Master Kong

Biography

Master Kong was born in 1930 in Fenghua in China’s Zhejiang Province. After he dropped out of school after finishing Form 2, he went off to work in Shanghai. At the referral of a relative, Master Kong moved to settle in Hong Kong in 1947 when he joined Chung Hwa Book Co Ltd Printing Works (Chung Hwa Printing Works). Initially an apprentice in the printing workshop, he eventually became a master three years after completing his apprenticeship. When Chung Hwa lost a lot of workers during the 1967 riots, Master Kong was promoted by the company to work in the plate-making workshop. He then served as a plate-making master all the way through until he retired in 1993. Master Kong was fortunate in that he was part of the company’s 1946 to 1949 ‘Golden Age’ during which it printed millions of banknotes for the Nationalist Government. Chung Hwa Printing Works back then was located in To Kwa Wan. During the early part of his career with the company, Master Kong lived in company quarters such as the tenement buildings in Lok Shan Road, To Kwa Wan Road and Ha Heung Road. He eventually settled down at the Chung Hwa Building when he married in 1979, staying there for almost 30 years before he and his wife moved to Tin Shui Wai in 2008.