Wu Guo Qiang Brothers

Wu Guo Qiang’s grandfather Wu Bei Xing was a seaman in his early years, but he quitted the job in 1922 because of leg injury. Wu Guo Qiang’s grandfather lived in Nga Tsin Wai Village, the Ng’s Clan owned 1 to 2 houses in the peripheral of Nga Tsin Wai. Their grandmother’s family surname was Peng, she came from a village in Jiulong, Baoan province. She was good in singing and could sing any Cantonese song. Grandmother’s parents had at least 5 children. His father was their second child and had one elder brother, two younger sisters and one younger brother. Guo Qiang and his younger brothers had never seen their father’s elder brother, but they know from their grandmother that he was dubbed the ‘Indian boy’. He was not as clever as his younger brother Hua You, and had little opportunity for education too. Wu Guo Qiang’s elder aunt lived in Nga Tsin Wai in her early years and continued to live in Hong Kong after the Second World War. His younger aunt was given to another household when she was a child. Guo Qiang’s uncle Wu Hua Quan was born in 1925. He joined the guerilla in the Sino-Japanese War, and was killed in a battle in 1944 at an age of 19. During the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, his grandmother still lived in Nga Tsin Wai. As it was difficult to make a living, she went to Mainland China in 1944 with Guo Qiang’s two elder sisters. In the Mainland, she sought support from the East River Column in Dongguan and Huizhou. To make way for the extension of the airport, the Japanese confiscated the land on which the Wu Hua You’s ancestral house was built, The house was demolished . Wu Hua You made a list of the losses suffered under such acts of the Japanese, but he never mentioned to his descendents about the family’s real estate properties in Nga Tsin Wai.

Wu Hua You was born in 1905 and had received 3 years of education. After quitting school, he had worked as a casual labourer. In 1922, he relayed his father as a sailor on the Empress of Russia owned by the Chang Xing Shipping Co., Ltd. Other Nga Tsin Wai villagers who worked on the ship included Chan Kuen. In 1925, the Canton-Hong Kong strike took place when the ship was on its way from Vancouver to Hong Kong. To support the movement, his father and workmates disembarked at Kobe and staged a strike. His father was born to a poor family. As a radical young man aware of the exploitation by the imperialists , his sentiment to the country sparked up. When the Communist Party members in Kobe motivated him to return to Mainland China for a mission, he speedily went to Shanghai and was given the mission to receive the seamen who went on strike. Since then, he became a full-time revolutionist. In December 1925, he became a Communist Party member under the referral of Chen Chun Lin. He organized a seamen’s club known as Yuxianleshe as cover-up when they actually carried out underground propaganda and organizing tasks.

His father Wu Hua You’s career as a sailor only lasted for 3 years. After 1925, he carried out revolutionary missions in Shanghai under the cover-up of the seamen’s club. In 1928, he was sent by the party’s centre  to the Soviet Union for training. However, the trip was cancelled after Zhang Zuo Lin was assassinated. This had affected his political career. When he was in Shanghai, Wu Hua You was assigned to the Central Special Unit responsible for delivering resources. When the party’s centre  was crushed in 1932, he was sent to Ruijin, the famous center of communist activities, and was appointed as the officer-in-charge of the cultural department central administration of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in the Soviet Area. He was responsible for labour propaganda and organizing activities. Later on, he was transferred to the joint preparatory office of the trade unions federation in Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed as the officer of the northern Fujian district trade union and commander of the Red Army guerilla and fought against the Kuomintang in Northern Fujian. In 1936, the Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provincial party committes lost contact with the party’s central, Wu Hua You was sent to get through the surveillance of Kuamintang and to look for reconnection with the party’s centre. Failing to find any useful links, he travelled around in different districts until he eventually returned to Hong Kong. After the Communist Party and Kuomintang worked together fighting against Japanese invasion, the Red Army was re-organized into the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army. Liu Zheng Chi set up a Hong Kong office for the Eighth Route Army. Wu Hua You was appointed as officer to adjutant’s office (a commander’s grade) in Nanchang office upon reporting to the Hong Kong office, responsible for propaganda and transportation arrangement at the back end.

Towards the end of 1938, Wu Hua You had health problems and was deployed to the organization department of the New Fourth Army Command. He requested to be sent to Yanan for training, but Chen Yun decided that the better arrangement would be to deploy him to join the battle in Bei Jiang because he was a Cantonese. His mission was to penetrate into the ninth squad of the Kuomintang Relief Corps and to educate the young people with the anti-Japanese ideology. He had fought the Japanese armies in Niubeiji, Conghua. When the Kuomintang crushed the party’s centre in Northern Guangdong in 1941, Wu Hua You fled to Kowloon and lived in Nga Tsin Wai, where he formed the self-defense squad jointly with Ng Wai Chi and Liu Fat. The squad was not organized under the communist banner. More than 20 young villagers, including Ng Wah Kuen (Wu Hua You’s younger brother), were motivated to join the anti-Japanese battles. As a result, Ng Wah Kuen joined the East River Column. Liu Fat, a Nga Tsin Wai villager, became a communist party member and worked for the provincial survey department. After Hong Kong was occupied, the Japanese armies entered the village and arrested the communist party members. Wu Guo Qiang left Hong Kong for the Mainland and contacted Zeng Sheng the East River Column Commander. Later on, Guo Qiang’s grandmother came with Guo Qiang’s elder sisters to join Wu Hua You. Hua You was appointed as the adjutant of the East River Column Command. Later on, Zeng Sheng appointed as him the special communicator. His mission was to set up the secret body Iceland for liaising with the America’s 13th Air Force. He was responsible for this mission until 1945 when Japan was defeated.

Upon victory of the War, the East River Column retreated northwards. Instead of going with the military, Wu Hua You, who was 40 by then, stayed in Hong Kong. At the surface he worked for the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union, while actually he took orders from the South China regional bureau of the Chinese Communist Party’s centre and helped sending people who were defined as “democratic” to Guangzhou. In 1946, Wu Hua You married in Hong Kong as arranged by the party’s organization. His wife was the communicator of the East River Column and was his third wife. Wu Hua You had three marriages. His first wife came from Tianjin. They met in Shanghai where both of them joined the revolution. When Hua You prepared to go to the Soviet Union for training, he sent her back to her own family in Tianjin. His second wife was a Kaiping native. She married him in Hong Kong in 1936 and gave birth to Guo Qiang’s two elder sisters. She died during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong. His third wife was the natural mother of Guo Qiang and his younger brothers. Her family name was Wang and she was born in 1913 and was a native of Guitouling, Dapu of Baoan province. She was illiterate and was sold to a family as a child daughter-in-law when she was a little girl. In 1941, she joined the Hong Kong-Kowloon Independent Brigade of the East River Column and was responsible for communication missions such as delivering letters. The couple lived in Nga Tsin Wai in the period between 1946 and 1949, when Wu Guo Qiang was born.

On the eve of the liberation of Guangzhou, the South China Regional Bureau ordered to have Wu Hua You deployed to Guangzhou to help with the handover. His first mission was to take over the Guangzhou Seamen’s Union. Later on, he was appointed as the commissioner of the marine affairs office of the marine affairs department under the Ministry of Transport in Guangzhou. Wu Hua You had lived in Guangzhou since then. In the early 1950s, he was appointed as the Commissioner of the Department of Vessel Expropriation of the Guangzhou People’s Command in Support of the Frontline and took part in the liberation of Hainan Island. When the War was over, he was appointed as the Commissioner of the Huangpu port office under the Ministry of Transport. In 1953, he became the chairman of the trade union of the port affairs office, it was a high-ranking cadre grade (13th grade of the administration rank). In 1956, he involved in the preparation for the setting up of the Sanatorium in Guangzhou for the Chinese Seamen’s Trade Union. When the Sanatorium was completed in 1958, he was appointed as its superintendent. When the Cultural Revolution broke out in 1966, he was denounced as a person taking the capitalist road. The most serious charge made against him was having worked with Liu Shao Qi. In 1968, he was put under illegal custody which lasted for 4 years. Wu Hua You was released in 1972. He was reinstated and given a job in a prevention and treatment center for occupation diseases in Guangzhou. In 1978, he moved into a sanatorium for the retired red army and cadres, and officially retired in 1983. Based on seniority, Wu Hua You would have been promoted to a post above the 13th grade. Not interested in striving for fame and material gains,  he had declined many promotion offers. In the end, many of his former subordinates worked at higher positions than he did.

During the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, Wu Guo Qiang’s grandmother fled to the Mainland with Wu Guo Qiang’s two elder sisters and joined Wu Hua You who was serving in the Operation Corps of the East River Column. Zeng Sheng the Commander received them and gave them a place to stay. Grandmother helped making meals for the army in return. After the War, Wu Hua You returned to Hong Kong with his family, but their home in Nga Tsin Wai had been demolished by the Japanese armies. (It was situated outside Nga Tsin Wai, today’s Kai Tak Nullah.) Wu Hua You lived in Hong Kong in the period between 1946 and 1949 when his eldest son Guo Qiang was born. (Wu Guo Qiang had a birth certificate but it was lost). On the eve of the liberation of Guangzhou, Hua You was summoned by the South China regional bureau to return to the Mainland and help with the taking over of Guangzhou. But, instead of going through Lo Wu immigration check points, he crossed the border illegally. Towards the end of 1950, Hua You arranged his mother, wife and children (i.e. Guo Qiang and his two elder sisters) to move to Guangzhou, where the whole family had lived since then. Guo Qiang’s younger aunt was given to another family when she was a little girl and was lost in contact since then. They were reconnected when grown up and this younger aunt had visited Hua Yau’s home in Guangzhou . Guo Qiang’s elder aunt remained in Hong Kong and lived in the Model Village, Kowloon Tong, but she always visited her mother in Guangzhou. Wu Guo Jian (younger brother of Guo Qiang) sent her letters from time to time. Guo Qiang’s mother was a native of Guitouling, Dapu. She was born to a Hakka family. Her father was a renowned local doctor without formal training and licence and her mother came from a poor family. After the liberation, Hua You received his wife’s mother and his wife’s 3 younger brothers to Guangzhou so they all lived together. Although Hua You worked in Huangpu Port, he made a clear distinction between public interest and private matters and never offered jobs to his relatives in his office. The only exception was that he arranged his wife’s eldest brother a job to unload goods at the port . To keep clean hands, Hua You did not allow his wife to work. She only volunteered at the residents’ committee. It was not until Wu Hau You was arrested during the Cultural Revolution that she started working in the factory.

The Ng’s Clan in Nga Tsin Wai was divided into 4 branches, with Ng Shing Tat Tso, a member of the 9th generation, recognized as the earliest ancestor. Each branch shall nominate a manager to look after the affairs of Ng Shing Tat Tso trust as a partner. The Ng Shing Tat Tso trust had an own official seal which consisted of 4 parts, with each part kept by the manager of each branch. An official document required a intact seal with all 4 parts together. The sealing procedure was later replaced by handwritten signature. Wu Hua You was born to a family of the eldest branch. As the communists did not endorse clan tradition, he did not take part in the Nga Tsin Wai village affairs. Besides, he seldom mentioned the clan affairs to his son Guo Qiang and Guo Qiang’s younger brothers. When the manager of the eldest branch retired from his job, Wu Hua You succeeded him and kept one of the 4 parts of the trust’s seal. He only explained the clan affairs to the youngest son Wu Guo Fu. In the late 1950s, the British Hong Kong government resumed the land on which the Ng’s Clan’s Ancestral Hall was built. A group of villagers led by Ng Wai Chi came to Guangzhou and sought assistance from Wu Hua You. Wu Hua You told Zeng Sheng about this. At the time, Zeng Sheng was the deputy governor of Guangdong Province and mayor of Guangzhou Municipality (he was also the ex-Commander of the East River Column). He discussed the matter with the Guangdong foreign affairs office and the office reported it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The matter was eventually resolved through diplomatic means. The British Hong Kong government made concession and agreed to build a new ancestral hall and an ancestral school for Ng Shing Tat Tso.

Wu Guo Qiang was born in Nga Tsin Wai in 1949. In 1955, he studied primary one in the workers’ children school under the waterway engineering bureau of Huangpu Port, Guangzhou. He studied in Xinfenghuang Zhijie Primary School, Zhuhai District from Primary 2 to Primary 6. Upon completion of Primary 6, he studied in the workers’ children school operated by the Guangzhou Federation of Trade Unions. Upon completion of Junior Secondary 3 in 1965, Wu Guo Qiang changed to the Guangzhou shipping school where he learned steering so that he could work as a seaman as what his father did when he was young. Shortly afterwards, he changed to the Xiamen Jimei Navigation School as the shipping school had problems with the school premises. When the Cultural Revolution broke out one year later, he quitted school and participated in the long journey to link up with the youths in other areas. In 1968, Wu Guo Qiang was deployed to the Hainan Basuo port administration bureau where he worked as a loading and unloading worker.

Four years later, he was re-deployed to Guangzhou by the Guangdong provincial organization department, and worked in the raft repair and maintenance station in Huangpu Depot. Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to the supplies department of the maritime affairs bureau. He was responsible for the management, repair and maintenance of fire control and life-saving facilities on vessels. About 1 year later, he was promoted to deputy head of the supplies department. When the maritime affairs bureau was restructured in 1993, he was appointed as head of the Guangzhou inflatable raft repair and maintenance station. In 2009, he retired from the position of section head at the rank of officer.

Wu Guo Jian was born in Huangpu, Guangzhou in 1951. He received primary education in the period between 1958 and 1964. Upon completion of primary education, he was enrolled in the Guangzhou Foreign Language School which mainly admitted children of cadres. He quitted studies in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution broke out. In 1968, he was sent to work in a farm in Qiongshan, Hainan Island. In September 1973, Wu Guo Jian studied in the Guangzhou Foreign Language Institute (predecessor of Guangzhou University of Foreign Language and Foreign Trades). He studied French in the Institute and graduated in December 1976. Upon graduation, he was assigned a job as a French teacher in Guangzhou No.39 Middle School. In 1981, he transferred to Guangzhou Normal University and was promoted to Head of Foreign Language Office in 1988. When the Faculty of Journalism and Communication was set up in 1994, he was appointed as the deputy party secretary of the department. In 2000. He was appointed as the deputy head of Guangzhou teachers’ accreditation office and worked there until he retired in 2006. Wu Guo Jian had devoted his whole life to education. He was an officer in the rank of deputy department head when he retired.

Wu Guo Fu was the younger brother of Wu Guo Qiang and Wu Guo Jian. He was born in 1952. In 1959, he was enrolled in Xinfenghuang Zhijie Primary School where he studied until Primary 6. In 1965, Wu Guo Fu was enrolled in Guangzhou No. 52 Middle School, but he quitted school the following year because of the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution. In 1968, Wu Guo Fu was sent to Boluo Xian where he worked as a farmer for the Changning Commune. In 1973, he was enrolled in the Guangzhou Vocational School of Finance and Economy (a technical secondary school). Upon graduation in 1975, he was allocated a job in the China Construction Bank. After years of service, he was promoted to deputy head of the loans department. He died of a disease in 1995. The Wu brothers have two elder sisters. The elder one was born in 1937. She was given to a family somewhere in the vicinity of Dongguan and Baoan. She lived in the village and earned her living by tending cattle. When she grew up, her father Wu Hua You took her back home to reunite with the family. Guo Qiang’s second elder sister was born in 1941. She studied in the children’s school of the Waterway Engineering Bureau, but did not continue her studies after completing Primary 6. Instead, she worked in textile mills, factories producing tractors and machine tools until retired.

Wu Guo Qiang and his younger brothers had never lived in Nga Tsin Wai. Their father seldom told them much about the village, but would occasionally write to his relatives in Hong Kong sending them his regards. He only wrote to his aunt and her family. Among the villagers, Guo Qiang and his brothers had more contact with Ng Wai Chi, as the latter visited their father Wu Hua You in Guangzhou almost every year; sometimes he would come several times in a year. Each visit lasted a few days and he would stay in the New Asia Hotel. Ng Wai Chi only talked with Wu Hua You, but Wu Hua You never told his sons the subjects of the conversations. Ng Wai Chi had one daughter. She was married to a northerner,  a member of the People’s Liberation Army’s Fourth Field Army and used to live in Guangzhou. But, the Wu brothers have lost contact with her now. Ng Wai Chi usually came with Aunt Kam Mui to Guangzhou. Because the Wu brothers were well-acquainted with Aunt Kam Mui since the early years, they would visit her when they came to Hong Kong. Leung Sek Lun is Ng Wai Chi’s sworn son. Since China adopted the open door policy, he had led groups of visitors touring Guangzhou very often. When he came, he would stay in the guesthouse of the provincial investigation department and met the Wu brothers. Ng Chung Yuen was a member of the East River Column during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong, but he did not retreat northward with the army when the War was over. He stayed in Hong Kong and worked as a policeman until retired. From 1978 onwards, he came to Guangzhou almost every year to visit Guo Qiang’s father Wu Hua You and other old comrades of the East River Column. Some Nga Tsin Wai villagers were seamen, including Ng Chung Yuen’s elder brother Ng Yung Hing. When their ship docked at Huangpu Port, they would go onshore and visit Wu Hua You. These old friends would meet at the Huangpu seamen’s club.

Wu Guo Jian’s first visit to Nga Tsin Wai was in December 1988 when he by-passed Hong Kong on his way back from France to Guangzhou. He stayed in Hong Kong for about a week. His cousin (grandson of grandmother’s nephew), a Shek O indigenous resident, showed him around. One day, Wu Guo Jian went to Nga Tsin Wai. In those days, the village houses were still there. He stayed in the village for a few hours meeting the village head Ng Kau and making a visit to Aunt Kam Mui at her house. He donated $30 as the incense fee and offered incense at the Ng’s Clan’s Ancestral Hall. He felt excited on his first visit to his homeland because he was eventually able to see it with his own eyes.

Wu Guo Qiang’s first visit to his homeland was in 1998 when he came to Hong Kong to handle some clan affairs in the capacity of the eldest branch’s manager. The position of eldest branch manager was first taken up by Ng Wah Chi and succeeded by Guo Qiang’s father Wu Hua You. The position was vacated in 1992 when Wu Hua You died. Wu Guo Fu, Guo Qiang’s younger brother, came to Hong Kong to discuss this matter with the clansmen. It was the government’s requirement that each branch of Ng Shing Tat Tso should appoint a manager. Considering that the other two families of the eldest branch could not nominate any successor because one family had emigrated to Britain and the other family had no male descendants, Wu Guo Fu nominated his eldest brother Guo Qiang as the candidate. Wu Guo Qiang signed the necessary documents at a notary office in Guangzhou and sent them to the clansmen for making public announcement on Hong Kong’s newspapers. When the formalities were completed, Guo Qiang took over the position from his late father Hua You. He was paid $400 as travel allowance to cover the transportation he had spent for handling the clan affairs.

In 1998, Wu Guo Qiang came to Hong Kong to sign some documents for matters of the ancestral trust. He applied for departure from Mainland China on the ground of visiting relatives. When he arrived at the immigration control point, the Hong Kong immigration officer noticed from his pass that he was born in ‘Hong Kong’. The officer was confused that as a Hong Kong-born, why Wu Guo Qiang had no Hong Kong identity card. He then asked Wu Guo Qiang about his homeland. Wu Guo Qiang answered Nga Tsin Wai in Kowloon. It was after much questioning that he was allowed to pass the control point. When he first entered the village, he felt as if he was returning home. He chatted with Ng Kau and Leung Sek Lun at the Village Office, also visited Aunt Kam Mui at her home and met the clansmen of other branches. It was the only time he visited Hong Kong during his tenure. Normally he contacted Ng Kau and Leung Sek Lun. In the 2000s, a member of the eldest branch wrote to the Sai Kung District Office and raised objections against the appointment of Guo Qiang as the branch’s manager. Leung Sek Lun came to Guangzhou and discussed the matter with him. Wu Guo Qiang suggested that the position should be taken over by Ng Sui Kuen, a clansman who had settled in Britain. Wu Guo Qiang resigned after serving as the manager for several years. He knew little about Nga Tsin Wai, neither did he know much about the other two families of the eldest branch.

Wu Guo Qiang and his younger brothers grew up in Mainland China. It was also the place where they worked. In the early years, when they filled out biographical documents, their father would tell them to write ‘Baoan’ instead of Nga Tsin Wai, Kowloon as their place of origin. It was not until the Gang of Four was overthrown that they began to put ‘Nga Tsin Wai in Kowloon, Hong Kong’ as the place of origin. When chatting with friends, however, they usually said their homeland was ‘Hong Kong’. They paid no special attention to Nga Tsin Wai because they seldom wrote to the clansmen in Hong Kong, and they did not have their telephone numbers. They only asked about Nga Tsin Wai in passing when meetiNg’s clansmen who came to Guangzhou to discuss clan affairs. Wu Guo Qiang had by chance watched one episode of Hong Kong Connection, a television programme produced by Radio Television Hong Kong. He learnt a lot about Nga Tsin Wai from it. The Wu brothers never attended the celebrations of the Jiao Festival or ancestral worships. One year, they were notified of the celebration of the Jiao Festival, but they were too busy to join it in Hong Kong. As to the recently proposed demolition and redevelopment of Nga Tsin Wai, the Wu brothers would like to have their homeland preserved. If it is eventually decided that the village must be demolished, they consider that at least the name of Nga Tsin Wai should be preserved. The Wu brothers have deep affection for their hometown. It is because their ancestors had lived there for a very long time. Besides, Nga Tsin Wai was the base of revolution: their father Wu Hua You, an Nga Tsin Wai villager, had devoted himself to the cause of revolution since his young age, people like him are uncommon in Hong Kong. Now, when the Wu brothers come to Hong Kong to handle clan affairs, they would take their children along, so that they can see their place of origin with their own eyes and offer incense at the ancestral hall. They will tell their descendents: ‘This is our homeland’; ‘The ancestral hall is the place where our ancestors are enshrined and worshipped’. With improved transportation between Hong Kong and the Mainland after 1997, they would like to visit their hometown more often.

Ng Wai Chi, Ng Chung Yuen and Ng Yung Hing were the clansmen with whom the Wu family had more contact. They mainly met in Guangzhou when these villagers visited them. The Wu brothers seldom visit Hong Kong for clan activities. In the early years, there were a lot of interchanges between Wu Hua You and Ng Wai Chi’s family and relatives, including Ng Wai Chi’s daughter who used to live in Guangzhou. However, when Wu Hua You was detained in the Cultural Revolution, Ng Wai Chi’s family stopped contacting him to avoid being incriminated. In the worst case, an innocent family would be shattered. After the Cultural Revolution, both families had no more contact. Ng Ping Fai (also named Ng Hin Fong) always joined Ng Wai Chi when he visited Wu Hua You. Ng Ping Fai was a member of the 4th branch of the Ng’s Clan and he was one generation senior thanGuo Qiang and his brothers. Wu Guo Jian thought that Ng Ping Fai should be classified as revolutionary cadre – as he had been a factory director in Guangzhou (at least the rank of section head). Ng Ping Fai had lived in Guangzhou since the Chinese Communist Party took over the province. His home was near the Guangzhou Cultural Park. When Wu Hua You was released in the early 1970s, there was food shortage in Guangzhou. With special status, he had the privilege of enjoying the supplies of chicken and fish. Ng Ping Fai always came to Hua You’s home for meals. Shortly afterwards, Wu Hua You moved his home and they lost contact with Ng Ping Fai. Liu Fat was another Nga Tsin Wai villager with whom Wu Hua You had associated very often. In wartime, Liu Fat was an underground communist member. After the liberation, he was assigned to the provincial investigation department and was responsible for collecting information about Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. He always visited Hong Kong for this cause. When Wu Hua You moved into the retired veteran center, Liu Fat had visited him. At the time, he lived on the Nonglin Upper Road.

The Wu brothers thought that their life in the Mainland was very different from the clansmen’s life in Hong Kong. Despite different ways of expression and writings, they found that they shared similar emotional affection with the village because they were natives with the same hometown. Wu Guo Qiang never cared about the differences between Hong Kong and the Mainland. His father never looked high of Hong Kong although Hong Kong was a wealthier society and Hong Kong people could go to other countries to find career development with more ease. Under his father’s influence, Wu Guo Qiang had no intention to move to Hong Kong even in the 1960s when many Mainlanders crossed the border illegally to Hong Kong. The Wu brothers considered that their father was an upright man who was persistent with his frugal lifestyle and was never keen to strive for fame and material gains. By seniority as a revolution participant, Wu Hua You should have long been promoted to cadre rank of party’s centre. Wu Hua You joined the Communist Party in 1925. Although he was a cadre at the provincial level in the Red Army, the highest rank he was promoted to throughout his lifetime was the 12th grade of the administration rank. Other comrades who worked with him in the early years, such as Chen Yun and Liu Shao Qi, were appointed to important positions after the liberation. In job promotion, his father was discriminated for being a person from Canton and Hong Kong. Besides, promotion had never been a matter of his concern. He would let the others enjoy promotion with their own efforts. Before the Cultural Revolution, there were only a handful of high-ranking cadres (equivalent to directors at the municipal level) in China. As a high-ranking cadre of the 13th grade, his father still went to the provincial secretarial meetings on a bicycle. His father had always been loyal to the Party and the cause of revolution. In the period when China resisted against American aggression and aided North Korea, his father donated all the family assets buying imported fighter planes as a reaction to a campaign calling for people’s support of their country. His father had gained tremendous respect from the Huangpu Port workers and they still remembered him after he left Huangpu for several decades. In a Spring Festival gala in 1979, some former comrades who fought battles with his father in Fujian were happy to know that he was still alive after all these years, but were astonished to hear that he was still a cadre of the 12th grade.

Guo Qiang and his brothers considered that under the current corrupted bureaucracy in China, their father was a rare example of being an upright officer. He had no greed for money, nor would he take advantage of opportunities to make private profit. Besides, he never arranged privileged job positions for his children . They reflected that their father had great impact on them throughout their lives. The Wu brothers sighed that why an upright person and authentic communist party member as his father could have come from Nga Tsin Wai, Hong Kong. The identity of ‘Hong Kong people’ had negative effect on people of his father’s generation. When the Wu brothers were young, they did not understand the politics behind. During the Cultural Revolution, they understood that people with a Hong Kong origin were considered not loyal to the party and the country because they were considered spying for country’s enemies. So they faced much restrictions in promotion and job appointments Such restrictions were gradually relaxed when the Cultural Revolution was over. It was only by then that the Wu brothers felt secure enough to admit that they were Hong Kong people. Wu Guo Jian was proud and felt honoured of his identity as Hong Kong people. It was because he considered that Hong Kong people were advanced in thinking. Besides, Hong Kong had a long history of revolution. Taking into consideration the Seamen’s strike and Canton-Hong Kong strike which took place in the 1920s, Wu Guo Qiang considered that Hong Kong people upheld the spirit of hardworking and persistence.