Ng Chin Hung

Ng Chin Hung’s ancestors lived in a house with three big halls and three courtyards in Mao Chin. According to elders like Ng Siu Cheung, Ng Hung On and Ng Fat Chuen, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather, Ng Yuen Fook, was a sailor with the East India Company who loved to smoke the water pipe. A very dignified man in his old age, he would knock his hookah on the head of any youngster who he felt had failed to greet him with due respect! After his retirement, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather bought many houses and lands. Five of them were purchased in the walled village in the 1900s. They were: Lot No. 4033, 4038A and 4038RP.

Lot 4033 consisted of three houses and was acquired for HK$300-400. The house at Lot 4038A in Pei Pin Street collapsed during the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945 because the villagers tore down its wooden beams and used them as firewood. Ng Chin Hung’s family used this house to raise chickens after the Japanese were defeated. Lot 4038RP actually consisted of two unconnected plots which were respectively located in Pei Pin Street and 1st Lane but separated by Lot 4037 in the middle. The house at Lot 4038RP on 1st Lane was bought by Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather in the 1900s and had long served as a kitchen. The other house at Lot 4038RP in Pei Pin Street was originally the property of Grandma Tso Hei. The old lady initially borrowed HK$200-300 from Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather in the 1910s for gambling. She subsequently used the property as collateral for a mortgage. It was agreed in writing at the time that unless the principal and interest were repaid in three years, the property would be forfeited. Grandma Tso Hei failed to repay on time and the title passed to Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather. Grandma Tso Hei was able to continue residing in the house. As Ng Chin Hung’s father was familiar with Grandma Tso Hei’s son, Ng Chin Hung’s family never bothered to collect rents before the Urban Renewal Authority (“URA”) began its recent acquisition.

Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather had an elder brother who had died young without leaving any children. The old man was an alcoholic for his whole life. While there was no wine for him to drink during the Japanese occupation, it was widely believed that he eventually died of his addiction. A woman surnamed Wai from Tai Wai, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandmother grew up farming in the fields and liked playing Hakka card games in front of the gatehouse after work. Her gambling addiction was so severe that she continued to beg others to play with her even after she became blind in her old age. After Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather, great-grandfather’s brother and great-grandmother died, their ashes were put in the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall for worship. Three previous generations of Ng Chin Hung’s family including his great-grandfather, grandfather and uncle had been sailors.

While still a young man, his grandfather, Ng Tso Fat, had worked on an American ship. As the ship was on course for its home base in North America when World War II broke out, he was forced to land in the US. Because he came from Hong Kong and Anglo-American relationships were fairly good at that time, the old man was able to register as a U.S. citizen. He subsequently settled in the US and continued to work for the shipping company after the war ended. Ng Chin Hung’s grandfather became sick in 1968. Intending to retire after his recovery, he planned to return to settle in Hong Kong. At that time, Ng Chin Hung’s uncle also worked in the US, so he accompanied and took care of the old man. At the end of 1969, a severe blizzard where they were living in the US caused a blackout. Ng Chin Hung’s grandfather was frozen to death. After his cremation, his ashes were returned to Hong Kong and placed inside the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall.

Long ago, Ng Chin Hung’s family used to own a lot of land in areas around Tai Hom, Yuen Leng and Hammer Hill Road. The earliest presently known registered deed landowner here was Ng Kam Choi of the Ng Clan’s 23rd generation who lived at roughly the same time as China was ruled by the Jiaqing and Daoguang Emperors of the Qing Dynasty (1796-1850). Back then, lands were passed from generation to generation – in this case, from Ng Kam Choi to descendants like Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather and grandfather. The area between Sha Tin Pass and Tai Hom was fertile land in those days. Around this time, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandmother used to go to Tai Hom to farm in the morning before returning home to cut firewood and grass later in the day. Many village houses in Nga Tsin Wai used to be used for raising cows and pigs. Ng Chin Hung’s family leased out many parcels of land to tenants who operated fruit plants, sauce factories and distilleries. Among them was Wo Fat Hing which produced liquor.

Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather earned his fortune as a result of his seafaring pursuits, buying a lot of land for rent collection with the money he made overseas. During pre-war times, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandparents lived in a big house outside the walled village, while his grandparents lived inside the walls. Back then, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather instructed his grandmother to raise pigs for self-sufficiency. At that time, it was not very common for entire families to take meals together, so his great-grandparents’ and grandparents’ relatives cooked separately. As his great grandmother and grandmother were not on good terms for many years and his great-grandmother passed away when he was just 6 or 7, Ng Chin Hung knew little about the old lady’s maiden home in Tai Wai.

Ng Chin Hung’s grandfather had received schooling while he was a child and knew how to write classical Chinese letters. He left home to start life as a sailor during his adolescence. He subsequently married Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother who gave birth to Ng Chin Hung’s father in 1923. Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother came from Siu Lek Yuen Village in Sha Tin. Back then, many Siu Lek Yuen women married men from Nga Tsin Wai. At the same time, many women in Nga Tsin Wai married men from Siu Lek Yuen. Among them, was the elder sister of Ng Tsz Fong of 3rd Lane. Every time there was a wedding or a funeral, the women of Nga Tsin Wai used to return to Sha Tin together. During summer days, Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother would set off just after daybreak at around 5:30 am, walking back to her parents’ home via Sha Tin Pass and arriving there just before the sun came out.

Ng Chin Hung would stay in Siu Lek Yuen for around three days over every Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival in the 1960s and 1970s. In marking Lunar New Year, his grandmother would take Ng Chin Hung’s entire family back to her maiden home, bringing with many gifts and provisions for her loved ones. As Ng Chin Hung’s father had a private car, he would first drive and drop off the supplies at Tsim Sha Tsui Train Station before the family bought tickets and caught the train for Sha Tin. As his grandmother suffered from car sickness, she rarely ever accompanied. Once at Sha Tin Station, the whole family would walk the hour it took to reach the family home in Siu Lek Yuen. There was also a steamer at Sha Tin Market that went to Siu Lek Yuen, but passengers generally got soaked as they had to wade ashore. Afraid that the children’s feet would be cut by oyster shells, Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother preferred to take the land route each time she visited her parents. As she had many relatives living in the villages along the way, she often stopped off here and there for a chat and some rest. Sha Tin had yet to be developed back then so his grandmother’s stylish return to her maiden home made her look like a big sister who was ready to scold everyone!

Ng Chin Hung loved these family visits to Siu Lek Yuen as he got to live in his grandmother’s big house. While there, he was also able to chat with children of his own age and to have fun while playing in the woods, climbing the fruit trees and crossing the streams. He especially adored tucking into fruits such as lychees and longans during the Mid-Autumn Festival. As Siu Lek Yuen was located near the mouth of a river, Ng Chin Hung’s maternal cousins and uncles would row a boat to net fish, crabs and clams when they were not busy farming. As his grandmother liked to eat shellfish, her family steamed crabs and boiled clams whenever Ng Chin Hung’s family was coming to dinner. As a lack of toilets was a real inconvenience in Siu Lek Yuen, all the local kids used to just empty their bladders and bowels wherever they were when they felt the need. Ng Chin Hung’s father only went to Siu Lek Yuen once a year during the Spring Festival. As he was a police officer, his return to his mother’s maiden home was very impressive. Ng Chin Hung reflects today that relationships among neighbours in the walled villages in the old days were very close. As a result, every time his grandmother went back to visit her parents, she would drop into other families’ houses there one after the other. Even after his grandmother died, Ng Chin Hung still regularly returned to Siu Lek Yuen, maintaining his close relationships with his local relatives there to this day.

Ng Chin Hung’s maternal grandfather was from Yuen Long. A senior carpentry master in his early years, the old man had worked on the old HSBC Main Building. Ng Chin Hung’s maternal grandmother was from Tai O and he often went back to her countryside home as a child, enjoying huge portions of seafood each time he visited. Before the war, his maternal grandparents operated a grocery store called Hang Hing selling firewood, rice, grain and oil in Fuk Lo Tsun Road on the site of what is now the Chun Chun Jewellery & Goldsmith. The old couple had seven children, of whom Ng Chin Hung’s mother was the eldest daughter. The rest of the kids included three younger sisters and three younger brothers. The eldest and second eldest of these uncles were both over 10 years older than Ng Chin Hung. Although born and raised in Kowloon City to a fairly rich family, Ng Chin Hung’s mother was still expected to help in running the store and handling its deliveries. Having studied at Munsang College, she had to stop schooling during Primary 5 or 6 due to the 1941 fall of Hong Kong to the Japanese army.

During the subsequent occupation of 1941 to 1945, Hang Hing operated behind closed doors to prevent looting. It only delivered goods when there were orders although the store still employed staff to help out with its running. The Japanese army stole a great deal of mahogany wood which Ng Chin Hung’s maternal grandfather then used to make samurai sword scabbards for the occupiers. As a result of his special skills, the old man received grain and oil rations from the authorities. He shared these supplies with his family at the Hang Hing store. As a result, the entire family was able to survive the war. Ng Chin Hung’s parents were married in 1953 during a ceremony in which his mother was carried on a bridal sedan chair into Nga Tsin Wai Village. His parents later hosted a feast which lasted for a staggering three days and three nights at the village gatehouse. In addition to the burning of celebratory fireworks, highlights included free lunches and dinners for the villagers. Indeed so spectacular was the event that many older villagers still remember it fondly! Ng Chin Hung’s father also hosted banquets in Sun Sun Restaurant over the course of a few days to entertain officials during the era of the ‘Four Big Detective Sergeants’. As Ng Chin Hung’s family was quite rich, they also booked rooms at Sun Sun Hotel for several days so they could welcome their relatives from Sha Tin.

In around 1962 or 1963, the Hang Hing store changed tack and started selling toys. Ng Chin Hung had fun there since around 8 as he had every kind of toy to play with! As his mother worried about him falling into bad company, he was not allowed to return home after school. Instead, he had to go to the store to do his homework under the guidance of his uncles. After finishing his schoolwork, he would help to sell toys before returning home around 6:00 or 7:00 pm for his dinner. As British troops were stationed in Kowloon Tong at this time, around one third of Hang Hing’s customers were gweilos or foreigners. Ng Chin Hung learned to do business from his uncles and staff. Hang Hing was an old-style shop with shelves that stretched all the way to the top of a 20-foot high ceiling. Ng Chin Hung often had to take his life in his hands to climb the walls in search of goods. Because he was such an obedient and hardworking boy and their eldest grandson, Ng Chin Hung’s maternal grandparents and uncles loved the lad very much. As a result, he rarely ever had to worry about having sufficient money, food or clothing.

As his maternal grandparents were growing older and his eldest and second eldest maternal uncles had gone to Canada to study while their sister continued to work in Hong Kong, Ng Chin Hung had to spend more and more time looking after the shop. On each occasion he was off school, Ng Chin Hung would also open and close the shop, handling and selling the toys. As his maternal grandfather was left with very little to do, he would take the boy for tea every morning. In looking after the shop, Ng Chin Hung was helped by his youngest maternal uncle and a staff member. His close relationship with his uncle meant he always had plenty of pocket money to treat himself to fried chicken drumsticks from the then very new KFC store in Nga Tsin Long Road. His maternal grandparents lived in a tenement building at No. 23, Fuk Lo Tsun Road, opposite the International Theatre (now Genius Court) where Ng Chin Hung spent every day and night of his summer holidays. Kowloon City was booming and bustling back then, drawing together all sorts of merchants, fast food restaurants and cinemas such as Golden, Loong Shing and International Theatres. The Hang Hing store closed up at 10:00 pm, after which Ng Chin Hung often went to watch the 9:30 pm or even late midnight shows.

Ng Chin Hung’s father attended Queen’s College from the age of around 10, eventually dropping out of school after the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. Due to difficulties arising from the occupation, he eventually went to Guangzhou with some buddies from Nga Tsin Wai. Although still less than 18 years old, he eked out a living there selling used clothing before returning to Hong Kong when the Japanese forces were defeated. He was then admitted to the British army’s ‘water mine and coastal artillery soldiers’ (or Hong Kong Chinese Training Unit). After serving as a Chinese British soldier for a couple of years or so, he transferred to the police training school, formally beginning his career as a policeman in 1947. During his first few years, Ng Chin Hung’s father served in uniform before subsequently becoming a crime detective officer in the Criminal Investigation Department (“CID”).

His father and Lui Lok served at roughly the same time – the era of the ‘Four Big Detective Sergeants’. Back then, corruption was flourishing and it was not uncommon for police officers to demand protection money from weaker members of society. Given his steady income, Ng Chin Hung’s father did not want a promotion as he was content to stay a crime detective officer for the remainder of his career. In those years, the older man liked to dance and was a regular visitor to the Blue Sky Nightclub in Portland Street. According to the accounts of villagers who sat chatting at the gatehouse, Ng Chin Hung’s father dressed very casually when he went out dancing, only wearing his pajamas, shirt and slippers. His carrying of his regulation-issue gun did, however, cause much merriment amongst his neighbours! Wishing to spare his son from worry, Ng Chin Hung’s father never spoke to the boy of his experiences as a police officer. It was only through a close friend of his father that Ng Chin Hung gradually learned about the older man’s deeds. As only Ng Chin Hung learned about his father’s work, his mother remained blissfully ignorant. As the man lived next door to Ng Chin Hung’s home and often came around for dinner, he had plenty of opportunity to entertain Ng Chin Hung by reliving his father’s time in the police.

Ng Chin Hung’s father retired the year after the setting up of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1975. By this stage, many of the Territory’s most notoriously dishonest senior policemen such as Peter Godber, Ernest Hunt and Lui Lok had retreated from public life and the majority of the detective officers had resigned. Upon retirement, the old man began operating an upstairs nightclub in Yau Ma Tei. Poor business meant it closed down within a couple of years. At this point, he began helping Ng Chin Hung’s elder sister to take care of her business, also greatly enjoying looking after his grandchildren in his spare time. Ng Chin Hung’s elder sister married in around 1974 or 1975 and she and her husband then opened a prints, arts and crafts shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. His father occasionally helped out with deliveries there and generally enjoyed a leisurely retirement. In 1983, the business began expanding and three or four new shops selling jades, seals, paintings and other antiques were opened in Tsim Sha Tsui and Admiralty. As the couple targeted high-end tycoons and tourists, their business continued to thrive. Between 1985 and 1993, Ng Chin Hung and his brother also assisted their sister in her stores’ running by each looking after a specific shop.

Ng Chin Hung’s family’s ancestral house was located in the 2nd Lane of Nga Tsin Wai village and had an area of around 0.03 acres (Editor’s note: i.e. roughly the size of three standard houses in the walled village). The dwelling was bought by the boy’s wealthy great-grandfather in the 1900s. The old man also lent money to the lady owner next door when she wanted to use her own house as security. As the woman could not meet the repayment schedules, Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandfather collected the title ownership deed of her house. The ancestral house at 2nd Lane originally had two front doors.

When the Government sent Indian surveyors into the village to make land measurements, Ng Chin Hung’s ancestors sealed off one of these entrances. As a result, the 0.03 acre of land property was subject to just HK$1 in taxes or Government rents! The rules back then stated that owners of 0.01-acre lots of land were generally required to pay HK$1 in tax. By this rule of thumb, owners of 0.03-acre plots should be liable for HK$3. As HK$1 in those days was more than enough to buy a picul (around 100 catties) of rice, many neighbours felt Ng Chin Hung’s ancestors had bribed the Indian surveyors to enable the family to make massive savings on taxes. As Ng Chin Hung’s family refused to listen to the instructions of the British Government, they waited until 1941 to register the deeds after the authorities issued an ultimatum. (Editor’s note: The family’s ancestral house was originally a large mud house which was later separated into two halves: one unit measuring 0.02 acres and a smaller dwelling of around 0.01 acres. There was no passage between the two houses, with each having its own entrance and cockloft.)

During pre-war times, Nga Tsin Wai village served as a granary, and many houses within the walled village doubled as cow and pig pens. When they heard the ‘Red Hair’ thieves were planning to raid and rob their homes, villagers would pull up the drawbridge at the gatehouse to protect themselves and their animals. In the early days, rich families lived in larger, three-hall houses in Mao Chin in front of the gatehouse, while their daughters-in-law, maids, concubines and other servants cared for the livestock, food and farm tools in dwellings inside the walled village itself. Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandparents lived in Mao Chin, while their children moved into the walled village after getting married. Each of these families subsequently cooked separately. Both Ng Chin Hung and his father were born in the 2nd Lane ancestral home. When their house at Mao Chin was demolished by the Japanese army during the occupation years, the family’s great-grandmother moved into the village. During his childhood, Ng Chin Hung lived together with his great-grandmother, grandmother, parents, elder sisters and younger brother. At first, his grandmother lived in the smaller 0.01-acre house, while the rest of the family occupied the lager 0.02-acre unit next door. The bigger house was divided into inner and outer portions, with his parents living in the lower level of the outer portion where their bed was immediately adjacent to the offering table. Ng Chin Hung’s great-grandmother dwelt in the lower level of the inner portion cockloft, while his two elder sisters slept on the area’s iron beds. This meant that Ng Chin Hung and his younger brother slept on the bunk beds in the inner portion’s lower level.

The roof of the 2nd Lane ancestral house was covered by several rows of tiles which had no cement support. As a result, winds blew in through the many gaps and holes, and water leaked in every time it rained. Whenever there was a typhoon, the family could not eat there as the dust would fall from the tile roof. Ng Chin Hung’s mother tried using thin wooden boards in a futile attempt to keep the dust at bay, but this resulted damage caused by termites. Nga Tsin Wai villagers did not like raising cats as every time the animals fought on a rooftop, it was easy to break the tiles and cause costly damage. Therefore plaster masters had to be called to resurface. Ng Chin Hung sighs today that as outsiders could never hope to understand the hardships facing villagers, any preservation of the historical buildings was unrealistic. When Ng Chin Hung’s family home was built, it had a drainage hole on the wall which let wastewater flow into the gully outside. Such an outflow often caused very unpleasant odours. The gully was later semi-sealed with small iron bars to stop mice and rats from entering the house.

As Ng Chin Hung’s grandfather was away at sea, his grandmother often lived alone in the smaller house. Before the 1960s, this property had a wood stove, with a chimney on the roof. It was here that Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother cooked for his father and uncle. The small house’s cockloft was made from fir boards. As the lower storey surface was very humid and kids kept running in and out, foodstuff and valuables were placed in the cockloft and stairs were only used when taking or placing things inside. The corner of the house near the door was a bathing area which was separated by two 25cm-high granite stone strips. Here, family members sat while they bathed in hot water taken from the nearby stove. As the kids had seen their grandmother bathe that way since they were small, nobody had very many inhibitions.

Ng Chin Hung’s family owned six standard 0.01-acre houses in Nga Tsin Wai village. They bought three ancestral houses in 2nd Lane in the 1900s, while the remaining three adjacent houses were either bought or had their title ownership passed over later on. One of these latter properties used to be a cow pen. The villagers took their cattle from such pen to the fields outside the village during the day and then brought them back again at night to prevent their being rustled by the ‘Red Hair’ gang. The stove at the 2nd Lane house had already been removed when Ng Chin Hung was a child and the cow pen was converted into a new kitchen with a big stove, a chimney and a specially constructed cockloft for storing firewood. On sunny days, villagers dried their timber in the open space outside their doors and then cooked their meals at night. The many farm tools and miscellaneous items stored in the cockloft included water jars and vats. During the colder winter months, family members took to the kitchen to warm themselves, chatting among one and other while they baked sweet potatoes. The big stove was simply abandoned when kerosene stoves and LPG alternatives became available.

Ng Chin Hung’s family also owned a 200-sq. ft. cottage on the edge of the village which collapsed because its beams had been looted for firewood during the Japanese occupation. Almost all the beautiful mahogany tables and chairs his grandfather had bought were also snatched. Ng Chin Hung’s mother used to take in 50 to 60 chickens to raise at the start of spring, but usually only wound up raising around 30 as many were taken and killed by cats. It was not common for villagers to raise chickens unless they were among the more affluent families. Before Ng Chin Hung was born, the Urban Services Department (“USD”) placed a plastic bucket at the end of the lane for villagers to dump their excrement and the liquid from their spittoons for collection every midnight. In those days, there was also a bamboo scaffolding latrine at the front of the bridge (Editor’s note: near what is now the multi-storey car park of Tung Tau Estate). Any dung deposited here was used as fertilizer by those farming vegetables.

In the Nga Tsin Wai village of the past, every household had a stone bench outside their front door where they could sun-dry their clothes, shoes and blankets. When not farming or enjoying a rare day off from work, villagers used to sit on these stone benches, relax in the shade or take a nap. Some local residents even took their meals there with a bowl of rice. The bigger and smoother the stone was, the richer the family that occupied the house behind it. Ng Shu Hing of 2nd Lane, whom people affectionately nicknamed ‘Deaf Uncle’ or ‘Deaf Grandpa’ had a beautiful stone bench outside his house as its owner had earned a fortune from seafaring. This stone bench was later moved to a place under the gatehouse.

Back then, the gatehouse was filled with women who used to sit and chat from 3:30 pm every day. Old ladies of Ng Chin Hung’s grandmother generation gathered here before going to the market for shopping after playing one or two games of cards! They later returned to stone bench after dinner to enjoy the evening breeze. The men on the other hand went to the Village Office for gambling, while the kids ran round playing hide and seek. In the early years, the gatehouse had a door with a horizontal railed shutter and a drawbridge. Nga Tsin Wai village did not close its doors in summer, but did secure them and raise its drawbridge during the colder winter months. When Ng Chin Hung was small, the railed shutter door was closed at around 11:00 or 12:00 pm each night with Dried Seed Uncle and Deaf Uncle responsible for the night watch. Anyone wishing to enter the village during a winter night consequently had to ask them to open the door.

Ng Chin Hung was born in Hong Kong in 1960 and attended Kit Ying Kindergarten in Prince Edward Road when still small. He later transferred to La Salle Primary School at the age of around 8 thanks to his maternal grandmother’s arrangement. The old lady had received some schooling and knew La Salle’s fathers and principal quite well. Ng Chin Hung’s application was also helped by the fact that three maternal uncles had all studied there. Ng Chin Hung was a very mischievous boy when he was little. As there were no computers or TVs back then, he liked to stroll around, playing hide-and-seek in the village and visiting the Tung Fong and Yue Hwa China products stores in San Po Kong. There were bicycles for rent in the seven-storey resettlement blocks at an hourly fee of 50 cents or HK$1. After school, Ng Chin Hung used to rent the bikes with his buddies from the village, exploring Kowloon Tong, Lo Fu Ngam, Kowloon City and To Kwa Wan as they rode. Sometimes, the boys went down to the sewer (Editor’s note: at Kai Tak Nullah) in search of adventure. The water there was very dirty and was all sorts of different colours because of how the wastewater from the nearby dyeing plants had mixed with the source water from the mountain stream. As polluted as it was, eels could still be seen swimming inside. After the rain, the whole sewer filled up with sloughed-off sand that workers had to come and clean up every month or so. Ng Chin Hung’s playmates included Skinny Yin, Ah Ming, Wah Tau, Ah Kuen and Ng Shui Chuen’s son. All of the boys were a little younger than him and no longer lived in Nga Tsin Wai.

Ng Chin Hung’s family was wealthy by village standards and a lot of people followed by the side of his policeman father. For this reason, Ng Chin Hung grew up in a home that was effectively a mansion with a seemingly never-ending stream of visitors! Every time his mother cooked, she cooked huge portions of food with fish and chicken, some of which she delivered to her own mother in Fuk Lo Tsun Road. At mealtimes, many neighbours came around to eat at a table that could easily seat over 10 people. Ng Chin Hung’s mother would only accept a nominal payment for her efforts and did not really care if visitors paid nothing at all! Sometimes, when Ng Chin Hung saw that his neighbours were tucking into particularly delicious dishes, he would go in, pick some food and leave. At the end of the day, not too many villagers minded this as such practices were a way of life within the walls of the village.

Ng Chin Hung’s maternal grandparents ran a toy shop in Fuk Lo Tsun Road at which his maternal grandaunt had borrowed some space to sell flowers. In the 1970s after Ng Chin Hung had advanced to Primary 3, his mother told him to go to the store after school so his maternal grandmother and uncles could help him out with his homework. After finishing his tasks for school, Ng Chin Hung would play in the store, learning how to take care of business and teaching customers how to play with the toys they wished to purchase. After attending La Salle secondary school, he continued to help out in the shop every day. As his two maternal uncles had left Hong Kong to study overseas by this stage, Ng Chin Hung began to get more involved in looking after the shop, helping his grandfather to pull down the collapsible gate and close the shop at 10:00 pm every night. Growing up in Fuk Lo Tsun Road as he did, Ng Chin Hung often had tea with his maternal grandfather and aunt at popular eateries such as Tung Tin Cafe, Loong Shing and Heung Heung. Every time the boy saw his elders having tea, he would automatically join them for food! By the time his grandparents closed down the toy shop in 1980 due to old age, Ng Chin Hung had already been helping them run the business for about 10 years! During Form 3, Ng Chin Hung changed to another school and eventually completed his Form 5 by taking the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination. He then started work in the USD.

After Ng Chin Hung had completed Form 5 in 1979, a neighbour called ‘Fat Uncle’ referred him for a job at the USD. As the man and his wife had no children of their own, they regarded Ng Chin Hung as the son they had never had. He wound up working in the USD’s Sai Yee Street branch for many years and got to know a lot of inspectors there. When one of these inspectors was transferring to the Sai Kung branch, he recommended that Ng Chin Hung apply for the job. After an interview and examination, including a simple English conversation, Ng Chin Hung started working in Sai Kung doing paperwork two days later. Every week, he went to the beaches in and around Sai Kung to collect water samples which he then took to Sai Yee Street for testing. Collecting the water to be tested was not that much different from going to the seaside for a picnic as Ng Chin Hung could swim and catch fish while he was away from his desk. One year later, the USD’s Southern District headquarters was set up and Ng Chin Hung was transferred to the Director’s Office at Tak Shing Street. In addition to doing paperwork, he was also made responsible for looking after the meetings of his superiors and arranging for tea and stationery. Ng Chin Hung left the civil service in 1981 to help out in his elder sister’s antique shop in Tsim Sha Tsui. As his brother-in-law often scolded him for being late, he did not stay there for very long.

At that time, various family neighbours in Nga Tsin Wai operated financial companies in Kowloon City and San Po Kong. They subsequently invited Ng Chin Hung to take over as manager of a shop in San Po Kong. Little over a year later, he moved on and opened two financial companies in Mongkok. Here, he provided night trade information about the gold market to customers in return for a 10-20% commission if customers traded at a profit. That said, if his customers lost money, he was required to compensate them out of his own pocket! In those days, Ng Chin Hung was earning the then very respectable wage of HK$20,000-30,000 every night and having a great time! Happy customers who had made money often invited him to join them for a late night supper of lobster sashimi. Ng Chin Hung closed down his companies in 1985 due to a serious market collapse. He subsequently returned to work in his elder sister’s antique shop, staying there until 1993. Business at the antique shop was very good in the late 1980s and its many customers included leading local and overseas celebrities and tycoons such as Cheng Yu Tung, Stanley Ho, Michael Jackson and Prince Philip. Still more customers travelled from as far afield as Taiwan, Japan and even the US. Ng Chin Hung earned a lot of commission from selling antiques. With collectibles often fetching prices in excess of HK$1,000,000, his monthly income hit the HK$60,000-70,000 mark.

Ng Chin Hung never had to look very far for his next job. After secondary graduation, his neighbour Fat Uncle referred him for a post in the USD. He was interested in police work. While employed as a civil servant, Ng Chin Hung’s boss, who was a foreign executive officer, wrote him a letter recommending him for an application to the Auxiliary Police Force. He was eventually admitted for training in 1980, only returning his uniform and leaving his post in 1985. He was stationed in Kowloon City during this period. Ng Chin Hung’s jobs in financial services were also brought about following the introduction of his neighbours. A tenant called Ah Bun who lived in 6th Lane worked as the treasurer in Bacera (Editor’s note: should mean Bacera Bullion Limited) in Lok Shan Road. Ng Chin Hung first got to know Ah Bun through a friend’s introduction and it was through Ah Bun that he got his break with Bacera. He subsequently worked in his elder sister’s antique shop until he quit in 1994. He then re-joined the financial sector thanks to touching bases with an apprentice whom he had once trained who was now a manager in a financial company.

In 1994, Ng Chin Hung’s boss asked him if he would like to start up a company in Mainland China. That January, he was assigned to Guangzhou where he focused on foreign exchange, gold and futures. By this time, Ng Chin Hung was already a veteran of the finance industry and the company expanded rapidly in China, setting up many branches and subsidiaries in provinces and cities across the Mainland. As many Beijing state-owned enterprises’ bosses had suffered heavy losses in their financial investments, the central leadership ordered an investigation. Shortly thereafter, an official document was issued banning financial firms like those for which Ng Chin Hung worked. At this point, he changed jobs to garment retailing.

Ng Chin Hung had quite good contacts in Guangzhou as Hong Kong people liked to frequent the local coffee shops there. One of the Hongkongers he got to know quite well was an auditor who owned a local boutique which Ng Chin Hung eventually snapped up for a few tens of thousands of dollars. Investing in a business in Guangzhou proved to be a very shrewd move as Ng Chin Hung was easily able to quickly sell every consignment of goods he sourced from Hong Kong. More than once, he even had to close his doors as he had so many customers inside his store! He eventually opened six or seven branches in Guangzhou and employed a big staff. Business started to decline after 1997 because customers could easily travel to Hong Kong under the Individual Visit Scheme. Once there, they could directly buy and ship the same goods Ng Chin Hung was selling back to Guangzhou by themselves. Coupled with rising rents, the business environment in Guangzhou had become increasingly difficult. His boutiques were eventually closed down one after the other, and Ng Chin Hung eventually closed the stores for good in 2005. At this point, he returned to Hong Kong to focus on the redevelopment of Nga Tsin Wai.

(Editor’s note: Born in 1960,) Ng Chin Hung spent his childhood in Nga Tsin Wai, learning to love listening to the conversations of the village elders from around the age of eight. As a result, he grew to understand many past stories from old folk such as his grandmother, father, Ng Kau, Ng Kam Ling, Ng Hung On and Ng Yeung Kin. Every time one of the seniors began a new tale, he listened carefully and kept the stories in mind. Having been passed down from generation to generation, this oral history taught Ng Chin Hung a great deal about village affairs. Having forged close ties with Ng Kam Ling, Ng Chin Hung learned much about the land acquisition process of the British Hong Kong Government in the early years first hand. Before the land was liable for compulsory purchase, it seemed the Government published a Gazette informing owners to collect compensation calculated at market prices within one month. Failure to do so would mean the amount would be transferred to the Treasury and confiscated. If a villager tried to collect this money after the cut-off date, he or she would need to hire a lawyer to resolve matters. In the court, the judge would ask the aggrieved villager ‘Why did you fail to collect your money on time? Were you trying to be confrontational?’

Ng Chin Hung’s family owned large tracts of land in and around Nga Tsin Wai before the 1960s. Of these, Lot 5646 had an area of over 10,000 sq. ft. Half of this land was rented out to a fruit plant, while the other half was leased by a sauce factory before being expropriated by the Government for construction of seven-storey resettlement blocks in the 1950s. To cope with the influx of refugees from the Mainland between the 1940s and 50s, the Government used the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance to forcibly impose compulsory purchase orders on Nga Tsin Wai’s indigenous inhabitants. Once their lands had been acquired, the Government set about building the seven-storey resettlement buildings. These properties eventually evolved into new public housing estates and home ownership buildings.

The Ng Clan Ancestral Hall was originally located in Lot 5604 and covered an area of about 9,000 sq. ft. (approx. 0.21 acres). The building also doubled as a school. In around 1960, the Government requisitioned the lot. Ng Wai Chi (Chairman of the Hong Kong Seamen’s Union) and Ng Wah Yau (a Red Army veteran of Chairman Mao’s Long March) opposed the demolition of the ancestral hall. They appealed to the Governor of Guangdong Province, Chen Yu. After many rounds of Sino-British negotiations, the British Government agreed to begin a land exchange and also reconstruction of the ancestral hall. The bulk of the new lot was used for building Chi Tak Public School, greatly benefitting school-age kids in the surrounding areas. The school was jointly organised by the Ng Clan and the Education Department, with the latter being responsible for funding. At that time, the land exchange contract was in English and contained provisions requiring that the school portion was restricted solely to educational use. Not fluent in English, the Ng ancestors were completely unaware of such restrictions and executed the deed in good faith.

In 2008, the Government ordered the closure of the school due to a lack of students. In the process, they also took back the school grounds without making any mention of compensation. Ng Chin Hung thought that this was robbing citizens of their land. He was outraged that although the British used power as a means of suppression, they claimed to be both moral and just. After Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China, the SAR Government seemed to have no such scruples and effectively became a Chinese person bullying a fellow countryman. In recent years some Tung Tau Estate residents have complained to the District Council that Nga Tsin Wai village’s redevelopment into a residential area will create a wall of new buildings whose wind shield effect will adversely affect feng shui. Ng Chin Hung dismissed such ideas, saying that Nga Tsin Wai Village had been established 300 years ago. Back then, all lands within a radius of around two kilometers belonged to families surnamed Ng, Chan or Lee. It was only thanks to their ancestors’ selfless dedication in insisting their lands were for public use that the seven-storey public housing blocks could be completed. The villagers did not complain about the public housing buildings blocking the walled village’s feng shui. Their discontent indicated that they did not understand the difference of the ‘banker’ and the ‘player’.

Ng Chin Hung first began getting interested in village affairs in around 1980 when he was just 20 years old. His family owned a lot of land in and around Nga Tsin Wai, and his father and uncle were registered on the deeds of several ancestral houses which had initially been bought by Ng Chin Hung’s grandfather. Ng Chin Hung’s father and uncle only registered their names in the deeds so they could inherit and transfer their father’s title, rather than for purely sales and purchases. When Ng Chin Hung’s uncle was living in the US, the properties were taken care of by his father. As Ng Chin Hung cared about his family’s property holdings, he paid close attention to the development of Nga Tsin Wai. When China State Bank (“CSB”) started its acquisition of the village in the early 1980s, it offered residents around HK$600,000 for each house. This was then enough to buy two flats in Mei Foo Sun Chuen.

In 1984, Cheung Kong Holdings (“CKH”) mounted its own acquisition of village properties, offering prices of around HK$660,000. During the period when Ng Kam Ling and Lee Foo were Village Headmen, Ng Chin Hung was still very young and did not participate in village affairs. That said, he was well acquainted with a villager called Ng Kau who, like his uncle, was a sailor. Thanks to their shared interest in seafaring, Ng Kau entertained Ng Chin Hung with many stories about his uncle. Ng Chin Hung sold antiques and crafts in Tsim Sha Tsui in the late 1980s. During this time he was influenced by Ng Kau and his brother, and was attracted to seafaring work as it offered him a chance to travel around the world. After Ng Kau became Village Headman in 1988, he repeatedly invited Ng Chin Hung’s father to attend meetings. The old man was more interested in drinking and dancing. Ng Kau therefore invited Ng Chin Hung to attend meetings of the Government departments instead.

Ng Chin Hung’s father suffered a stroke in 1989 and was no longer able to take care of his family’s ancestral homes. As a result, Ng Chin Hung asked the older man to initiate a title transfer. Since his father still clung on to traditional ways of thinking, he refused to do so while he remained alive. He instead told Ng Chin Hung to just follow the way his grandfather’s death had been handled by simply taking the death certificate to the District Office for title transfer. When Ng Chin Hung’s father died in 1990, the inheritance had become very complicated. It subsequently took three years to complete the necessary formalities which taught Ng Chin Hung a valuable lesson. According to British common law, inheritance must be executed according to a will. If a will has not been made, the principle of equality between men and women in the distribution of the estate will be applied. As a result, the mother of a person who died intestate (i.e. without making a will) will be entitled to one half of the estate, while the children will share the other half equally.

Nga Tsin Wai was an urban walled village under the Old Schedule Lot. According to urban village regulations, Ng Chin Hung’s father’s estate should have been processed according to the clanship succession law of the Great Qing Legal Code. As a result, it should only have been inherited by male descendants. Ng Chin Hung and his brother smoothly completed the succession procedures in the District Office. By the time Ng Chin Hung’s uncle died in the US in 2005, Hong Kong had been returned to China and the clanship succession law had been replaced by a system emphasising equality between men and women. Ng Chin Hung’s uncle’s titles were so complex, they are still being processed in the courts due to the large amount of documents that must be submitted to the courts.

The earliest consortium which tried to develop Nga Tsin Wai was CSB which offered residents over HK$200,000 to buy their homes in around 1977 or 1978. Still having a feudalistic mindset back then, the villagers were unimpressed by CSB’s offer. In 1984, CKH formally proposed its own acquisition, offering HK$660,000 for each 0.01-acre plot of land. As 0.01 acres of land equals around 435 sq. ft, and the transaction was based on the area listed in the deeds, CKH’s offer sparked a stampede of would-be sellers. CKH then gradually increased its purchase price to HK$680,000, HK$880,000, HK$1,200,000, HK$1,800,000 and finally HK$2,400,000 to entice any holdouts. Tempted by CKH’s final offer, former Village Headman Ng Kau became the last resident to sell his house to CKH, eventually accepting HK$2,200,000 in cash with CKH setting aside HK$200,000 for relocating the tenants. Ng Chin Hung did not intend to sell his houses as he felt CKH’s offering price was too low and its attitude was too arrogant. He had telephoned CKH’s acquisition department to learn more about their offer, but their staff did not want to talk to him about price over the phone. Claiming they were too busy working, they told Ng Chin Hung to bring in his deeds to the office in order to complete the formalities if he was really interested in selling.

In 2003, Ng Chin Hung proposed an equal area ‘flat-for-flat’ exchange to CKH’s acquisition department. His idea was to use his Nga Tsin Wai village houses in exchange for CKH’s residential units in either Horae Place, Kingswood Villas or Whampoa Garden. CKH immediately rejected this proposal. Every one or two months thereafter, Ng Chin Hung telephoned in the hope of initiating further discussions but with little success. In 2005, CKH eventually advised him that they had halted their acquisition of the village. Since then Ng Chin Hung has had no contact with CKH whatsoever. He eventually learned from inside information that the acquisition department held regular meetings on every Wednesday which were personally presided over by Li Ka Shing. In every meeting, Li Ka Shing asked about the acquisition progress in Nga Tsin Wai. It seemed the old tycoon was frustrated that the acquisition had dragged on for 21 years as he would dearly like the project completed within his lifetime.

The LDC was established in 1996 with Shek Lai Him as Chairman. It subsequently launched its own intended acquisition of Nga Tsin Wai village. Stephen Fisher, Deputy Secretary of Planning and Lands Bureau, informed the villagers what was happening and invited Ng Chin Hung and others to negotiate with the LDC. The LDC initially offered each resident a price of HK$1,900,000 for his or her home. This was lower than the HK$2,200,000 CKH had offered in the expectation that property prices would soar after Hong Kong’s 1997 return to China. Ng Chin Hung thought that the LDC existed in name only, and that no villager would seriously consider an offer fully HK$200,000-300,000 lower than CKH had put on the table before. At this point, Ng Chin Hung was unable to sell his own houses because of title ownership issues caused by his father and uncle’s ownership of the ancestral properties. As his uncle had settled in the US, selling could not proceed without the old man’s signature of approval. At that time, Ng Chin Hung’s family had leased out part of their ancestral properties. Because they were inhabited by tenants, the houses had not been damaged by termites. As living conditions were acceptable, the tenants were in no rush to move out. As such, their houses were not sold during the LDC bid. Soon after, the LDC became bankrupt because of its Langham Place project in Mongkok and Nga Tsin Wai’s acquisition failed to materialise. The LDC was subsequently reorganised as the URA which started the Nga Tsin Wai redevelopment project all over again.

Wong Tai Sin District Council (“WTSDC”) classified Nga Tsin Wai as a site of historical interest in April 2000, subsequently passing a motion to preserve the entire village. Although Ng Chin Hung was at that time an heir to the estate in accordance with the Great Qing Legal Code, WTSDC had not consulted him beforehand. Once the owners had agreed to classify their properties as historical buildings, title ownership would be frozen and the Government would be responsible for all maintenance costs related to each property. In 2004, the Legislative Council passed a motion that the URA would take over 25 projects left over by the former LDC, with Nga Tsin Wai redevelopment (code K1) at the top of the list. Frustratingly for the URA, the WTSDC’s earlier motion meant it was unable to commence work on the project.

At the start of the April 2005 fiscal year, the Government auctioned off two residential lots at Sha Po Road receiving satisfactory bids for land that is now home to the Le Billionnaire and The Latitude properties. This was the first time the Government had auctioned land in Kowloon City for decades. Ng Chin Hung therefore approached the URA as an indigenous inhabitant to enquire about the price and progress of Nga Tsin Wai’s acquisition. The URA informed him that the development of the K1 project was on hold and could only move forward if WTSDC’s motion was overruled. In the following two years Ng Chin Hung and his younger brother lobbied all concerned parties. In doing so, they sent letters to the SAR Chief Executive plus various Legislative Council and District Council members outlining the poor living conditions in Nga Tsin Wai and the urgent need for villagers to improve their quality of life. Several times, he led officials and councilors on tours of the village so they could see for themselves the hardships villagers faced every day. Later, he successfully obtained the signatures of every householder in the village bar one on a petition requesting the authorities’ approval of the final overruling WTSDC’s motion and the redeveloping of Nga Tsin Wai. The Legislative Council eventually overturned WTSDC’s decision and approved the start the redevelopment in 2008.

After the restart of the Nga Tsin Wai redevelopment project in 2008, Ng Chin Hung and his brother began negotiating with senior executives of the URA. In addition to Managing Director Lam Chung Lun, senior figures involved included Choi Yan Sang, Lee King Chi and Wan Shiu Wah, the latter of who was responsible for land grant and conservation projects. The three prerequisites Ng Chin Hung listed out for the redevelopment were thus: Firstly, Tin Hau Temple would either not be demolished or would be relocated as it was the spiritual epicentre of Nga Tsin Wai. Secondly, the Village Office would be retained. Should the existing Village Office have to be demolished, the facility would be rebuilt in a new location to be agreed following discussions between the villagers and the authorities. Thirdly, as Ng Chin Hung believed redevelopment is not equivalent to demolishing or selling the village, a tablet inscribed with the words ‘Nga Tsin Wai Village’ had to be installed and displayed prominently after any redevelopment. The URA accepted all three conditions, including the conversion of the “Chung Tso” (Communal Hall) next to Tin Hau Temple into a new three-storey Village Office with each floor having an area of about 700 sq. ft. The URA also promised to assume full responsibility for the cost of the maintenance of Tin Hau Temple and to install essential new equipment including a HK$1,000,000 smokeless incense burner at the request of Ng Chin Hung and his brother. The aim was to pre-empt any possible complaints by the new owners.

As he had been born and raised up in Nga Tsin Wai, Ng Chin Hung was aware he could count on the entire village for support when it came to redevelopment matters. Furthermore, Nga Tsin Wai had become an ‘accident black spot’, with house collapses causing death on a regular basis. As the authorities needed to be accountable to the community, it had to be seen to implement the redevelopment project even if it made heavy losses. Ng Chin Hung admitted that the Nga Tsin Wai project was a problematic one to handle. Since this was the first time the URA had ever dealt with a case involving an urban village, it had to resolve title ownership for plots of land under the Block Crown Lease first written in the 1900s. As this involved title ownership within the Old Schedule Lot or even without a lease, these matters were very difficult ones for lawyers to resolve.

Ng Chin Hung had already started negotiating with the concerned departments about the redevelopment as early as in 1985 or 1986 when he was just 25 or 26. Not until 2009 was the implementation of the redevelopment project formally confirmed. Speaking of the protracted negotiations, Ng Chin Hung said with real emotion that he felt that the entire village had benefitted, with every resident receiving generous relocation compensation. Some villagers initially did not agree with the redevelopment, and did not support Ng Chin Hung in his negotiations with the authorities on their behalf. (Editor’s note: The reason for this is that some residents back then wanted to accept the village removal proposal. Their aim was to rebuild themselves new homes behind Chi Tak Public School once Nga Tsin Wai had been reclassified as a historical site.)

Ng Chin Hung moved out of Nga Tsin Wai Village in 1983 to live in his elder sister’s home in Ashley Road, Tsim Sha Tsui and assist in running her antique shops. He subsequently lived in Nathan Road and Canton Road because of their close proximity to his work. In the 1990s, he moved to, and settled in, the Mainland. Even after moving out of Nga Tsin Wai, Ng Chin Hung still regularly returned to the village to take care of his ancestral homes. Back then, his elder sister ran three antique shops where his mother and younger brother also helped out. Ng Chin Hung’s mother lived in his sister’s home, taking care of her daughter’s four kids, whereas his brother had also moved out of Nga Tsin Wai. After Ng Chin Hung’s family departed their 2nd Lane home, the house was leased out to an old woman. Five years younger than him, Ng Chin Hung’s brother studied at La Salle Primary School and New Method College before running his own business after graduation. Brought up in a well-to-do family, Ng Chin Hung and his brother thought that education was not of much use without higher qualifications. This did not prevent either of them from making lots of money.

Since he was very young, Ng Chin Hung understood and spoke Punti. This dialect was also used by indigenous inhabitants of New Territories’ walled villages, Shenzhen and Dongguan. While working in the Mainland, Ng Chin Hung met many local indigenous inhabitants with whom he felt particularly easy and close whenever they communicated in Punti. Adhering to the spirit of his father, he claimed Baoan as his place of origin, proclaiming himself to be a ‘Nantou citizen’, instead of being a Hongkonger, whenever encountering Shenzhen locals in order to enhance mutual intimacy. Nga Tsin Wai village had been included in Shenzhen’s Nantou catchment area during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912). The full name of the villagers’ place of origin during the British rule was ‘Shenzhen Nantou Kowloon Nga Tsin Wai Village’. Ng Chin Hung thought that ‘indigenous inhabitant’ was too common a term and that before British rule, Nga Tsin Wai people could claim to be the original residents of the area. Ng Chin Hung eventually wrote to the Government saying that his ancestors could trace their Hong Kong roots back around 600 years – a period which included  no fewer than seven major Chinese dynasties: Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing, the Republic of China, British Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China.

Ng Chin Hung felt proud about the identity of Nga Tsin Wai’s indigenous inhabitants when he inspected a map that had been drawn by the British army engineer and noted cartographer, Collinson, in 1845. Nga Tsin Wai village was located in the centre of the map, having a trench and a high fort surrounded by a moat. ‘The old town Cowloon’ (sic) was even marked on the map. This was the only sizeable village, and only Nga Tsin Wai in the entire Kowloon that had a ‘city’. Back then, Kowloon Walled City had not yet been built, and Kowloon City as we know it now was still nothing more than a barren plot of land along what is now Fuk Lo Tsun Road. Ng Chin Hung thought that the name ‘Kowloon City’ was actually derived from outsiders’ use of the words ‘Nga Tsin Wai’. It seems that Nga Tsin Wai Road also originally gave its name to the coastal road leading to Nga Tsin Wai.