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Chan Kam
Chan Kam
Boat people
Sex: Female Birthyear: 1942 Age at Interview: 69 Education: Primary Occupation: Cargo-boat Workers Theme: Community | Social Life In the past, Chan Kam used to anchor her cargo vessel at the Triangle Pier. Every time when the no. 1 typhoon signal was hoisted, she would remove all goods from the vessel before sailing to the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter. At night, the land dwellers would rent a boat to sell midnight snacks to the boat people. They offered a great variety such as boat porridge, sliced fish porridge, chicken intestine porridge, lai fun with roasted goose meat or pork. They were sold at 30 cents or 50 cents a bowl. Before the reclamation, Tai Kok Tsui was a popular place of midnight snack business. The sellers first cooked the porridge, noodles and all kinds of ingredients and sold them on small boats borrowed from the boat people. Each seller rowed the boat from vessel to vessel peddling. The food was placed at the center of the boat. Each boat offered several choices.
To Chan Kam and her family, midnight snacks were essential because they usually had an very early dinner. Each one of them would consume 2 or 3 bowls, so more than 20 bowls were bought from a snack boat. At such a low price, it only cost a few dollars in total. When not threatened by the typhoon, Chan Kam used to buy plain porridge and deep fried dough at the Triangle Pier as midnight snack. The midnight snack boats operated as usual when the no. 1 and no. 3 typhoon signals were hoisted, but not when they were raised to no. 8 or 9. There were also seafood boats selling fried clams and fried crabs. In those days, no licences were needed for selling fruits on the sea, so some boat people would also sell lychees, longans and apples.
Title Typhoon shelter boat porridge Date 25/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 5m30s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memroy Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. YMT-CK-HLT-001 Cruise boats were available for lease at the typhoon shelter. The boat people solicited business on the shore. They made handsome profits by charging $10 or $20 per hour. The customers could cruise the entire typhoon shelter to enjoy the breeze. There were ‘fan tan gambling boats’ in the typhoon shelter. They were jointly operated by the boat people and land dwellers. The former provided the vessel and the latter prepared the gambling set. The game was played with a quantity of broad beans. People bet on the results, such as big or small or odd or even. The game was commonly known as ‘pa tan’. Most ‘fan tan’ stalls started at 5 pm or 6 pm. Because the stakes were small, many boat people were attracted. Besides, there were music boats in the typhoon shelter but they were only opened to land dwellers, cargo vessel workers rarely frequented. The typhoon shelter was very boisterous even when the no. 1 or no. 3 typhoon signals were hoisted.
Title Entertainment at the typhoon shelter: cruise, fan tan gambling boat Date 25/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 3m36s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. YMT-CK-HLT-002 Chan Kam’s family boat was berthed along the piers at the triangle pier in Sheung Wan.Every day the family got up at 6 to clean the loading area; at 7 they berthed beside the cargo liner so that the coolies could unload cargo onto the boat; the hands on the cargo boat were required to move the cargo into neatly compiled stacks. Coolies boarded the liner along a narrow gangway, which was barely wider than one sole of the foot. Great balancing power was required to board the boat, though the boaters were quite used to it. On one rainy day, Chan Kam was being urged by her aunt to hurry through the slippery gangway when she fell into the water. She was saved by ropes hanging from the side of the boat. Chan Kam was glad that she did not fall on the moor, otherwise she would be seriously injured. The iron moor was usually installed on the prow to anchor the ship.
Title Dangerous experience of boarding the liner from a boat along a narraw gangway Date 25/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 4m29s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. YMT-CK-HLT-003 In the old days cargo boat operators had the custom of worshipping the sea goddess Tin Hau. On the 23rd of the 3rd lunar month each year (festival proper), families would pool funds to purchase offerings, and the arrangements would be made by the son generation – called the young master – of each boat family. Men of the father generation were often called the “boss” or the “master”. In those days, Chan Kam’s younger brother was the “young master”, and handled the worshipping arrangement on behalf of the family. The mothers and sisters of these young masters would also contribute their efforts. In the morning, the boat families gathered and went yum cha (drink tea) at a teahouse on shore, then took their boat to Tin Hau Temple at Po Toi O in Sai Kung. Inside the temple they gave offerings that included roasted suckling pigs, chicken, paper ingots, and candles. Both male and female attended the ceremony together, after which a worshipping opera performance followed.
Title Young master of each boat family organized Tin Hau Festival celebration Date 25/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 3m6s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. YMT-CK-HLT-004