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Cheng Po Lin
Cheng Po Lin
Shopkeeper in Tak Cheong Lane, Yau Ma Tei
Sex: Female Birthyear: 1935 Age at Interview: 76 Education: Unknown Occupation: Shopkeeper Theme: Community Personal Background. Living environment of Tak Cheong Lane neighbourhood. Customers of kerosene s...Cheng Po Lin was born in her hometown in Shiqi, Zhongshan. She moved to Hong Kong in 1938 when she was three. She came back to her birthplace to seek refuge after Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese. In 1948, she went back to Hong Kong and lived in her paternal uncle’s house at Wellington Street, Central, and looked after her uncle’s kids. Later she moved to her maternal uncle’s house in San Hui, TuenMun, and took care of her female cousin. Soon she worked in Castle Peak Porcelain Factory. After the factory closed down some years later, she moved back to her paternal uncle’s house in Central. Afterwards she was given a job atVictoria Mental Hospital at High Street. One or two years later she was transferred to Castle Peak Hospital and worked there for another two or three years. She got married in 1961 and lived with her husband in a tenement house at Tak Cheong Lane, Yau Ma Tei. The site where today’s KamWah Building was located used to be a preserved ginger factory run by Cheng Po Lin’s relatives in the early years. Later the factory was rebuilt into KamWah Theatre. It was frequented by movies stars such as Josephine Siao and Connie Chan, who hosted ribbon-cutting ceremonies in new film debuts. KamWah Theatre was demolished in about 1965 and turned into KamWah Building.Tak Cheong Lane comprised of two sections. One was bounded by Dundas Street to the north and Soy Street to the south. Another was bounded by Pitt Street to the north and Waterloo Road to the south. His husband ran a kerosene store at Tak Cheong Lane selling kerosene and diesel. Buyers made orders in person in one day’s advance. The next day they brought along an empty keg and filled it with fuel. Some bought one to two kegs and some bought seven to eight. There were eight Dai Pai Tongs along Pitt Street. The section of Hamilton Street near Canton Street was also crowded with Dai Pai Tongs. The stall owners were regular customers of their kerosene store. Boat people in Yau Ma Tei went ashore regularly. They bought charcoal, kerosene, dried goods, etc in such places as Shanghai Street and Reclamation Street. Some vessels were organized as nightclubs and night-snack stands. Cheng Po Lin, who lived nearby, could hear yelling like‘Hey! Here we go!’ when touts elicited their customers on board. Marriage was a big deal for boat people, who would hold a wedding banquet that lasted for several days. They stuck to a superstition that one should not rescue any one falling in the sea but simply throw a bamboo stick for him to hang on to, or else the water ghosts might be offended and might overturn their boats.
Title Personal Background. Living environment of Tak Cheong Lane neighbourhood. Customers of kerosene store Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 10m7s 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-CPL-SEG-001 A long time ago Waterloo Road had a nullah extendingwestward to the sea. And today’s Wah Tak Building used to be a group of four-story tenement houses. Pig roasters were found in the ground shops. Later the old-style houses were demolished and rebuilt. Some of the shops became fruit stalls. In the early days South East Machinery Factory was located on the seashore outside Wah Tak Building. Opposite the building were chicken stalls selling mainland chickens. They extended towards Shek Lung Street. Tai Cheong Lung, Yuet Shang Cheong, Tong Hing, Tai Tak Lan, Sun Fung Lan were some of their names. Mainland chicken arrived at Sheng Shui after crossing the border. They were then trucked to Yau Ma Tei. Half the stalls on the interior of Shek Lung Street were chicken stalls selling chickens from the New Territories. The other half were fruit stalls. The site where today’s Yau Ma Tei Catholic Primary School was located was full of vegetable stalls and fish stalls. Soon the vegetable and fish stalls were relocated elsewhere. Only fruit stalls still remained today. In the past numerous chicken trucks used to be parked along Waterloo Road, Canton Road and Portland Street. Since Cheng Po Lin and her husband refilled the trucks with diesel,they knew many of the drivers well. Today’s Kam Tong Building used to be old tenement houses. The ground floor was occupied by Tai Fong Teahouse. Cheng Po Lin usually had tea gatherings with the drivers in this spacious teahouse.
Title The neighbourhood of the Wholesale Fruit Market in the old days Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 6m57s 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-CPL-SEG-002 The operation of the kerosene store. Living environment and neighbourhood sentiment in Tak Cheong...Cheng Po Lin and her husband owned a kerosene store in Tak Cheong Lane. The lane was completed in the 1950s. The majority of houses on both sides of the lane were similar concrete structures erected after WWII. The kerosene store was located on the ground floor of a five-story tenement building. Her husband lived there in as early as 1950s. He rented the front mezzanine as a shop house. The shopfront had a low storing capacity for only ten to twenty kegs of diesel and a few kegs of kerosene. As stipulated by the law, a license was required for storing kerosene whereas it was legal to store not more than 300 gallons of diesel without a license. The couple obtained their supplies from large kerosene companies which had their own tank trucks and dangerous goods warehouses. Those companies regularly sent their trucks to Tiu Keng Leng, where they could obtain their supplies from oil products manufacturers such as Shell, Mobil and Caltex. Afterwards they stored their loads in warehouses and resold them to retailers. As the couple had to get the supplies from formal kerosene companies, they managed to win a meager profit only.
Besides the couple’s shop house, the ground floor of the building had four other households. The couple lived in the front mezzanine, behind which were four rented rooms. The landlord occupied the third room. The residents had a middle-class background. They were respectively staff of Marine Department, poultry seller, photographer and driver (the landlord). There were one shed and two bed-spaces in the alley next to the tenement house. One of the bed dweller worked in a food stall serving fish ball noodles. A family of three lived in the shed. The husband was a seaman who had his wife and daughter stay home. Cheng Po Lin lived in the front mezzanine with her husband, mother, mother-in-law and eldest son (born by her husband’s ex-wife). The couple slept on a single-decker bed whereas her mother and eldest son shared a bunker. Her mother-in-law slept on a mattress on the floor. Sundries were usually placed under the beds. There were also a closet and several small storage racks. In the summer quite a number of residents in Tak Cheong Lane slept outdoors. Cheng Po Lin’s mother-in-law and eldest son slept on a camp bed outside. Ground-floor households shared a kitchen and a toilet with bathroom. They either burned charcoal or kerosene for cooking. Neighbours accommodated with each other well. They shared the kitchen and toilet in harmony. Not long after Cheng Po Lin moved to Tak Cheong Lane, water rationing was imposed. The ground-floor households received their water supplies first. Then water was released bottom up floor by floor in a twenty-to-thirty minute’s interval and finally delivered to the rooftop. Besides storing their water in a big barrel, residents even employed plastic bags and canvas sacks to collect water. The female dweller in the alley’s shed fell sick and was hospitalized during the water rationing. Sometimes Cheng Po Lin visited her and brought along some rice and congee. She, being pregnant then, together with her mother-in-law, collected water from the standpipe outside Yau Ma Tei Cinema for the mother and daughter living in the shed. At that time the neighbours got on well with one another. Some of them successfully applied for a low-rent flat afterwards. They often came back to visit their old friends after moving away for a happy gathering.
Title The operation of the kerosene store. Living environment and neighbourhood sentiment in Tak Cheong Lane Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 13m29s 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-CPL-SEG-003 There were many shop houses on the ground floor of Tak Cheong Lane. They included warehouses, hardware workshops, a towrope store, lion’s head (ceremonial) workshops, a slaughter house and a roasting house and others. One of hardware workshops was engaged in blacksmithing whereas the other produced waistband, toy earrings and toy rings, etc. The towrope store received orders particularly form cargo ships. It supplied ropes and wires required aboard. The slaughter house mainly handled poultries supplied to Chinese restaurants. It was located at the end of a side lane where water supply was convenient. Water had to be bought during water rationing. The roasting house, which was originally opened in Wah Tak Building, was located at 19 Tak Cheong Lane. It only offered roasted pigs. Cheong Po Lin believed that Tak Cheong Lane was a peaceful alley. Shop house owners only dealt with their neighbours. Every upper floor was residential. Some residents took factory’s outsourcing orders which involved simple procedures such as making shoe upper.
Title The early shop houses of Tak Cheong Lane Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 3m45s 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-CPL-SEG-004 Daily operation of kerosene store (1): the means and scope of goods delivery, the flexibility of ...In the past Cheng Po Lin’s husband worked in Mainland and Macau. After he moved to Hong Kong, he delivered goods by bicycle by order. People from the Dai Pai Tongs persuaded him to start a kerosene store. Once he had learned how to repair and install a kerosene stove, he started to sell kerosene supplied by his counterparts with larger companies. The couple could not afford to install a telephone in their store. They resorted to their neighbour’s telephone line. Cheng Po Lin was called to the phone whenever a customer called in. Her husband delivered goods in the vicinity by bicycle. At the beginning they had hired an old man for the job. More business opportunities were referred by their regular customers, and the couple’s delivery reached as far as Kowloon City and To Kwa Wan. In the 1960s, one keg of kerosene sold for $7. Sellers, who made a profit of$0.5per keg, had to install a stove for customers. Every keg of diesel along with a stove sold for $4, in which $0.5 to $0.8 was profit. The couple could sell altogether 30 kegs of kerosene and diesel every day. They collected no money yet when goods were delivered. Customers would not pay until the kerosene stove they bought operated properly. It was normal to get paid at night. However, they had to pay their suppliers on the spot. Cheng Po Lin lamented that cash flow of her kerosene store was maintained with much difficulty.Later her husband obtained a driving permit which allowed him to deliver goods at night. Her mother and mother-in-law stayed behind and served the family. The former did laundry and looked after the kids while the latter did the groceries and cooking. Cheong Po Lin was grateful for the contributions made by the two seniors. There was a small kerosene store opposite the couple’s residence. They catered for the needs of factories and made a bigger profit. There were also several shops of the same kind located at the nearby Dundas Street, Lee Tat Street and Canton Road. Kerosene sellers were acquainted with each other. Occasionally they gathered for a tea and exchange of intelligence of the trade. Her husband passed away in 1990. Cheng Po Lin sold the store to her youngest son. Though being mother and son, they dealt in cash. She reserved the money for her pension. At that time her youngest son had just graduated from Form Five. He quitted school and inherited his parents’ business. Cheng Po Lin allowed him to amortize the sum. In the same year the building in which the kerosene store was situated was demolished. The store was relocated to the entrance of Tak Cheong Lane. Recently her youngest son provided motor oil for construction sites.
Title Daily operation of kerosene store (1): the means and scope of goods delivery, the flexibility of buying on credit Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 10m33s 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-CPL-SEG-005 Daily operation of kerosene store (2): work hours, delivery of goods and customers from the typho...The kerosene store run by Cheong Po Lin and her husband was in business all year round. The couple took a rest only on the first three days of Chinese Year, on which they brought along their children to visit their relatives in the New Territories. The store opened from 8am to 6pm, but the working hours were not fixed actually. Business was done whenever a customer knocked at its door. Goods were delivered in different ways according to the distance. Her husband delivered goods to distant places by bicycle or truck. Cheng Po Lin and her assistants delivered kerosene kegs and stoves on foot for their customers from nearby areas such as Man Wah Sun Chuen and the Yau Ma Tei seashore. Her husband bought a truck after he had obtained a driving permit. Besides delivering kerosene at a daily basis, he also transported poultries to increase the family’s income. When the Dangerous Goods Ordinance was passed, the couple had to buy a truck specializing in transporting dangerous goods like kerosene. However, they were unable to afford a tank truck which cost several millions.
In the early period boat people were the key customers of the kerosene store. Cheng Po Lin always delivered matter varnish and motor oil on board (for lubricating the parts of ship engines). As a result, she got acquainted with many boat dwellers. She had to walk on a narrow plank bridge linking the dwelling vessels with a funnel and a keg on hands. She did the same even when pregnant. Luckily some customers helped her out occasionally. At that time not all customers paid immediately. Serious deferments of payment were common. Since the couple could not afford losing their customers, they had no choice but tolerate. The store sold high-quality kerosene, which sold well through word of mouth. The majority of vessels anchoring from Shantung Street to Pitt Street were cargo boats. They shipped goods particularly for freighters. Boat workers lived aboard every day. Many fruit vessels which took delivery orders from Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market settled near the Royal Bridge of the Waterloo Road’s promenade. There were only few fishing vessels along Yau Ma Tei’s coast. Fishermen only occasionally went on shore to sell their yields at the market. Singing boats were run by somebody else in the evening. They had nothing to do with those cargo boats sailing at daytimes.
Title Daily operation of kerosene store (2): work hours, delivery of goods and customers from the typhoon shelter Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 8m59s 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-CPL-SEG-006 Maternity Department of Kwong Wah Hospital in the 1960s. Moving the kerosene store to different a...Cheng Po Lin and her husband had three sons and two daughters. She was the biological mother of two of the sons and the two daughters. Her eldest son was born by her husband’s ex-wife. Soon after he was born, her mother passed away. He was looked after by Cheng Po Lin who treated him as her own. She delivered her four children in Kwong Wah Hospital. The hospital was very dilapidated in the 1960s. The delivery ward was packed with pregnant women staying on camp beds. Pregnant boat people also gave births at Kwong Wah Hosptial. Sometimes a bed had to be shared by two pregnant women who left the hospital one day after labour. The situation did not improve until the relocation of the delivery ward in 1963. At that time boat dwellers went ashore at a small pier at Pitt Street. Some of them bought diesels from Cheng Po Lin’s kerosene store. The store’s profitability improved tremendously after it had started selling diesel for vessels. The store was relocated to Tak Cheong Lane after the building it was situated at was demolished in 1990. It re-opened on the ground floor of a tenement house at the junction of Tak Cheong Lane and Tak Cheong Lane. The house had eight floors but no lift. The couple bought a flat at $300,000 and it had been their residence since then. They also rented a ground shop. Later its property owner planned to reclaim the unit for sale. The couple bought it at a relatively low price. Cheong Po Lin borrowed money from her cousin for down payment. Then she resold the shop to her youngest son as his inherited business.
Title Maternity Department of Kwong Wah Hospital in the 1960s. Moving the kerosene store to different addresses in Tak Cheong Lane Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 6m46s 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-CPL-SEG-007 The couple’s kerosene store was originally located at No. 14 Tak Cheong Lane. Inearly 1960s, five blocks of tenement house, namely No. 14,16,18,20 and 22 Tak Cheong Lane, were demolished altogether. The store was moved to the ground floor of No. 4 Tak Cheong Lane. The family lived in two rooms attached to a rear mezzanine of the same building. At daytime the couple ran the store selling kerosene under the stairway. This business mode continued a few years. In 1967 or 1968, the family was relocated again to No. 8 Tak Cheong Lane. They rented a front mezzanine and a shop premises. They paid a monthly rent of $8000 for the shop, which was bigger than the original one at No. 14 Tak Cheong Lane. The couple subleased the shopfront to two businesses selling machines and steamed rice rolls respectively. Inside the shop premises a room was reserved for her children. Cheong Po Lin stressed the difference between chartering and subleasing. She fell into the second category, in which one had to pay rent to the property owner while collecting rents from his tenants. Chartering household did not have to pay rent. A mezzanine could be divided into a front mezzanine and a rear mezzanine. The former was attached to the shop front while the latter was located behind the front mezzanine. Residents of the rear mezzanine had to use a stairway. The front mezzanine was attached to the shop front. (Editor’s Note: Some tenements houses in Hong Kong had a mezzanine floor situated between the ground floor and the first floor. It had a lower floor height than a normal floor.)Cheng Po Lin’s family comprised of nine members. The couple had 5 children, who were born in the following order: son, daughter, daughter, son, and son.They applied for a public housing unit when living at 14 Tak Cheong Lane. Later they were allocated a flat in Upper Wong Tai Sin Estate. Cheong Po Lin and her husband, mother, two younger sons stayed in Tak Cheong Lane while her mother-in-law, eldest son, and the two daughters moved to Wong Tai Sin. However, soon they were found out to have subleased the ground floor of 8 Tak Cheong Lane, and were disqualified to live in the flat in Wong Tai Sin, which was then claimed back. Cheng’s family members moved back to Yau Ma Tei. Cheng Po Lin normally did not allow her children to hang out. After school they had to finish their homework in the mezzanine. Her children were self-motivated in study, especially her second son, who would study overnight until dawn. Her eldest son attended primary school in Wong Tai Sin. He was not fond of books. He helped out in the kerosene store after dropping out. Later he did an evening course in electronics engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic. His parents paid him for working in the store. Her second and youngest sons studied at Yau Ma Tei Catholic Primary School. They were then promoted to Newman Catholic College and Kowloon Wah Yan College respectively. Her two daughters attended primary school at St. Teresa’s School Kowloon. The eldest daughter dropped out for work when in Form 4. Her youngest daughter did secretarial work at a church organization upon completion of secondary schooling.
Title The practice of having the shop at the front and residence at the back. Schooling of children Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 10m10s 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-CPL-SEG-008 Before her retirement in 1990, Cheong Po Lin was kept busy by her kerosene business throughout the year. She had little spare time so she seldom went to the cinema or teahouse. The couple led a frugal life which was absent of entertainment. Sometimes they strolled along Temple Street at night to enjoy shopping and singing performance. At that time a movie ticket was not expensive. It cost less than a dollar. However, Cheng Po Lin rarely went to a movie. She had only visited KamWah Theatre and Yau Ma Tei Theatre once or twice for blockbusters. In the past there were many ‘roadside angels’ (whores) at the entrances of KamWah Theatre and Yau Ma Tei Theatre. They were thinly powdered and touted male passers-by around the clock. Having come to an agreement, they usually proceeded to a transaction in a guesthouse. Women were reluctant to stay in the lobbies of those cinemas. The site where today’s Yau Ma Tei Jockey Club Specialist Clinic was located used to be First Theatre and Kwong Ming Theatre, which stood side by side at Battery Street. Cheong Po Lin seldom went to the teahouse when she was young. Her husband used to visit Tak Yu Restaurant. Cheng Po Lin went with him on a few occasions. She was not willing to enjoy a tea as it would mean that the housework was left to her mother and mother-in-law. Now she visited the teahouse more frequently after going retired.Her mother and mother-in-law seldom went out. Every summer vacation her mother took her grandsons to visit her younger brother (i.e. Cheong Po Lin’s uncle) in the New Territories. Her mother-in-law was responsible for cooking. Every day she went out to buy food at the market nearby. At that time the market offered various kinds of fresh goods on cheap prices. Prices were high in Yau Ma Tei nowadays, and Cheng Po Lin usually visited Mong Kok Market instead. In the past there was a market store named ‘Lung Fung’ at the junction of Canton Road and Pitt Street. It sold both fresh and salt water fishes and pork. The couple had run their kerosene business for many years. They had delivered goods to different kind of households and shops,so they were familiar withthe neighbourhood. They would chat and greet each other when they met on the street. Some of their friendships lasted for several decades. When Cheng Po Lin was pregnant, her family prepared ginger and vinegar. The couple’s native place was Zhongshan, where ‘Ginger for Birth’ was famous. Many neighbours were attracted to her home to beg for it. The couple happily shared it. In the past many people from Zhongshan worked as poultry slaughterers in Yau Ma Tei. The majority of Zhongshan folks knew each other’s address. Cheng Po Lin lamented that many neighbours had either passed away or moved out of Yau Ma Tei.
Title The memory of Yau Ma Tei community: cinemas, teahouses, neighbourhood sentiment Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 15m16s 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-CPL-SEG-009 Cheng Po Lin lived in her uncle’s home when she first arrived in Hong Kong. Later she worked and lodged in hospitals. She moved to Yau Ma Tei after she got married. Facing worse living condition, she hung on to the belief ‘do what is proper to your position’. She tried her best to adapt herself to the new environment. Her happiness laid in contentment. She paid full attention to her kerosene business. Before she went retired, her husband suffered from nasopharyngeal cancer. He kept on working after fulgurated. In that period of time Cheng Po Lin took her ill husband for a walk in King’s Park every morning. Her retirement came in 1990. However, her mother and mother-in-law fell sick one after one. She devoted herself to looking after the seniors until they passed away. Afterwards she was trulyable to enjoy her retirement. In recent years she had joined several community organizations and centres for the elderly such as Sik Sik Yuen Neighbourhood Centre for Senior Citizens (Dundas Street), Loving Elderly Service Centre (Ferry Street), and different district councillors' offices inYau Ma Tei. Every week she attended interest classes like singing, drama and language. Sometimes she took part in volunteer work or joined elderly’s groups to report livelihood issues to the district councillors. Today’s carefree and regular life was her favourite. Every day she had a full schedule. To her, there occurred many positive changes in Yau Ma Tei. She never thought about living elsewhere. She was used to her lifestyle in Yau Ma Tei. She was deeply attached to dozens of neighbours and her community. In her later years she spent her savings on buying a flat in a tenement house at Tak Cheong Lane as a residence for her retired life.
Title Living a life in Yau Ma Tei: the building up of community sentiment Date 21/03/2011 Subject Community Duration 14m9s 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-CPL-SEG-010