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Lai Yiu Kai
Lai Yiu Kai
Retired fabrics quality control
Sex: Male Birthyear: 1939 Age at Interview: 71 Education: Junior Secondary Occupation: Quality control Theme: Community, Education, Industry After the war, the Lai family continued to live in Queen’s Road East. The flat only had a kitchen but no washroom. The residents took a bath took baths or empty their bowels at a corner of the kitchen behind a curtain. In the midnight, someone would come for night soil collection which was commonly known as‘emptying the honey bucket’. The honey bucket was shared by different households but each had their own spittoons
Title Night soil collection in tenement house: ‘’You have never experienced this kind of thing！’’ Date 08/02/2010 Subject Community Duration 1m27s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-001 Lai Yiu Kai attended primary one when he was seven or eight, a normal age of schooling. His classmates were of similar age. Like other active and naughty boys, he usually got a ‘C’ grade for conduct. On one occasion a male student spoke to his classmate in a low voice, the teacher threw the chalk and duster at him. The boy’s hair turned white with chalk dust.
Title Teacher throwing duster: ‘‘The student’s hair turned white completely！’’ Date 08/02/2010 Subject Education Duration 1m11s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-002 The young Lai Yiu Kai felt at ease relating with the opposite sex so he could easily make female friends. When he worked as an outgoing bill collector, he came to know his wife who worked in a wireless electrical appliance shop. She was open and took the initiative to ask him to go see movie. Lai Yiu Kai started dating girlfriends when he worked in Eveready and he used to go to the theatres with them on holidays.
Title Feeling at ease with the opposite sex: ‘‘I could easily make female friends. Don’t know why.’’ Date 08/02/2010 Subject Social Life Duration 1m40s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-003 Looking back on his several-decade career, Lai Yiu Kai saidhe had the greatest workload when working in an artificial leather factory in Tsuen Wan. He was the assistant-in-charge (an equivalent ofassistant officer) of the production department and was responsible to supervise the workers. He worked 15 hours a day from 3pm to 6am. He was so tired that he always yawned in the noon and night shifts.
Title During times of fighting: ‘‘To be frank, you don’t have time to spend what you earn！’’ Date 04/03/2010 Subject Industry Duration 1m28s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-004 Looking back on his several-decade career, Lai Yiu Kai believed things went smooth because of his talents and social connection. He was good at socializing and never offended others so he earned a reputation among his counterpart in textile industry. Although he didn’t have a respectable academic qualification, he worked his way up the career ladder by means of personal talents. His motto was ‘History is more important than qualifications’.
Title Way of Success: ‘‘History is more important than qualifications.’’ Date 04/03/2010 Duration 1m23s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-005 Lai Yiu Kai started to work at the age of 12. In his several-decade career life, he has never been unemployed. He worked until 2006 when he temporarily left the workplace. He emphasized that he was only ‘unemployed’ but not retired. He had applied to the Social Welfare Department for the unemployment relief, but was refused.
Title Unemployment but not retirement: ‘‘I don’t think it is a retirement！’’ Date 25/03/2010 Duration 58s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-006 Lai Yiu Kai has no intention to retire and does not want to become the ‘old man in the park’. He wants to follow his father’s example and works until his last breath. His father had lung cancer and it was only 70 days between the diagnosis and his death.
Title Work Until his last breath: ‘‘I don’t want to be an old man in the park！’’ Date 25/03/2010 Duration 1m7s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-007 When Lai Yiu Kai worked in Kam Kee Fabrics, he earned high commissions. He had spent his $4,000-bonus on a gold watch after his boss’s example just to keep up with the Joneses, but his former employer had criticized him as a shopaholic.
Title Being a shopaholic in the good days: ‘’Sometimes I am a shopaholic therefore I don’t want to go out.’’ Date 25/03/2010 Duration 53s Language Cantonese Material Type Audio Collection Oral History Archives Repository Hong Kong Memory Project Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-008