Ng Siu Hung

Ng Siu Hung was born in Nga Tsin Wai in 1943 and grew up in his ancestral home with his parents and an elder and a younger sister. His grandfather regularly smoked opium in the village while his grandmother farmed pigs to support them. Ng Siu Hung was born during Hong Kong’s occupation by the Japanese army. His father had worked as a farmer during his early years and was over 40 when Ng Siu Hung was born. As the older man was forced into hard labour away from his home by the Japanese occupiers, he was not present when Ng Siu Hung was born. As a result, the name “Siu Hung” was given to the boy by his uncles. After the war ended, Ng Siu Hung’s father returned to Hong Kong and ran a hawker business with his wife. The older man subsequently took up a Government job at the airport when his son was around 10. Ng Siu Hung’s grandparents and father all lived and died in Nga Tsin Wai. Ng Siu Hung himself was born and raised in the village, getting married and starting a family in an ancestral property his grandchildren also called home.

Throughout most of his life Ng Siu Hung has never left the walled village which had over 120 houses in and a population of some 1,000 in its heyday. Due to steady improvements in people’s living conditions in recent years, the children of older residents were able to purchase homes outside the village and were no longer willing to live in their ancestral houses. The subsequent population loss and abandonment of these old properties gave real estate developers and the Government the opportunity to acquire deeds that further accelerated Nga Tsin Wai’s decline. Today, just a few houses are all that is left of the village. When Ng Siu Hung himself reluctantly moved out, the thing he missed the most was traditional walled village friendliness. In his childhood he played everywhere, knowing each household and family well. As most neighbours were relatives, children could enter almost anyone’s home at any time to share meals. Ng Siu Hung feels that Nga Tsin Wai villagers had a close relationship as peers usually called each other by their nicknames. Although Ng Siu Hung is now some 70 years old and is responsible for important posts such as Manager of the ancestral trust, the villagers don’t care about his identity and still call him “Hung Chai”! Ng Siu Hung continues to believe that when people use official titles such as “Mister” or “Manager” in communications, they will feel uncomfortable and will also not know how to respond correctly when addressed in such a way.

Ng Siu Hung was born in 1943 and never got to see his grandparents. According to the accounts of village elders, the boy’s grandfather idled around the house passing the days smoking opium. Without a proper job, the old man depended on his wife for money she earned by raising pigs, only helped her out very occasionally. Ng Siu Hung’s grandparents had three houses in Nga Tsin Wai, one of which was built by themselves while the remaining two properties had been bought from clan brothers. As both of the elderly couple lived and died in the walled village, they were regarded as formal indigenous inhabitants. Born in 1901, Ng Siu Hung’s father went seafaring with his brother before World War Two, but did not last very long at sea. He was subsequently drafted to do work overseas during the Japanese occupation and so totally lost contact with his family. After the war, Ng Siu Hung’s father returned to Hong Kong to become a hawker. During this phase of his life, he farmed sprouts in ancestral farmland belonging to Nga Tsin Wai Ng Clan’s fourth branch in Tai Hom Village. His wife then sold the produce in Kowloon City Market. After the field was resumed by the Government, the older man worked at Kai Tak Air Force Airport until his retirement in 1959.

Although Ng Siu Hung knew very little about his mother’s background, he had heard it said that she was once a parallel goods trader who shuttled between Guangzhou and Hong Kong. His mother had a younger sister and a half-brother, both of whom lived long-term in Dongguan. When his mother was young, she continued to correspond with her sister, but there was little news of, or from, this sister these days. When Ng Siu Hung was young, his maternal uncle’s son frequently visited Nga Tsin Wai. The two cousins played together and squabbled over food. Following Ng Siu Hung’s maternal grandmother’s death, his mother had very little contact with her brother’s family. As a juvenile, Ng Siu Hung rarely dared ask the elders about their past, and had no spare time to investigate such matters after he joined the workforce and stared making a living. His lack of interest grew more pronounced when later went seafaring abroad for long periods.

Ng Siu Hung’s father originally had more than ten brothers and sisters, most of whom had died young, leaving only his father with his eldest and youngest brothers. Ng Siu Hung’s eldest uncle had poor hearing in his old age and villagers called him “Deaf Uncle”. In his early years, Deaf Uncle was employed by shipping companies like Swire and P & O, working on ocean liners. While he generally signed one-year contracts before departure, the actual sign-off time for each trip was never fixed. Such open-ended arrangements were adjusted according to the needs of the companies and employees. When he was around 60, Deaf Uncle retired and returned to Hong Kong having spent most of his life working overseas. As his first wife had died during the Japanese occupation, he later began co-habiting with one of her relatives whom local kids like Ng Siu Hung affectionately called “Auntie”. The old man had held the title of “Committee member” (the former name for Manager and Director) and handled the affairs of the village and clan while still young. He was also listed as being the person in charge of Tin Hau Temple. Back then, Nga Tsin Wai was led by elders like Ng Wai Chi, Ng Yun Chor and Ng Siu Hung’s eldest uncle. Back then, those managing village affairs were given no formal titles. Ng Wai Chi was the first officially titled “Village Headman”.

Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle became a policeman upon completion of his studies, initially working as a civilian sergeant. After a quarrel with some people with backgrounds, he was demoted to a uniformed role. As a result, he soon quit and returned to the village. Already a policeman before the war, this uncle worked in law enforcement for more than 20 years. Despite having won the trust of the villagers when managing village affairs and ancestral properties, he held no official title and was rarely ever photographed in public.

Ng Siu Hung thought that the role of “Manager” involved just being a non-salaried representative of the walled village. He also felt that there was no real benefit in the job and that it had no influence outside the village walls. He sighs that in the old days it was left to the elders to take charge of village affairs and that younger villagers simply could not be bothered to follow up and assume any vacancies. The fact that proper documents were rarely kept back then further added to difficulties when it was time for the younger generation to negotiate with the Government in recent years. This further accelerated the gradual decline of the walled village.

At that time the elders agreed with the Government’s resumption of the ancestral hall’s land lot for building its proposed seven-storey resettlement blocks. That said, they had not explained the details to younger residents. The authorities subsequently gradually took back villagers’ vegetable fields. They then published details of the deals in a Gazette in English at the Central Government Offices in order to collect the views of residents. The village elders were largely unaware that such a publication existed. When their descendents later fought against the Government for building their small houses, the Government reiterated that they could not pursue small house rights. Their decision was based on the grounds that the clansmen had not objected to the land resumption earlier on.

Most older villagers in Nga Tsin Wai came from impoverished families and had had very little chance to study. As a result, around 80% of them had elected to become policemen or sailors. Ng Siu Hung’s eldest uncle, his father and indeed he himself were all seafarers. His eldest uncle worked as a sailor until his retirement, while his father spent about 10 years at sea before taking a job at Kai Tak Airport. Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle was a Chinese civilian policeman when young, wearing an official uniform and bamboo hat. As seamen had to sacrifice their home lives to work overseas, they tended to earn a higher income than those engaged in farming and police work. Seafarers back then were poorly-educated workers who mainly joined large shipping companies such as Jardine and Swire. Their work on board consisted of doing low-level jobs such as deckhands, busboys and pantry helpers. Higher level positions such as deck officers and engineers were generally filled by Westerners. As post-war local sailors tended to have higher qualifications, such unskilled positions were eventually taken up by sailors from mainland China, South Korea and the Philippines. To become a policeman in those days one just required to have attained primary graduation. Chinese applicants graduating from secondary school could generally go straight into the force in an inspector level job. Although policemen earned a lower salary than sailors, they were able to earn some extra income.

Ng Siu Hung’s peers mainly studied to primary or secondary school level, seldom going on to university as educational opportunities back then were not as good as nowadays. Ng Siu Hung received his primary education at Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall School. Before relocation, the ancestral hall was spacious and the clan elders organised free classes, waiving tuition fees and providing education for poorer kids at no cost. Ng Siu Hung and many of his peers studied here as a result. When the Government expropriated the ancestral hall’s land lot while Ng Siu Hung was in Primary 3, the teachers and students were transferred to Vernacular Normal School Alumni Association Primary School in Soy Street. Here, Ng Siu Hung stayed until he completed Primary 6. He subsequently studied for a few more years and then took a job as a machinist when aged 18. While he had the opportunity to work as a policeman, Ng Siu Hung didn’t bother to pursue the chance due to his lack of interest. When the machinery industry hit hard times about 10 years later, Ng Siu Hung found it hard to make ends meet, so he changed career to seafaring following a friend’s introduction. As Ng Siu Hung had some knowledge of machines he was successfully employed by a local shipping company. Starting in the mid-1970s, his career as a sailor lasted for more than 20 years, most of them spent working on ocean liners. Since the sailing schedule for each journey ranged from 10 months to over a year, Ng Siu Hung was forced to spend much of his life outside Hong Kong.

During the early years of the Republic of China, Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan owned large tracts of agricultural land that extended from Mok Cheong Street in To Kwa Wan to Ngau Chi Wan. Despite this, his grandparents and parents had hardly ever done any farming. During the occupation of 1941 to 1945, the Japanese authorities had seized a lot of villagers’ lands to expand the airport. Nga Tsin Wai was originally included on their demolition list. Fortunately, some brothers who knew how to speak Japanese negotiated with their occupiers and the walled village was saved! At that time, many villagers helped the Japanese army to build a huge sewer so as to get the amount of daily rice that would keep them alive. In the early years after the war, the British Government also demolished villages in Kowloon City. This further reduced the amount of agricultural land in and around Nga Tsin Wai. As a result, Ng Siu Hung saw hardly any farmland when he was small. The contours of Nga Tsin Wai remained virtually unchanged in the early years after the war. Only the sandy ground in front of the gatehouse became a concrete road. As a result, the area of the walled village and the appearance of its houses stayed largely unchanged.

Ng Siu Hung remembers his childhood as being a time of innocence and fun. Attending Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall School for primary education, he went home after classes dropping his school bag and rushing out to play with his friends. He was a naughty boy back then and liked to run and hide amongst the houses. As his neighbours were mostly relatives, they all knew him and his playmates very well. When Ng Siu Hung felt hungry, he simply went directly to one of his neighbours’ homes where the grown-ups were very generous about providing meals. Nga Tsin Wai’s villagers were mainly surnamed Ng, and Ng Siu Hung’s playmates were mostly children from his own clan with an age difference of generally no more than three or four years.

Although the Ng Clan was divided into four branches, the kids never cared much about this as they were too busy playing together after school. They simply shot marbles and picked soda bottle caps from the sandy ground, scuffling playfully in a group as they did so. The playmates also went up into the hills to catch jumping spiders and pick gooseberries and wild gooseberries. On hot days and during holidays, they paddled in the water in the huge sewer (Editor’s note: now call Kai Tak Nullah) and went swimming in the valleys of Diamond Hill. Parents back then were not obsessed with their children’s academic performances and did not mind if their kids had to repeat classes. Although they did not have high expectations of their children, they did emphasise the importance of self-discipline. In comparing his own childhood to that of his grandkids, Ng Siu Hung says he believes that while youngsters today may possess knowledge, their courage and self-reliance are not as good as in previous generations.

The ancestral hall school was a bi-sessional primary establishment which taught subjects such as Chinese, Mathematics, Geography, History and Letter Writing. The pupils here mainly learned Chinese. The school had six classes of about 30 to 40 students each, with a total of about 200 attendees who mainly came from the surrounding district. Lessons here were funded by the Ng Clan’s Ancestral Trust which did not charge any tuition, whereas nearby rooftop schools generally levied a monthly fee of around HK$3. All Ng Clan children were eligible to attend, while non-Ng Clan students had to go through an interview to determine whether their family background entitled them to free schooling. Later, the Government expropriated the ancestral hall’s land to construct a series of seven-storey resettlement blocks. As a result, the ancestral hall was relocated to its present site. After the relocation, the land lots for the ancestral hall and the school were separated. At this point, the school was renamed Chi Tak Public School, a name derived from Chi Tak Tong (the name of the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall). All classes were subsequently funded by the Government from that point onwards.

Ng Siu Hung’s family owned three ancestral houses in Nga Tsin Wai. His father and youngest uncle lived in one of these properties in 1st Lane, while his eldest uncle and his family occupied two private properties in 2nd Lane. The 1st Lane house had an area of 0.01 acres (approx. 430-square feet) and was a two-storey granite dwelling with a tile roof. In all, over 10 people lived here, with Ng Siu Hung’s family occupying the upper level of the building. During his childhood, Ng Siu Hung stayed with his parents and younger sisters, while his older sister moved out after getting married and Ng Siu Hung’s wife later married into the village. Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle’s family lived in the lower level and included his uncle and aunt and their two daughters and four sons.

Ng Siu Hung and his family members slept in two bunk beds, arranged in a ‘T’ pattern which were hidden away by the drawing of draperies at bedtime. The house was simply furnished with just basic cabinets and cardboard boxes to fill the space. In the old days, there were no electrical appliances such as TVs and washing machines. A fan and a folding table for dinner were placed in the living room, while there were some spaces for putting miscellaneous items under the bed.As the house had no room for a kitchen, cooking had to be done using a large kerosene stove stored in a cabinet which could only be turned on outside their front door in the lane. Occupants of the seven-storey resettlement blocks cooked and ate in much the same way.

The two families of his father and youngest uncle prepared and took their meals separately. Typical dishes this branch of the family enjoyed included stewed or steamed pork, poached chicken, stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish. The entire family mostly sat down to enjoy meals together. Villagers shared the toilets of the seven-storey buildings and also kept spittoons for use at night in their homes. All bodily waste was poured into wooden buckets at the back alley for people to come into the village to collect as “night soil”. Back then, villagers bathed in spaces behind the corner of ground-floor doors or stairs relying on a pull curtain to preserve their modesty. At a later stage, some households had set up toilets cum bathrooms that let wastewater from the lane flow into the sewer (Editor’s note: at Kai Tak Nullah).

Ng Siu Hung feels now that his childhood life was simple and free. On hot summer days, children of 6 to 12 jumped into the nullah for swimming, with the boys daringly removing everything bar their underwear! Back then, the water in the nullah was very clean, as no sewage was discharged into it. Children also shot marbles and flipped soda bottle caps on the sandy ground in front of the village. During weekends, they climbed up to Kwun Yam Shan and Lion Rock Mountain to pick gooseberries and catch jumping spiders. Kids in those days were far more self-reliant than now and would happily enter neighbours’ homes in search of food when hungry. They would also go to pick soft drink cans and soda bottle caps on their own initiative after school to exchange for malted sugar with biscuits. Parents were not really that strict with their kids and happily let them rough and tumble on the ground. They even beat up others’ kids! As the parents all belonged to the same clan, they did not really mind about this.

The only boy in his family, Ng Siu Hung had one elder and two younger sisters. The girls mainly studied at rooftop schools, with the elder sister subsequently making a living by beating yarn in a fabric weaving plant while the two younger sisters worked in radio factories. Ng Siu Hung undertook his primary education at Nga Tsin Wai’s ancestral hall school. Before primary 3, his parents had applied to Lok Sin Tong Primary School on his behalf. As his eldest uncle a Committee member of Lok Sin Tong Benevolent Society and had some wealth and influence, the school felt that he did not meet its admission criteria, so he eventually wound up graduating from his original school. As Ng Siu Hung’s mother was a hawker back then, his parents were not short of money to support his education, but Ng Siu Hung was unmotivated by his lessons. After studying at an English evening school for only two years, he dropped out and took a job.

His youngest uncle suggested that Ng Siu Hung became a policeman as he had connections and referring him for admission would not be difficult. His eldest uncle disagreed. Claiming that “It’s always better for a boy to have a rotten batting”, he advised his nephew to learn a craft. So Ng Siu Hung decided to become an apprentice at Hong Kong Machinery Factory in Castle Peak Road. At this time, this plant was a large well-known manufacturer producing plastics, printing and other machines. Ng Siu Hung served a five-year apprenticeship in the factory, earning a monthly salary of around HK$50. He stayed on with the company after completing his apprenticeship. As his mother had stopped working as a hawker by this time, he handed her a large portion of his income. This left him very little for personal expenses.

While Ng Siu Hung’s mother was eager for her son to get married as soon as possible, the family’s poor economic conditions meant he never thought about marriage. At that time, two old men from Nga Tsin Wai were employed as yarn beaters in a weaving factory in San Po Kong. They learned that a niece of the factory owner’s wife was coming from the Mainland to Hong Kong to work with them. Thinking that the girl had a good character, the two old men introduced her to Ng Siu Hung’s mother. The old lady thought that there was no harm in trying to interest her son in the new arrival, so she asked him for a photo before he went out to work one day. Not really knowing what was happening, Ng Siu Hung casually handed over a student photo to her. Later, his mother arranged a match at a tea gathering at Kwok Wah Restaurant (now Yue Xiu Plaza). During the meal, she told her son to take his date shopping and going to the cinema. So it was that 24-year-old Ng Siu Hung came to know his wife,  who came from Guangzhou and had already been living in Hong Kong for two or three years. Having been born in Kaiping, this girl’s father had moved to Guangzhou while still a child. As Ng Siu Hung had a sense of resistance to the Mainland when he was younger, he had never thought about marrying a woman from there. As a result, he thought that getting to know his wife was a happy twist of fate.

One day, after the pair had been dating for around six months, Ng Siu Hung’s wife-to-be fainted while working in the factory and was immediately rushed to hospital. As the doctor there said she might lose her ability to bear children, Ng Siu Hung’s wife-to-be’s aunt persuaded his mother to abandon the marriage plans, so as not to affect the family line. With a heavy heart, Ng Siu Hung thought that his wife had became sick after coming to Hong Kong as an illegal immigrant. As her life had been filled with troubles, he did not have it in him to break up with her. Instead, he secretly went to the hospital to visit his sick fiancée who was discharged about a month later. Six months after that, the pair finally got married. Residing in Guangzhou, his mother-in-law did not ask for marriage gift money, only wanting the couple to visit her home after their wedding. As China was in the Mao Zedong era back then, Ng Siu Hung’s mother worried about her son’s safety. But Ng Siu Hung still insisted on doing his duty and visiting his mother-in-law. With the inconvenience in traffic and immigration, his trip to visit his relatives on the Mainland was arduous. Ng Siu Hung married his wife when aged 25. She eventually gave birth to a daughter and two sons in the early 1970s. After the birth of the first two children, Ng Siu Hung decided to leave home and support his family as a sailor.

Ng Siu Hung had seen three brides marry his fellow Nga Tsin Wai villagers. Those who had sat in the traditional red bridal sedan chairs included his aunt, Ng Fat Chuen’s wife and Ng Chin Hung’s mother. Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle got married when Ng Siu Hung was about 8 or 9 years old. His aunt came from the village located at the present Morse Park No. 3 (Editor’s note: should be Ta Kwu Ling Village). On the day of their wedding Ng Siu Hung’s uncle personally kicked the door of the sedan chair and the couple paid homage at the ancestral hall. As his uncle was adopted by Hau Wong (or Prince Marquis) when he was still a child, the newly married couple also paid tribute to Hau Wong. The wedding procession included musicians playing traditional musical instruments and supplicants bringing offerings to Hau Wong Temple. The latter group was followed by Ng Siu Hung and other relatives. His uncle hosted a feast outside the gatehouse where he entertained his relatives and villagers for fully three days and three nights. Ng Fat Chuen was Ng Siu Hung’s peer brother and although he was living outside Nga Tsin Wai when he got married, he still brought his wife back to the village in a red bridal sedan chair. The uncles told Ng Siu Hung he had to kick the door of the chair in the traditional manner. Many years later, when Ng Siu Hung and Ng Fat Chuen talked about past stories they did not understand why there was such an arrangement.

In the old days, it seems only better-off residents were able to hold weddings and funerals in the village. Marriage banquets would be hosted in front of the gatehouse, or caterers would be hired. Otherwise, brothers would be asked to help the cooking using big woks and stoves. Invitation cards were not necessary back then as villagers simply passed invitations to attend by word of mouth with everyone turning up at the banquets automatically. Women also used to come to ‘eat and take’, bringing with them tableware to spirit away any leftovers for their next day’s meals. As it later became popular to hold banquets in restaurants, villagers organised their celebration functions at popular venues in Kowloon City. The younger generation then began to move out, living in different parts of town. Coupled with the fact that everyone was now better off, the richer families tended to host banquets in restaurants in Yau Ma Tei.

In the past, many women who married into the walled village had to depend on their husbands to run their homes. Only about 40% of these ladies went out to work. As the walled villagers put great emphasis on bearing and rearing children, women were spared having to take outside jobs so they could take care of the kids at home, occasionally chatting with their neighbours when they had the odd spare moment. On the first and fifteenth day of every lunar month, local mothers brought sacrificial offerings into the temple for worship. Wealthier women bought chickens, while the less well-off bought roasted pork. The offerings were then brought back home for the family dinner after worship. The villagers felt that it was all thanks to their gods that they had good food to enjoy. In the past, it was popular for local residents to look up propitious dates in the almanac, usually choosing the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month for taking actions as ‘everything was suitable’ on such days. The fact that villagers all had a ‘no time like the present’ mentality and the first and fifteenth were seen as being good dates probably explains why the temples were full of worshippers on both days!

After dinner, many older villagers used to sit and chat on the few rows of stone benches under the gatehouse from around 6:00 pm onwards. On hotter days, everyone present used to shake their fans to try and counter the humidity. There were also a few stone benches in the open space in front of the village. Before the construction of the road (Editor’s note: Tung Kwong Road) in the early 1960s, this open space extended as far as Kai Tak Nullah. After the road was completed, the air became polluted. Back then, ordinary families could not afford electrical appliances like fans and refrigerators. It was only that Ng Siu Hung later could afford to buy a fridge on installments. Before they got their icebox, his family used to leave their leftovers in a bamboo basket and hang it from a house beam to keep pests away before eating it the next day.

Nga Tsin Wai had been a very peaceful place over the years with virtually no major disputes among the residents that required settlement by the Village Headman, the village office or the police. The walled village never had a house burglary. The rare instances of theft came when local kids took away objects which people had left out on the lane in front of their homes. Whether they shared the same or had different names, families living in the village were mostly related to the indigenous inhabitants and had come to reside there through their relatives’ introduction. Only rarely did an outsider enter the village looking for a house. Nor were the locals keen in putting up bills to rent out their houses to strangers. While the gatehouse was open day and night, unexpected visitors were reluctant to enter Nga Tsin Wai. Some old women always sat under the gatehouse. When they saw any strangers nearing the village, they would ask the strangers what business they had. The gatehouse only ever closed for just one night and that was at the height of the artificial flower factory riots (Editor’s note: should mean the 1967 riots). It was an exciting time for Ng Siu Hung and his friends who climbed onto the roof to watch shield-holding policemen open fire. Worried about the kids’ safety, the angry policemen ordered them to get back on the ground.

In the past, there was an old house outside Ng Tsin Wai at Mau Chin. After the residence was demolished during the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945, many outsiders set up stalls outside the village to sell vegetables and fruits. When the Government embarked on a road-widening project most of these little units were demolished. Some villagers also did business selling soft drinks and beer in front of their homes, but they were not formally considered to be merchants or stores. Former Village Headman, Ng Kau, was one of them, having run an electrical repair shop outside the gatehouse (Editor’s note: now the site of Yan Sang Tong Medicine Hong) after the end of his career as a sailor. Nga Tsin Wai’s village houses had a maximum height limit of 25 feet, and the Lands Department forbade the construction of additional structures. Village house roofs were usually built with fir which collapsed easily. As a result, households had to regularly patch up their roofs with cement or zinc sheets. Ng Siu Hung had not renovated his house, but regularly climbed on his roof top to patch it and clear away debris and leaves.

Ng Siu Hung’s family owned three ancestral houses in Nga Tsin Wai which were respectively located in the 1st, 5th and 6th Lanes. The area of each of these homes was approximately 0.01 acres. The 1st Lane house paid an annual tax (Editor’s note: i.e. Government rent) of HK$1, while the remaining two dwellings paid HK$1.5. The 1st Lane house was the family’s ‘official’ ancestral house as it had been built by Ng Siu Hung’s ancestors in the days when the walls of the village had first been put in place. As the house had subsequently been passed down from generation to generation with no formal transfer of ownership, the property had no title deed. The ancestral homes at 5th and 6th lanes were purchased during the Japanese occupation. At that time, some brothers in the clan sold the houses to Ng Siu Hung’s grandfather due to financial difficulties, with all transactions being handled by Ng Siu Hung’s father. The old man only signed his elder brother’s name, Ng Shu Hing, on the title deeds.

Ng Siu Hung’s father and youngest uncle later informed him that Ng Shu Hing had handled all procedures for registering the title deeds with the District Office by adding in his two younger brothers’ names. When Ng Siu Hung began negotiating with the URA on acquisition matters in recent years, he was surprised to learn that only the 1st Lane house had completed the required name adding formalities. He also discovered that the remaining two houses’ title deeds were still solely in the name of his eldest uncle. He presumed that those making the formalities in the distant past had been careless, with no real thought given to properly processing properties on a house-by-house basis.

Ng Siu Hung’s family agreed on long-term leases on the properties in the 5th and 6th lanes with non-Ng residents. At first, non-Ng families coming into the village were mostly maternal relatives of already well-established indigenous inhabitants. Such relationships could perhaps best be described as ‘inter-mingling’. Outsiders rarely came to the village to rent houses. Some tenants did however subsequently sub-let their homes to relatives, leading to increased friction with the tenants in question. Initially, Ng Siu Hung’s family leased the two ancestral houses to a stationery merchant who operated in Kowloon City. In doing so, they did not sign a lease or issue any rental receipts. Rents were collected by his youngest uncle over the years. When the youngest uncle died, Ng Siu Hung’s father simply took over rent collection duties. Ng Siu Hung then carried on after his father’s death. In recent years, the two houses were rented by the relatives of this stationery merchant with a total monthly rent of HK$200. The landlord-tenant relationship was built on trust, with Ng Siu Hung never having to remind the tenants to pay their rent on time.

When the redevelopment of Nga Tsin Wai began to look certain in around 2008, the tenants simply stopped paying any rent and refused to return the houses. As the main tenant was often in the Mainland, contact was difficult. Ng Siu Hung started acquisition negotiations with the URA in 2006. As he was not the registered owner, he had no legal right to commence proceedings to take back the properties from the tenant. As a result, landowner issues had to be left to the URA to resolve. The dispute wound up being so complex that they were still in court as late as this day (Editor’s note: 2012). Ng Siu Hung’s lawyers say that documents regarding the transfer of properties still need to be submitted. Specific paperwork covered includes death certificates and the wills of his grandfather, uncles, father and their spouses. There seems to be very little chance such complex legal issues will be concluded in a short time.

When Nga Tsin Wai Village first erected its walls (Editor’s note: in 1724), several different lanes and houses were built. Most of these dwellings retained their original pitched roofs as recently as Ng Siu Hung’s childhood. In the past, the British Government included the title ownership of all villagers in Nga Tsin Wai via what was known as a ‘Red Title Deed’. This document clearly set out the ambits of the walled village. As the villagers had by now lost the Red Title Deed, Ng Siu Hung thought that the Government would not go to the trouble of bringing the matter up itself. Even if civil servants actually had their own copy of the Red Title Deed to hand, he felt they were hardly likely to share it with the villagers as it would only further confuse the already complex land ownership dispute. As the Government is presently only negotiating land rights with villagers individually, any argument is limited to the area of each resident’s house. Ng Siu Hung and other interested parties had asked the District Council members representing Nga Tsin Wai Village to help recover their land rights to the lanes. Such efforts wound up being fruitless.

Cheung Kong Holdings (“CKH”) began to acquire homes in Nga Tsin Wai in the mid-1980s. Rather than make a massive acquisition, CKH simply purchased properties one by one. After house prices had risen to HK$2,000,000 each, CKH adopted a ‘buy one, demolish one’ strategy which caused an uncomfortably dusty environment inside the village walls. When residents sought help from their District Council members, they were told that as the owner of properties, CKH was quite within its rights to demolish any houses they owned that were in danger of collapsing. As neither the District Council members nor the villagers wanted to accept any responsibility for injuries or deaths caused by house collapses, they reluctantly had to let CKH’s demolition teams proceed. Although Ng Siu Hung’s family had three ancestral houses, his father and youngest uncle did not enter into negotiations with CKH.

Around 2002, Ng Siu Hung and several villagers put up banners at the gatehouse to protest against CKH’s demolition of their homes, hoping that the Government would preserve Nga Tsin Wai. By that time, some 80% of the walled village was still intact and the living environment inside was acceptable. Those trying to protect the village were limited in number and financial resources and found it hard to attract support. As residents’ children had far better financial conditions, many of them had already bought homes away from the village. As homes in Nga Tsin Wai were difficult to rent out or maintain, the younger generation advocated selling them as soon as possible. Ng Siu Hung believed that even if older residents refused to sell, their children would eventually dispose of the properties anyway. As a result, proper redevelopment of the walled village became imperative. Those who stayed faced an increasingly deteriorating environment, becoming so frustrated they would give up their ancestral homes. Ng Siu Hung sighs now that “people don’t cherish what they have when they have it. They only remember it fondly when it is about to be destroyed and will soon vanish forever.”

Ng Siu Hung started negotiating with the URA on acquisition matters in around 2006. His eldest uncle was the sole registered owner of the three houses, with only the 1st Lane house’s title deeds jointly listing his eldest uncle, father and youngest uncle. Ng Siu Hung showed his clan’s genealogy to the URA taking care to point out the sibling relationship between his father and his eldest uncle. He also proposed that the URA come along to Nga Tsin Wai and ask the village elders for their opinions and collect draft documents from the villagers that proved their title ownership. Unfortunately, the URA insisted on sticking to the formal legal procedures and so waited for the court to confirm title ownerships before handling transactions for each property. The two sides soon came to a deadlock over this issue.

In September 2011, the URA brought up the matter again, recommending that Ng Siu Hung started the ball rolling by first dealing with the sale of the 1st Lane house. At that time, Ng Siu Hung was still living in his ancestral home which by now had become dilapidated beyond repair. As most of the adjacent houses had been demolished, the overgrown grass behind the property had started to cause a serious mosquito problem. As most of his neighbours had already moved out taking any sense of community spirit with them, Ng Siu Hung reluctantly agreed to sell the property. The URA proposed splitting its value, negotiating with Ng Siu Hung on a part-by-part basis while Ng Siu Hung himself insisted on a non-negotiable price. The two sides finally reached a compromise, with the URA making its payments in three installments. The final payment was made when formal vacant possession was completed in June 2012 in the presence of lawyers. In the past, the URA had never considered resettling Nga Tsin Wai residents who sold their homes. As a result, tenants only ever received relocation allowances. Eventually, Ng Siu Hung and others succeeded in inspiring the villagers to fight for their interests. Some tenants were subsequently allocated public housing units while owners were not rehoused.

In the past, the Village Office acted as Ng Tsin Wai’s administrative office and court and was presided over by the village and clan elders who mediated in disputes involving residents. As the Government allowed autonomy of the Village Office, the police did not enter its walls to enforce the law. In those days, the Village Headman was usually an older man who enjoyed supreme authority to intervene in internal disputes and even the selling of houses and lands. Whenever villagers quarreled or fought, the Village Headman mediated to stop the dispute and even the younger generation dared not disagree. The Village Headman was elected by the villagers and served on a voluntary basis for an unlimited time until he resigned. Before each election, the Village Office informed residents of the polling date and those present on that day cast their votes. There was no limitation on the number of voters and the person receiving the most votes became Village Headman. The election winner was then required to go and register with the District Office and the Government posted notices in the village confirming his appointment. Often, a Village Headman would recruit others to help him with Village Office affairs and had no limits on the number of Committee Members such as secretary, treasurer and officers he could appoint. Most of these posts were automatically filled by enthusiastic villagers.

In recent years, the walled village has become subject to the laws applied to the rest of Hong Kong. As Nga Tsin Wai was located in New Kowloon, it could no longer handle its internal affairs according to traditions. As the present Nga Tsin Wai Village Committee has not been officially registered, it no longer possesses any real power. Because most houses in Nga Tsin Wai have already been demolished, today’s Village Headman has almost nothing to do aside from the odd outside interview or appointment to represent the villagers in discussions with the Government. The authority of the Village Headman has been watered down to the point where he is only called on to resolve minor disputes. In the event of a major problem, the police are called to ensure the Village Office is spared any legal responsibility.

Over the years, Ng Siu Hung’s family members have held many public posts in Nga Tsin Wai. His eldest uncle served as the Ancestral Trust Manager (formerly ‘Committee Member’), while his father was the Ancestral Trust Consultant or Elder, and his youngest uncle was the Ancestral Trust Manager and Deputy Village Headman. When the villagers eventually elected Ng Siu Hung to succeed his youngest uncle, he humbly said that the phenomenon of inheriting a post did not exist. As serving in public posts carried no salary, Ng Siu Hung even had to pay traffic and tea expenses out of his own pocket. As a result, there was not much competition for such positions, and many people even regarded taking them as ‘stupidity’. While the older generation could not be bothered with all the hard work involved, the younger generation was too busy earning money and would rather spend their leisure time betting on horses. Having gained the recognition of his clan brothers, Ng Siu Hung tried his best to help out with public service. He did not plan to further develop the ancestral hall, but rather wished to maintain its old look. In order to save expenses, he repaired the property by himself. In recent years, Ng Siu Hung has started to solicit younger residents’ assistance as they tend to have higher education qualifications plus a better grasp of the English language and the many legal issues involved.

When looking back, Ng Siu Hung remembers that the open space in front of the village gatehouse used to belong to Nga Tsin Wai and its people. Many of those who ran businesses from stalls outside the village were also residents. It is Ng Siu Hung’s belief that the Village Office had the authority to manage the land outside of the gatehouse. When the lot was subsequently repossessed by the Government, the Village Office sought help in regaining control of their lands from District Council members only to be told that they had to submit the Red Title Deed in order to prove Ng Tsin Wai’s boundaries. According to the Great Qing Legal Code which the British Government also recognised, the Red Title Deed marked out ambits for lands in the entire village. In the early days, there were clear boundaries between Nga Tsin Wai and neighbouring communities such as Sha Po, Shek Ku Lung and Chuk Yuen which each village’s residents knew very well.

Nga Tsin Wai’s League of Seven was an inter-village union of which it was the head village and which organised the holding of the Jiao Festival about once every ten years. According to rural customs, the Jiao rituals were a ‘big scale way of repaying God’s grace’ through prayer. Its key ceremonies included morning and evening worship sessions, plus life release and praying for blessings. In the old days, Jiao rituals lasted some five days, with the League of Seven villages collecting enough amounts in donation money to fund the event. Before each Jiao ritual, divination blocks would be cast at Tin Hau Temple to elect the ritual hosts, worship representatives and other officials who would represent the villagers by presiding at the sacrificial ceremony. Such hosts and officials had to follow the instructions of the Taoist priests by kneeling and worshiping until any chanting had finished. Such ceremonies often lasted for up to an hour at a time.

In the old days, villagers erected a bamboo scaffolding stage to host opera shows and later wooden doll puppet shows to mark the festival. One year, leading local singer Wan Kwong was invited to perform. Ng Siu Hung recalls that immediately after the war, Tai Si (Ghost King) parading ceremonies were still held to ward off evil spirits. Near the end of the Jiao rituals, the villagers lifted out the Tai Si statue from Nga Tsin Wai. They then paraded it through the lanes in the village, taking it all the way to Sam Shan Kwok Wong Temple in Ngau Chi Wan and then heading in the direction of Hau Wong Temple and Kowloon City before finally returning to Nga Tsin Wai. Along the way, marchers beat drums and gongs, also sprinkling rice and throwing bean sprouts to appease resentful spirits and wild ghosts. The parade was so lively and colourful, those following the hustle and bustle of the Tai Si were not limited to Nga Tsin Wai residents.

With villagers scattered far and wide to live in recent years, there has been a dramatic fall-off in donation money. A lack of available space has also meant the scale of the Jiao rituals has had to be reduced and ceremonies simplified. This in turn meant that that ritual period had to be shortened to two days and one night only and that the Tai Si parade only circled around Nga Tsin Wai itself. A good example came in 2006 when ritual host Ng Siu Hung was not asked to kneel and pray according to tradition by the Taoist priests. Nga Tsin Wai has organised recent festivities basing its expenditure levels on the income of just one village. He and his fellow organisers did not persuade neighbouring shops and residents to help and so only received voluntary donations. In this respect, Ng Tsin Wai is quite unlike other places like Cheung Chau and Yuen Long, where Jiao Festivals are organised across whole districts. In the last session, erecting the scaffolding stage was also very difficult as the Fire Services Department objected, citing safety issues related to the venue as their reason. The Fire Services Department only changed its mind after a joint meeting with eight Government departments at the Village Office.

Ng Siu Hung heard that the land on which Hau Wong Temple stood had once belonged to Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan. It seems their ancestors had donated the lot for building a place of worship to suppress the plague. When Ng Siu Hung studied Hau Wong Temple’s inscriptions about ten years ago he could not find any mention of Nga Tsin Wai, so did not pursue the matter further. The structure is currently managed by the Chinese Temples Committee (“CTC”). Nga Tsin Wai’s Tin Hau Temple was built in the 1720s on the site of a property belonging to the three-surnamed indigenous inhabitants. Over the years, it has undergone three separate reconstructions, as recorded in inscriptions (Editor’s note: from 1948, 1976, 1985). The CTC repeatedly invited Tin Hau Temple to become a member, but the villagers did not want it to fall under Government control. Trying to avoid relying on Government financial aid, Tin Hau Temple still has not joined the CTC to this day. In the past, Tin Hau Temple was not open to outsiders and only villagers were allowed inside to worship. Following requests by Tung Tau Estate’s residents, the temple was recently finally opened up to the public as a show of good community spirit. As some worshipers took the initiative to contribute, a donation box was put in the temple, which had formerly relied on the villagers alone to fund repairs.

While Ng Siu Hung paid HK$1 in taxes (Editor’s note : Government rent) on behalf of Tin Hau Temple for many years, he never knew its title ownership (Editor’s note: actually belonged to the three-surname indigenous inhabitants of Ng, Chan and Lee). Some of the villagers even thought that the temple and its lands were owned by Ng Siu Hung’s family. As a result, he made a guarantee in writing with the elders. The document stated that even if the title to the property was established to belong to his grandfather or eldest uncle and if the Government requested demolition of the temple, he and the other descendants would waive their right to claim for compensation. As a result, any compensation money paid out would automatically become a public asset. Ng Siu Hung believed that his ancestors had donated the land to build the temple in order to appease both the gods and serve the walled village. For this reason, the temple and its lot should be a public property.

The dwellings beside the temple used to be called Communal Houses and were popular hangouts for the villagers at night before the Village Office was built. When the URA acquired these Communal Houses in 2006, it also requested it acquired the temple land at the same time. After negotiations, the villagers accepted URA’s proposal as they had been promised that Tin Hau Temple would remain intact as the URA would pay for all maintenance costs. Usually, a lot was 0.01 acres of land, and such plots were liable to pay an annual tax of HK$1, whereas a 0.005-acre plot paid just HK$0.5. However in the past, the District Office hired Indians to measure the land and the amount of taxes paid did not tally with the area of some of the lots. This led to a lot of disputes later on. Back then, Ng Siu Hung’s family had two houses which paid a total of HK$1.5 in tax as one of the houses was actually only a half house with an independent lot number. The URA decreed that the householding in question still covered 0.01 acres of land, and that it had documentary records to prove the fact.

Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan was divided into four branches and jointly ratified Ng Shing Tat Tso of the 9th generation as their founding father. Ng Shing Tat Tso was their founding ancestor in Hong Kong, having four grandsons: Ng Kwong Un, Ng Tung Un, Ng Tai Un and Ng Yat Un (a.k.a ‘Kwong Tung Tai Yat’). These men were respectively the ancestors of descendants of the eldest, second, third and fourth branch. As some clansmen subsequently moved out of Nga Tsin Wai, the Ng Clan’s descent lines soon became scattered across places such as Tseung Kwan O, Siu Lek Yuen and Lamma Island. The Ng Clan’s four branches all had descendants living in Nga Tsin Wai of which the fourth Ng Yat Un Tso branch had the largest membership.

Among the many ancestral trusts set up by the Ng Clan, Ng Shing Tat Tso owned the most properties. Unfortunately, the land under its name consisted of a ‘dead lot’ which was not allowed to change its land usage. This made Ng Shing Tat Tso the least well off of all the ancestral trusts. Ng Yat Un Tso had more properties, with several flats for rental income. They also had many people who went grave sweeping, to pay respects to their ancestors in several rounds and distributing money at each stage. The eldest, second and third branches had fewer properties handed down from their ancestors. At Chung Yeung and Tin Hau festivals and also the ten-yearly Jiao Festival, Ng family descendants from all four corners of the world returned to Nga Tsin Wai to join in clan activities.

In years gone by, Ng Clansmen regarded Ng Kwong Un, Ng Tung Un, Ng Tai Un and Ng Yat Un (or ‘Kwong Tung Tai Yat’) as Ng Shing Tat Tso’s four sons. As a result, they dedicated the five persons of father and sons in the sacred tablets held at the ancestral hall for worship. After serving as Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso, Ng Siu Hung discovered that Ng Sai Sheung was in fact the father of Kwong Tung Tai Yat, and that the four persons were actually the grandsons of Ng Shing Tat Tso. As a result, the clansmen ratified the tablet for Ng Sai Sheung and then added back the tablets for Ng Shing Tat Tso’s two sons Ng Yuet Yuen and Ng Tou Yuen, both of whom had died young. The Ng Clan Ancestral Hall is now dedicated to a total of seven memorial tablets as a result. In addition to six persons of Ng Shing Tat Tso, his son and grandsons, there is also a tablet inscribed for Yan Ling Tong ancestors of past generations. In the old days, many families had no place in their homes to store the tablets honouring the ancestors of their past generations. They therefore put the tablets temporarily in the ancestral hall for safekeeping. As a result, around 100 such memorials were arranged in a very disorderly manner. After seeking the consent of his clansmen, Ng Siu Hung asked Taoist priests to sort out the memorial tablets and arrange for memorial services to enable any unwanted ancestral tablets to be taken away.

Each year during the ninth lunar month’s Chung Yeung Festival, Ng Clansmen gathered together for a grave sweeping celebration that lasted from the month’s first to tenth days. As Ng Siu Hung is the descendant of the fourth branch, he paid his respects to Ng Wai Wing Tso (18th generation) on the eighth day; to Ng Shing Tat Tso at the ancestral hall with the whole clan on the ninth day; and to the fourth branch ancestor Ng Yat Un Tso on the tenth day. As Ng Siu Hung is also a descendant of the 19th generation’s Ng Hon Ko Tso, he also honoured Ng Hon Ko Tso in the first week of the ninth lunar month. Ancestors after the 18th generation were seen as being family ancestors. As these clansmen were scattered elsewhere and their ancestral properties did not amount to very much, they tended not to have been the subject of ancestral trusts. That said, as Ng Hon Ko Tso had still retained some properties, its descendants mainly consisted of four families served by one Manager each. This branch still gathers together for grave sweeping to this day. Only Ng Siu Hung’s family paid respects to Ng Kwan Shing Tso of the 21st generation.

In the old days, each ancestor had a hill tomb. Following land requisition by the Government for development, many of these burial plots were merged. For example, the four tombs of Ng Ting Fung’s 16th generation, Ng Shing Wah’s 17th generation, Ng Chun Wah’s 17th generation and Ng Wai Wing’s 18th generation were all combined into one. Following the ancestral tombs’ gradual consolidation, descendants no longer had to go to different hills for worship on different days. Sacrificial offerings for grave sweeping included roasted pigs, chicken, buns, cakes and fruits. Beer and soft drinks only came onto the scene more recently. When the worship was completed, the clansmen shared and ate their food offerings in the hills while the kids burned incense and joss papers with the adults. In doing so, they were able to share in a wonderful feast that they would not normally enjoy.

The ancestral trust set aside a sum of money for annual grave sweeping expenses, with each family taking its turn in purchasing the sacrificial offerings. The money spent was not set and any remaining balance was shared among everyone in attendance. In the old days, only male adult descendants were granted a portion of this money and children and women were not able to benefit. Back then, women were not even allowed to join the grave sweeping! Ng Siu Hung only started to receive a share of money after he had turned 20. Customs have become more liberal in recent years so men, women, children and the elderly now all enjoy the same rights. Each portion of money distributed now ranges from a few dozen to a hundred plus dollars.

The main ancestral trusts of Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan include Ng Shing Tat Tso, Ng Yat Un Tso and Ng Wai Wing Tso, all of which Ng Siu Hung simultaneously represented as Manager. Ancestors after the 18th generation were seen as being family ancestors. Ng Siu Hung is a descendant of the 19th generation of Ng Hon Ko Tso, but as he had already taken up several posts, he did not serve as the Manager of Ng Hon Ko Tso. Each trust’s workload depended on how many properties it owned. As the chief ancestral trust, Ng Shing Tat Tso oversees the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall and Chi Tak Public School. Ng Yat Un Tso owns many properties, having four units in Fung Wong Chuen, the rents on which its Manager is responsible for collecting. Other managerial duties include looking after the ancestral trust on a voluntary basis on an unfixed term that can be served for life.

In the old days, when a manager post became available, the appointee was elected according to clan rules at a specially convened general meeting. Candidates were nominated by those present and would be voted in if no one opposed them. Should two or more persons be nominated, the winner was decided by a majority vote. The appointee was then accompanied by two village elders who were older than the appointee to register at the Sai Kung District Office, with the elders signing the necessary documentary confirmation. Participation in such elections was limited to clansmen from the family branch only. As a result, clansmen from other branches were prohibited from interfering or raising objections unless an elected candidate acted improperly. As the ancestral trusts did not meet regularly, when an important matter arose, the Manager would fix a date to convene a clansmen’s meeting. Everyone in attendance was subsequently registered before they could vote and Managers then informed their branch clansmen about each meeting’s resolutions. As clan members now live all over the world, Managers may not know and often have real problems contacting everyone in their branch. In the past, ancestral trusts were run by village elders, and the British Hong Kong Government did not intervene in their managerial elections. In recent years, the Hong Kong Government refused to accept the Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso following his election by Ng Clansmen. Their reasons for doing so were disagreements by some clansmen regarding the manager candidate.

Ng Siu Hung began serving as Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso and Ng Yat Un Tso in 1993 (Editor’s note: Ng Shing Tat Tso is Ng Clan’s chief ancestor. The Ng Clan is divided into four branches, each of which elects a Manager to represent its members. Of these, Ng Yat Un Tso is the fourth branch’s chief ancestor.) Ng Yat Un Tso has eight Managers to represent its eight descent lines: Ng Chiu Fung Tso, Ng Chuen Fung Tso, Ng Tat Fung Tso, Ng Ting Fung Tso (the above persons belonging to the 16th generation), Ng Tak Ko Tso, Ng Fung Ko Tso, Ng Hon Ko Tso and Ng Sz Ko Tso (the above persons belonging to the 19th generation). Ancestors after the 18th generation are only regarded as ‘family ancestors’. As a result, even if Ng Hon Ko Tso and Ng Sz Ko Tso (both of whom belong to the 19th generation) each had several descent lines, they would only be entitled to elect one representative to serve as Manager of Ng Yat Un Tso. At the end of the day, only one of these eight Managers could be elected to represent all the clansmen of Ng Yat Un Tso by serving as Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso. Only after obtaining recognition of all other Managers in Ng Shing Tat Tso could the elected person then officially take office.

Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle was the former Manager of Ng Yat Un Tso and represented clansmen from the Ng Hon Ko Tso branch. As the highest ranking Manager among the eight Managers of Ng Yat Un Tso, he naturally served as Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso and represented the clansmen of Ng Yat Un Tso branch. Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle did not have any formal status in Ng Shing Tat Tso, where the post of the fourth branch Manager was usually an honorary title held by an elder with any actual work done by Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle. Ng Siu Hung ended his career as a sailor in 1992. When his youngest uncle withdrew from clan affairs in 1993, Ng Siu Hung succeeded him as Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso and Ng Yat Un Tso. His youngest uncle firstly invited Ng Siu Hung to take over as Ng Yat Un Tso’s Manager, and then convened a meeting for the eight descent lines’ clansmen to discuss the managerial candidates for Ng Shing Tat Tso. Ng Siu Hung’s youngest uncle recommended his nephew in this meeting. Although other clansmen preferred another candidate, Ng Siu Hung was eventually elected by the majority of the attendees.

When the eldest branch replaced its Manager later that year, the new Managers of the eldest and fourth branches obtained ratification from Sai Kung Home Affairs Department’s (“HAD”) Tso Tong Affairs Office. As a result of later disagreements among the clansmen, the HAD later cancelled the legal status of the eldest and fourth branch’s Managers. The Independent Commission Against Corruption (“ICAC”) subsequently investigated Ng Siu Hung and wound up proving his innocence. Although Ng Siu Hung was still accepted by his clansmen, the HAD required that any Manager had to first obtain full recognition of all clan brothers and so still did not recognise his status. Ng Siu Hung sent out Manager confirmation forms to his clansmen, about 70% whom were in favour of his appointment with the remainder failing to reply. Since the ancestral trust had over 3,000 members, it was very difficult for him to contact everyone listed in the genealogy individually. This made Ng Siu Hung feel very frustrated and discouraged. When the second and third branch’s Managers later died in succession, the Managers who succeeded them were not ratified. As a result, although the ancestral property of Tin Hau Temple (Editor’s note: a three-surname ancestral house) had been sold to the URA, the Managers could not sign the documents on behalf of the ancestral trust. Nor could they receive any money due to their lack of legal status.

In the old days, most clansmen lived in Nga Tsin Wai and could easily meet up when the ancestral trust had something for discussion. Ng Shing Tat Tso was taken under the wing of several elders. As these men had supreme authority and younger residents followed their advice, no one dared voice any objection. When the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall was opened, young people were not allowed to join the older clansmen inside to eat roasted pork or drink rice liquor. Ng Siu Hung thought that when elders made the decisions, it was easy to get things done as many disputes were avoided. Unfortunately, the elders had lower education levels and did not know how to maintain records of correspondence between the ancestral trust and the Government. The fact that the younger generation also failed to follow matters up resulted in a lack of continuity and succession which made it hard for them to take over from their elders. When Ng Siu Hung became Manager, he had to check up and trace back past matters by himself.

As Ng Shing Tat Tso did not hold regular meetings, any gatherings were not governed by Hong Kong laws. Clansmen simply assembled together when matters such as the death, resignation and replacement of a manager arose. Before meetings, all four Managers were responsible for notifying members of their own branches but did not have to get representatives to attend. As the eldest and third branch had only two families and clansmen of the former no longer resided in Hong Kong, it was difficult to get meetings off the ground. While motions were passed if endorsed by the majority attendants, the law required 100% consent. Ng Siu Hung thinks that such requirements hindered rather than helped villagers as it was so difficult to achieve a full consensus at every meeting. Even after decisions were implemented, there was always someone raising objections born of their different opinion or absence from the vote. Ng Siu Hung still believes that the older ways of handling matters were much better.

Ng Siu Hung continues to be a Manager of Ng Shing Tat Tso, representing the fourth branch Ng Yat Un Tso. Ng Yat Un Tso is a registered limited company (Editor’s note: Ng Wai Wing Tso and Ng Yat Un Tso Limited, hereinafter referred to as the “Company”). The Company has eight Managers, one for each of its eight descent lines. These Managers are responsible for electing one person among themselves as Chairman of the Company. Whenever there is any news about Ng Shing Tat Tso such as the time scheduled for, and decisions made at, meetings, Ng Siu Hung must inform the Chairman of the Company. The Chairman will then notify the eight Managers who will in turn advise their own branch’s clansmen via messages which are passed down from level to level. As Ng Siu Hung cannot possibly be expected to know every member of all eight descent lines, the eight descent lines’ Managers must pass on each message for him.

First introduced in 1993, this method continues to this day. According to genealogical records, Ng Yat Un Tso had only four sons (i.e. Ng Chiu Fung, Ng Chuen Fung, Ng Tat Fung and Ng Ting Fung.) As such, the family’s assets should really have been divided into four portions. That said, some past elders believed that Ng Ting Fung Tso had more descendants and decided to divide the estate into eight portions. The four additional portions were passed to the descendants of Ng Ting Fung’s four descent lines (i.e. Ng Tak Ko, Ng Fung Ko, Ng Hon Ko and Ng Shi Ko), with the Chairman of the Company also acting as Manager of Ng Ting Fung Tso. The Company continues to own a few flats in Tsz Wan Shan and also pays for the organising of the annual grave sweeping and spring dinner. Their funding is divided into two halves, with one half allotted to Ng Yat Un Tso and the other to Ng Wai Wing Tso. As Ng Siu Hung is the representative of Ng Hon Ko Tso, he is entitled to participate in activities of both Ng Yat Un Tso and Ng Wai Wing Tso (Editor’s note: Ng Hon Ko was the son of Ng Wai Wing).