist jargon of “ Monopoly rule of the Communist proletariat “ meaning the total rule of that class of society who do no own any personal assets. The most fearsome provision in the constitution is that the military must swear allegiance and loyalty to the party and not the people. While the normal government structure of an open and free country consists of three independent branches of the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government to counter balance one another's powers China had three government branches of the party with its own central committee to appoint the key government posts, the executive branch run by party members and their associates and the military under the direct and sole command of the party. In short the party controls everything including resources and the people's freedom both in thoughts and in action. The party's power is absolute and uncontrollable except by the party committee. This is reinforced by the military arm which had the largest army in the world. In short it is a fearsome political machine that can bully the individual citizen at will without any recourse by the private citizen or even to protect oneself. The only option is to comply with the harsh treatment or else one could lose more than one's life as those who one love may also be adversely affected.
Two weeks into the students demonstration some students leaders resorted to holding hunger strikes to persuade the government high officials to start a dialogue with them. Unfortunately, that was unsuccessful. On May Fifteenth the General Secretary of the now defunct United Soviet Socialist Republics' Communist Party Machale Gorbachev paid an official visit to China. The students protesters were ordered to leave Tiananmen Square to make way for the official welcoming ceremony. They refused and there were already rumours to the effect that the Liberation Army might be called in to clear the square. However, the Chinese government avoided any confrontation by moving the ceremony indoors to the great Halls of the People but still the atmosphere was very tense on both sides. Public opinion was generally on the side of the students who simply asked for a dialogue with the government to address their grievances without resorting to force. On the other hand, the public was also afraid that having embarrassed the top Communist leaders in the face of an important visitor such as the General Secretary of the USSR the Chinese leaders would lose so much face that they could take a very hard line against the students. The demonstration continued even after the departure of Machale Gorbachev. The Chinese Communist Party hard liners were in the majority. They felt that giving in to the students demands would show that they were weak and that could trigger more demands and concessions from the students as well as the public in general.
Finally, on May Seventeenth two second tier Communist leaders one of whom was the prime minister Li Pang met with a few student leaders inside the Great Halls of the People to start a dialogue under the watchful eyes of the whole Chinese population when the event was broadcast live on national television. There was a much heated debate in which the students seemed to be on the upper hand in their debate with Li Pang. That caused further loss of face for the Chines Communists Party. The government insisted that the students had to leave the Square first before they would engage the students in talks on reform. On the contrary the students demand to start the dialogues on reform first before they would clear the Square. As a result the meeting did not achieve any progress in defusing the tension. All the while, many newspapers and even government units such as factory workers unions and big government corporations also sent there representatives to join the student protest in Tiananmen Square. This turn of events angered the ruling Communist political bureau and sent them into panic mode as they feared that the student protest could lead to a general revolt against Communist rule nation wide. On May Twenty Third the government declared that martial law would take effect immediately until further notice and a total curfew in Beijing City was announced. The Central Government also mobilised twenty thousand troops of the Liberation Army and tanks to surround the outskirts of the city. It was just like a preparation for all out war and crackdown on the protesting students. Although the atmosphere was vey tense yet the general public and as a matter of fact no one including foreign countries which all monitored the development of the explosive situation closely would believe that the Chinese Communist Party could use tanks and guns against unarmed and peaceful student demonstrators. After all, no one in their right mind could do such a heartless act. By all means disperse them with tear gas or even arrest them and throw them in jail. No one ever considered that a massacre would unfold in Tiananmen Square.
After martial law was declared in Beijing, people knew that crackdown was imminent. International reactions of condemnation were both swift and severe. In Hong Kong most citizens were outraged because the students request for reform and dialogue was very reasonable and was for the good of the country as a whole. Corruption which sprang up during the past ten years of Deng Xiao Ping's economic reforms. Total wealth of the country had dramatically increased but his “ let some people get rich first “ policy had let to a very unfair distribution of wealth and social injustice mushroomed quickly. The situation easy got out of hand under a backward legal system which was hardly functioning. With an autocratic political system people did not have any channel to air their grievances. Now that the students had started to protest the majority of other citizens would gladly support them. In Hong Kong over a million people came out in a protest march to show solidarity with the protesting students in Beijing. Hop C and his whole family was among the protesters. This huge protest was the biggest in Hong Kong's history and was not likely to be surpassed in future. The second biggest protest since then was the July First 2003 protest against the proposed enactment of Section 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Laws in relation to the anti-subversion laws where half a million citizen took part including Hop C and his wife. Hop C could still recall that greatest historical protest in Hong Kong which was done under heavy rain. Hong Kong protesters were holding up banners and placards with slogans in support of the students' request for political reform. They were singing and shouting out slogans along the way. As usual the huge protest started from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay passing in front of the entrance of the New China News Agency the de facto Chinese embassy in Happy Valley where the crowds shouted protest slogans and then moved on to Central district Chater Garden in front of the Hong Kong Bank Building and Supreme Court. The crowd was so large that that the people were packed closely out to the Star Ferry Pier and the waterfront.
Despite the condemnation of the whole world and the millin of Hong Kong citizens the massacre broke out in the wee hours of June Fourth. Everyone could watched it live on television broadcast. An estimated four to five thousand people were massacre either shot by gun fire or worse crushed by tanks in the Tiananmen Square and the major roads leading to the Square. While people thought that the most casualties and fatalities happened inside the Square it was along the main road leading into the Square called Chiang An Street where workers and older citizens tried to prevent the tanks and truck loads for fully armed army from entering the Square to kill the students that the most bloody battles were fought. Over a thousand deaths were witnessed at the eastern and western ends of Chiang An Street. Most of them were workers. As they watched the massacre and chaos on television Hop C and his family like most Hong Kong citizens could not hold back their tears because they would be under the rule of the same brutal and heartless regime on July First 1997. It was just like a preview of things to come for them. That was a real possibility.
The six months following the June Fourth massacre in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese Communist government started to track down and arrest the student and worker leaders as well as their friends who helped them. Many fugitives were assisted by a Hong Kong organisation set up to support the protesters to escape to either Taiwan, United States of America or Canada through Hong Kong. On every anniversary of the June Fourth Tiananmen Massacre a candle light vigil was observed in Victoria Park which had become a very important social and political event in the Hong Kong calendar. Even some visitors from China would attend the event because it was absolutely forbidden to talk about this heinous crime in the Mainland. Without admitting such a serious mistake in the past and to make amends and reforms how could we prevent it from happening again in future ?
After this tragic incidents all Hong Kong citizens were afraid for themselves as the return of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China would take place in eight years. The Hong Kong legislative members paid an official visit to Britain to lobby for residency rights ti the United Kingdom for all Hong Kong citizens. They fought very hard for the rights of all Hong Kong citizens but at the end a quota of only forty thousand families were given the right of abode in Britain. Very fortunately, Hop C and his family were among the lucky ones because he was a professional accountant. As he did not have any friends or relatives in Britain Hop C also successfully applied for immigration status in Canda as well as Australia. Most reluctantly, he migrated to Australia in January of 1997 with his whole family ahead of the reversion of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China on July First 1997.
However, Hop C was back in Hong Kong on June Thirty 1997 to witness the historical occasion of the British handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China. In the evening there was a huge fire works display in the harbour in heavy rain. On the dot at midnight of July First the main handover ceremony took place in the then newly completed Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre at the waterfront in Wanchai where his old home was situated. The fire works display reminded him of the 1953 Queen Elizabeth the Second coronation celebrations because both concerned sovereignty. Prince Charles from Britain was in charge of the handover as the Queen's representative and Chairman Zhang Zi Min was the representative of China. The architect of the One Country Two Systems Deng Xiao Ping had passed away earlier in January 1997 and did not witness the handover.
Another ceremony was held a bit earlier at nine o'clock at the Governor's House where the British flag was lowered signally the country's departure from Hong Kong in the presence of some local dignitaries and a contingent of Royal British Marines. It was broadcast on television and the last governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten shed a few tears upon receiving the British flag from the British soldier while his three daughters were drowning in tears. Heavy rain was pouring and it created a very sombre atmosphere.
After the main ceremony in Wanchai Chris Patten's family boarded the Royal Yacht Britannia with Prince Charles and sailed off into the night from the naval dockyard of HMS Tamar still under heavy rain. As Hop C watched on during the live broadcast he strongly felt the closing of an important chapter in Hong Kong's history. To be honest he did feel that the reversion of Hong Kong's sovereignty to China was the right thing to do regardless of the uncertainty created by this drastic change. No true Chinese would prefer to be ruled by a foreign power especially under an outdated and unjust colonial system but when the motherland was under a less than desirable autocratic political regime with a proven record of brutality witnessed by everyone Hop C as well as all Hong Kong citizen had the right and, in fact, could not avoid to get worried.
Chapter Eighteen – Where do we go from here ?
June Fourth 1989 changed the lives of all Hong Kong citizens forever including Hop C's. Because of the massacre in Tiananmen Square in Beijing thousands of people applied for immigration to other countries as many felt that their lives and basic freedom could be put at risk. Hop C and his family also emigrated to Australia to find a more secured future for his family. Likewise, at least half a million people and their family had emigrated from Hong Kong. Worse still it was not simply a matter of the whole family leaving their home town. Many bread winners of the emigrated families had to stay behind to make a living to support their family overseas while travelling to and from Hong Kong to pay occasional visits to their family members overseas. Hop C also did the same between 1997 and 2005. He had heard tragic cases among his own friends which involved the breaking up of such families due to the husband's infidelity on account of the long separation from the wife.
Of course, many who were not eligible for immigration had stayed behind. Life went on after 1997 but things seemed to be going progressively down hill from day one. Daily life was not that unbearable but the culture and the traditional freedom and values were being eroded bit by bit. That was a very ominous sign. It was not like that you were told not to do this or not to do that. It was the tendency of many people especially the business community as well as the so called society elites who would benefit from pleasing the political bosses in Beijing that were giving away Hong Kong's rights and traditional way of life bit by bit. The business advertisers would refrain from placing advertisements in newspapers that did not toe the Mainland's line on all matters both political and social. In times most if not all media including television and radio stations were speaking with their real master's voice or what was required of them if they still value their profitability of the business concern. Everyone knew where everything was going.
On the social level people were polarised according to wealth distribution. Hong Kong had quietly slipped into one of the worse places in the world in terms of wealth distribution per capita. Hong Kong society was also polarised politically into the liberal and pro Beijing camps with constant verbal as well as some physical confrontations. Where was the most valued past harmony and the beloved Lion Rock spirit ? One very often wonders. Worse still some of the younger generation had been pushed by the lack of opportunity and the uneven wealth distribution into radical elements which easily resort to violent protest and other destructive anti-social behaviour. Instead of removing the cause of such behaviour the Hong Kong Administrative Region Government resort to high handed repression and appealing to Beijing for stricter laws to curb tose activities and in the process conveniently extended tighter control on all Hong Kong citizens whether or not they were radical in their behaviour. Very obviously, Hong Kong citizens' freedom is slowly given away by some local elements who had their own agenda in achieving their selfish goals both financially and politically.
In the past, Hong Kong had her own competitive edge in her creativity and ingenuity. Of late all these talents have been discouraged by the change in the traditional values caused by erroneous government policies which put political correctness as the top priority. Obvious examples are forcing schools to carry out the so called patriotic indoctrination, to use mandarin as the main teaching medium in schools and to appoint persons with the correct political back ground to all important public offices. In time, all schools, universities, commercial concerns and government departments would be toeing the Mainland line without fail if they wanted to survive. People would not dare to voice their objection to any law, policy or any social injustice. From there life in Hong Kong would lose her variety as well as vitality. People would hardly be able to breathe in any truly free air and so would slowly suffocate.
On a brighter note some local intellectuals and students still kept to their principle regarding social justice and an a liberal and free political process which they are still fighting for relentlessly. The is the only silver lining in the dark thundering clouds that have gathered in the horizon. In time, hopefully, there might be a change in the political environment in China. If these social fighters kept their cool and persevered a better world could still emerged in the not too distant future. Everyone including Hop C is eagerly looking forward to the day when the Hong Kong Lion Rock spirit will yet again inspire the whole population into a strong cloud of positive energy geared towards a brighter and better future. Like what the Father of Modern China Doctor Sun Yat Sen had done previously in the Pearl of the Orient which will become once again the beacon of the whole of China.
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