Lai Yiu Kai

Lai Yiu Kai was born to a family of the Panyu origin. His father was born in Hong Kong and graduated from the Queen’s College. His mother was a Nanhai native born in mainland China and had little schooling. His parents were blessed with 10 children. Lai Yiu Kai is their eldest son and he has 3 brothers and 4 sisters alive. In the early years of the Japanese occupation, his father worked in the cement industry. He specialized in building brick stoves for bakeries and pantry stovesfor restaurants and also provided repair services. The cement service was a family business butthey did notform any company. When they got an order, they would go to the Southorn Playground where they picked male cement workers and female blenders waiting for job calls. In the early 1950s, Lai Yiu Kai joined his father’s trade. He worked as a general cement blender for adaily wage of $3. In those days, a cement master earned a daily wage of $7.

In the latter period of the Japanese Occupation, his father worked in the Admiralty Dockand Taikoo Dock. One day whenhis father was on his way home after work, the Allied Forces was bombing Wan Chai. He was lucky to keep aliveas he stooped down to pick up his workman’s identity card which fortuitously fell to the ground. He only had his feet and eyes injured while most people around him were killed. In the air raid, the Taikoo Dock was seriously damaged. The Kin Hang Terrace at the back of the Lai family’s home was bombed. After the war, his father left the dock and rejoined the cement trade.

After the war, the Lai family continued to live in Queen’s Road East. When the building was demolished in 1955, they moved to Kowloon. His father was the landlord of a flat which had 4 rooms, 2 bed spaces and a balcony. The Lai family lived in the balcony and leased out the rooms and one half of the balcony. In those days, the rental for a flat was several dozen dollars. Lai Yiu Kai described his home as ‘a single bed for a family of eight’. The whole family shared a bunk bed, but the living room was for their exclusive use. For the tenants, they had their meals in their own rooms and took baths or empty their bowels at a corner of the kitchen behind a curtain because the flat had no washroom.I n 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. On the ground floor was the ‘Fook Sau Coffin Shop’. In 1952 when the Korean War was underway, the shop was always piled with remains. It was a horrible scene.

Lai Yiu Kai started school at seven or eight. Before he attended school, he studied at home. In those days, the school term started on the day of winter solstice. It was commonly known as ‘Winter Solstice term’, senior members of the family would give a red packet and celery to the young members who attended school.Lai Yiu Kai’s father taught him Three Character Classic andThousand Character Classic.He had learnt them for one and a half years but he was so young that all he could do was to memorize the words without understanding the meanings. His father also taught him Chinese calligraphy. He was made to copy the model book and practise on the 9-sectored copybook. He recalled that when he attended English course in the evening school, he used to practise English calligraphy with a nip pen and ink on a copybook. With time, he had achieved nice penmanship. He deplores that the childrennowadays have no idea of a copybook.

In 1947 or 1948, he enrolled in the Lai Kwan School in Kennedy Street, Wan Chai. It was a 3-storey school occupying the 2nd and 3rd floors and rooftop of an old building, which used to be a hospital. On each storey of the school was a classroom where30 or 40 students had their lessons. Because there was only one class for each grade, students of all grades shared the same classroom.Mr. Tang the principal was a nice man who seldom ill-treated the students, but he only taught the senior classes. The school held weeklymorning assemblies on the rooftop which all students had to attend. At the assembly, the principal would lecture students on morality and good manners. The Lai Kwan students wore no uniforms. Lai Yiu Kai used to go to school in a shirt and trousers – different suits for summer and winter. In winter, he put on a sweater or coat to keep warm.In those days, the students were simple-minded; they would not compare each other by their clothes or be attracted to famous brands. The Fung Keung’s shoes with rubber-soleswere afamous brand.Lai Yiu Kai went to school and played football in a pair of Fung Keung’s shoes. He used to carry his books in a beigerattan case which cost $2 to$3.

The students received a booklist from the school and bought all their books from bookshops. They bought exercise books from the school at the price of 10 cents each. They might buy what wasneeded for the whole school year in one go.Themultiplication table and alphabetical order were printed at the back of the arithmetic exercise books. Lai Yiu Kaidid not study the Three Character Classic andThousand Character Classicatthe Lai Kwan School. The subjects he learnt at the school included the Chinese language, General Studies and Arithmetic, but not English lesson.In the Chinese language lessons, they learnt the textbookand did composition with a Chinese writing brush on a topic set by the teacher. For English and Arithmetic, the nip pen and pencil were used respectively.School picnic was the major extra-curricular activity, but it was only attended by the students selected by the teachers. The destination included Chai Wan, Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, Shatin and Cheung Chau.

It was his father’s decision that Lai Yiu Kai attended the Lai Kwan School, despite other choices near his home such as the KinlamSchool andDunmei School. He had studied in the privately-run Lai Kwan School until primary 3 when the family could not afford the tuition fees, which was $8 to $10.The principal Mr. Tang was the founder of Lai Kwan School. At one of the weekly morning assemblies, he delivered a speech on the ‘Teachings of the founding father of China’. Students of the Lai Kwan School came from families with moderate income. There were more male students than female students. Each gender formed its own group. The boys did better than the girls in races, and the girls outperformed the boys in manners. Lai Yiu Kai considered that in those days, the classmates were not aware of material difference as much aswhat the students are today. Lai didnot know much about the teachers’ background and he never asked about that. He only remembered that they spoke Cantonese instead of Mandarin. In those days, the teachers did not emphasize too much on examination results, they even took students for a picnic on the examination eve as a way to let them feel more relaxed. Each lesson lasted 45 minutes. There was no special teaching material or method, the blackboard was the only medium. The teaching method was the students’ repetition of each sentence readby the teacher.

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. In those days, standing in class, copying, staying after school and hitting the palm werecommon forms of penalty.Many students had been made to stand in class for not handing in their homework. The teachers would hit male and female students alike with a rattan stick. Lai Yiu Kai had been made to stand in class for chatting and had been made to write with a Chinese brush pen this sentence ‘From now on I dare not …’ repetitively for many times. If a serious mistake was made, the student would be penalized by staying after school for 30 minutes. Lai Yiu Kai had served as aschool prefect andassistant monitor. These positions were appointed by a group of teachers and the appointee must complete the tenure of one school term.A monitor helped teachers out whilea prefect was responsible forwatching students’manners. In recesses, the students chatted but some would sneak out of the school for snacks. Sometimes the school would hold contests for composition, speech or doing arithmetic. The awarded works were displayed on the post boards.

After quitting school, Lai Yiu Kai worked with his father as a cement worker in the day time and attended the free evening school run by Pun U Association (also known as the Kiukong Chinese Evening School). The school occupied the 2nd, 3rd and 4thfloors of a building on Lockhart Road. Lai Yiu Kai was admitted because his father was a member of the Association. The evening school did not hold any entrance examination. It ran 6 classes with 20 to 30 students each. Lessons were given from 7pm to 9pm, from Monday to Friday. Lai Yiu Kai repeated Primary 3. There were more male students than female but all were of similar age and generally came from poor families. The evening school students were older. Some Primary six graduates were 17 to 18, which was an age of puberty.

The subjects included Chinese language, English language, General Studies, Visual Art and Music. They had 3 lessons in 2 hours with a 10-minute recess.The curriculum of the evening schoolwas more difficult andthey had to learncalculation with an abacus. But it was not useful at work because the calculator had already become popular. Oxford New Method was the textbook for English language. Students had to write copybook. The lesson mainly focused on spelling and the students had little chance to practice making sentences. The evening school taught in ways similar to the day school. The teachers taught the content of the textbook with a rattan stick in hand and also threw chalks at students. Although Lai Yiu Kai worked in the day, he did not feel tired in the evening classes. When he was in Primary six, his family moved to Kowloon. Lai Yiu Kai had no alternatives but left schools in tears without completing the primary education.The evening school run by the Pun U Association held the graduation ceremony at the Oriental Theatre on Fleming Road every year.Ko Ho Ning was the owner of the theatre and he let the school hold the ceremony there because he was a Panyu native. After the ceremony, teachers and students had dinner at the Ying King Restaurant. Later, Lai Yiu Kai worked in the US company Eveready. He pursued further studies in an English evening school with the subsidyby the company. It covered one half of the tuition fees and book expenses.

Lai Yiu Kai joined Eveready in 1957. Because the company offered subsidizes up to one half of the tuition fees and he had to carry out sometranslation duty, he attended the English evening school run by the Rosary Church on Jordan Road. Buthe did not take the course to make himself more competitive for promotion. In the lessons, students would take turn and read from the dictionary. Lai Yiu Kai had been made to stand in class as he failed to catch up with the reading. Lai Yiu Kai had no religion and his family used to worship ancestors for generations.

The evening school classmates were not close to each other and they seldom socialized after school. There were no extra-curricular activities because everyone was tired afterthe daytime’s job.They directly went home after school. To Lai Yiu Kai, the life juggling between work and study was boring - worked in the day, went to schoolat night and hurried home after school.

When the Lai family moved to Yau Ma Tei, they were no longer second-hand landlord and became tenants.They rented a room in a flat and lived with other households and shared the kitchen and washroom. He did not think their conditions had worsened when they became ordinary tenants because the family of eight people continued to rest onone bed. Later, they moved to Sham Shui Po. At first, they lived in a building opposite to the Sham Shui Po Ferry Pier on Hoi Tan Street, then they moved to Fuk Wah Street (or Fuk Wing Street) and Pei Ho Street (where the Golden Computer Arcade stands) before moving into the permanent residence in So Uk Estate.He didnot think their conditions had worsened when they moved to Sham Shui Po, neither didhe think it was a place filled with crimes. He picked driving attitude as an example. He thought residents on Hong Kong Island had better manners than Kowloon residents. Drivers used togive way on the road so there were fewer accidents occurredon Hong Kong Island. Kowloon residents were more casual in attire and manner. He thoughtit wasprobably because of their different standards of living. Lai Yiu Kaithoughtthat neighbours’ relation in So Uk Estate was not close. All households kept to themselves. His mother preferred to sit idly in the balcony to socializing with her neighbours. When Lai Yiu Kai moved to Shatin, his mother advised him not to have mahjong games with the housewives therebecause she worried thathe would addict to it.

In the 1950s and 60s, parties and dancing were popular among the young people. When Lai Yiu Kai was at school, he liked to listen to western songs. He especially likedthe songs The donkey in the window and Put your head on my shoulder.In those days, he seldom watched western movies. 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. He did not have much time for entertainment when working in Eveready because he onlyhad two holidays every month. He mainly went out with his colleagues. They would go swimming at the Repulse Bay or the Chung Sing Swimming Shed in the Western District. He almost got drowned once because he was not good at swimming.

In 1972, Lai Yiu Kai started working in the Kam Kee Fabrics. It wasa medium-sized company with local garment factories as the main customers. In the 1970s, the company mainly served customers in Tsuen Wan and Kwai Chung and it seldom had business with the mainland garment industry. Kam Kee supplied all kinds of fabrics to the garment factories, such as denim, corduroy, nylon, printed fabrics, shirt fabric, Terylene Cotton, twill and canvas. To produce the finished fabric, the first step was to purchase the grey clothes. They were then sent to the dyers for dyeing. This was followed by shrinking and cutting before they could be sold. Sometimes, the company dyed the yarn instead of fabrics. Yarn was bought and dyed before weaving. Lai Yiu Kai spent a lot of time liaising with local dyers of all sizes to arrange work. The large factories dyers included China, South China, Tai Ping andHeung Do and the small dyers were mainly located in Tsuen Wan, Ngau Chi Wan and Yuen Long. Thelarge dyers used continuous press-dye method which included the steps of singeing, desizing, dyeing, pulling, shrinking and rolling. The factories had machines to complete the entire process, such as dyeing and shrinking machines. The small dyers used the vat dyeing method which could not handle fabric more than 800 yards long and might have uneven coloration. Although the large dyersdid not have this problem, the colour of the dyed remnant would look darker.

Lai Yiu Kai worked as the QC (Quality Check/Control) in KamKee Fabrics. He had to shuttle to and fro the weaving mills and all fabric cutting, shrinking and dyeing factories personally. In his own factory, the QC checked the weaving progress to ensure that the right pattern was weaved, andthe number and size of the warps and woofs were correct.Take twill as an example,the warp-woof ratio of the four-panel twill was ‘10858’, then the ratio of warp to woof for each sq. inch was108: 58. The fabric company chose the weaver based on the prices. The large weavers were better in quality and the small weaverswere cheaper in processing fees. The finished products were sent to the cutting factory which checked the number of ribs and unusable amount. When this was done, they would be sent to the dyers. The QC and the dyer’s proprietor checked the color with the Lap-Dip. 5% chromatic differencewasallowed in the trade, i.e. a maximum of 50 yards of unusable fabric is acceptable for every 1,000 yards.The QC checked 10% of the product, i.e. 1,000 yards (bolt of cloth is 80 to 90 yards) was checked for every 10,000 yards of dyed fabric. Because some dyer proprietorsare Lai Yiu Kai’s friends, he could ask for an early delivery. Different fabrics had different difficulties to tackle. The production of corduroy was a complicated process. The QC had to visit the fabric company, cutting factory and dyer.The production process for denim was the simplest. The fabric company only had to dye the warp yarn and send it for weaving and finishing. The QC had to check the shrinking proportion, which was usually 8%. Production of the denim seldom hadproblems.

The dyeing workshop was a very hot place because of hot boiling water and wind-proof design. Since there were only male workers, everyone worked in underpants. The larger dyers used the wind-proof high-temperature vat. The small dyers had no high-temperature vat so they could not dye Terylene Cotton. Instead, they mainly dyed the corduroy, twill and canvas. The fabrics dyed royal blue always had edge problem. To prevent wind exposure, the central vat of the workshop was usually used. Loose dye was the main cause of discoloration. Most customers would state clearly that they wanted ‘wash color’ in the contract. ‘Wash color’ meant color comes off in every wash. But, customers could choose for fast color. Yarn seldom discolored but denim always did so it could not be mixed with other clothes for laundry.

Before working as the QCin Kam Kee Fabrics, Lai Yiu Kaihad worked in a plastic factory so he knew a lot about dyestuff. When the plastic factory closed down, Lai Yiu Kai changed several jobs until he became the driver of the Kam Kee Fabrics’ proprietor. The proprietor arranged Lai Yiu Kai to join the textile trade after he hadworked as his driver for six months. His work was fabric inspection. He started with yarn counting. He learned enthusiastically and never hesitated to consult the small dyers.He was competent to choose stock one week after he was employed. The work experience in the plastic factory was useful to his new job. Lai Yiu Kai emphasized that the fabric job needed a lot of thinking anditgave him frequent headache which he still suffers now. In those days, it was not easy to meet the customers’ requirements with thefew types of weaving machines available. For example, the four-shuttle weaving machine could not weave 5-colored fabrics and it couldonly be done with a wool loom which is commonly used today.

In recent years, the customers are demanding with fabric quality, such as stench-proof, fireproof and proper pH. They ask for all kinds of tests which the QC must comply. For the large US companies, only products from the large factories meet their requirements.Besides, the QCmust also take into consideration the dyestuff components. For example, red is the mixture of various dyestuff, blue is the combination of green and yellow, purple has chromatic changes under high temperature.The fabric companies always have disputes with their customers over these problems.Since the 1970s, the local dye technology has greatly advanced. Today,some dyers use the computers for color checking. Chromatic deviation will be automatically rectified in the computerized process.

There were different kinds of garment factories which specialized in top, bottom, suit, heavy or light clothes. Kam Kee Fabrics mainly specialized in coats and supplied fabrics to garment factories. The fabric industry was prosperous in 1973 when Lai Yiu Kai joined the trade. The market demand was great and a fabric company could survive as long as it completedtheorder. Later, the quota system dealt a blow to the textile industry. In recent years, a dyer faces great difficulties in operation because of environmental regulations, high rental and high drainage costs. Dyers closed down one after another before 1997. The number of the existing dyers in Hong Kong is only one-tenth of that in the early 1970s. A few still operate inYuen Long. The QC task which Lai Yiu Kai used to carry out in Kam Kee Fabrics has been taken over by the companies in mainland China.

In 1997, Lai Yiu Kai left Kam Kee for Fansky Industries Limited, which had its own weaving mill and dyer. At the time, the US customers placed orders with the garment factories which turned to the fabric companies for materials. In the 1990s, many garment factories moved their production lines out of Hong Kong. Lai Yiu Kaihad to travel to other countries for inspection, such as Sri Lanka, Madagascar and Bangladesh. He had no problem to communicate in English because the content mainly focused on color and few jargons were used. Because Fansky Industries had a factory in Shanghai, he spent most of his time in Shanghai while working in the company. The prime season of business was from July to February but there was no business after the Spring Festival. As the saying in the trade goes: ‘Business doesn’t come in May and June but resumes in July’. EveryJuly, Fansky Industries produced the samples. In July and August the large US clients informed the garment factories of their requirements. In September, the garment factoriesproduced the master samples and procured fabric samples from the fabric companies. A fabric company would first look for similar samples from the warehouse.If no similar sample wasfound, it cooperated with theweaving mill and dyer to produce one. A sample wasa 200- or 300-yard fabric. The dyeing fee for a sample wasmore expensive than a grey cloth because the same amount of dyestuff wasused for dyeing 200 yards and 800 yards of fabric.The dyers usedJava Script (JS) which wascommonly used in the worldwide textile industries but theLap-Dipwasused between the fabric companies and dyers. Some dyers hada small vatforspecial use of dyeing several yards of samples.

Looking back on his several-decade career, Lai Yiu Kai said he had the greatest workload when working in an artificial leather factory in Tsuen Wan. He was the assistant-in-charge (an equivalent of assistant 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. Things were better when he worked in the fabric company. He does not pursue for wealth, all he wanted wasa stable life supported with a monthly salary. When he worked as a QC, a client asked whether he would like to start his own business but taking risk wasnot his character, not to mention his family burden.

In those days, an order from a garment factory usually involved 20,000 to 30,000 yards of fabric andthis needed a capital of more than $200,000 to set up a fabric company. It was the established trade practice to pay within 45 days upon completion of an order. Besides, the fabric company had to bear serious consequences in case of wrong dyeing because the client mightrefuse to accept the goods and pay for them. Because it was difficult to solicit new clients for the new company, the only way wasto snatchexisting clients from former employer. Lai Yiu Kai deplored that gaining business meant losing friends. Besides, a fabric company proprietor usually faced a sad ending. For partnership, disputes over business were likely to occur between the partners.

Lai Yiu Kai is satisfied with his several-decade career which has givenhim average financial status. He said in the society he belonged to the ‘lower middle class’ andin all the companies he worked he belonged to the middle-rank with a status secondary to the proprietor. But in Eveready, he was among the low-ranked staff. He joined the company as the messenger and became the bill collector 6 months later. He worked there for two or three years and then worked in an artificial leather factory in Tsuen Wan. He was a worker for the first six months and then he was appointed as assistant-in-charge (the equivalent of assistant officer) in the production department which was a middle-rank post of the company. In 1972, he was employed by Kam Kee Fabrics. The company employed 20 to 30 staff with shipping, sales, accounting, quality control and warehouse departmentswhich operated on equal footing. Thing were smooth inhisseveral-decade career life. He had jobs commensurate with his educational level and he has never been unemployed. His motto was ‘History is more important than qualifications’. He worked his way up the career ladder by means of good interpersonal relationship, competency and learning.

Lai Yiu Kai considered that “working for others leads to nowhere and one makes a fortune only by taking risks”. But all he wantedwerethree meals and completion of assignments.He has never wished to become rich because wealth means loss of freedom. When he was young, he never thought thoroughlyabout his future and all he wished was ‘getting paid for the month’. He earned basic monthly salary and commission in KamKee Fabrics. He liked fixed monthly salary and pursued stable income so that he couldmeet the monthly family expenses. He had been criticized for being too conservative. But, he derived his satisfaction from problem solving and superiors’ recognition, although he did suffer stomach ache caused by high work pressure.

Lai Yiu Kai lived in an old building in Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai. The Lai family was the owner of a flat on the 2nd floor. The spacious flat was partitioned into four rooms for lease and was shared by seven households (including Lai’s family). There were no windows and electric fans in the rooms. In the corridor were two large beds separated with a wooden partition and they were leased to two couples. The five members of Lai’s family (parents, the third younger brother, the fifth younger sister and Lai Yiu Kai) occupied one half of the balcony. A bunk bed and a canvas back bed were placed on the balcony. Lai Yiu Kai slept on the canvas back bed. The flat had water supply but no electricity and the tenants were not provided with telephones or electric lamps. The kerosene lamps were the only illumination. At night, Lai Yiu Kai did his homework under the light of a kerosene lamp. They used no electric lamp until after they moved to Kowloon. A kerosene lamp had a glass chimney for holding kerosene and a wick for adjustment. The tenants shared the kitchen and firewood was used for cooking. Because no washroom and bathroom were provided, they had to take a bath or empty their bowels at a corner of the kitchen behind a curtain.

The front room was leased to an old woman, the second and third rooms were leased to bachelor cement workers. The tenants of the last room never stayed long and it had been leased to a number of tenants. The Lai’s family preferred to lease their rooms to couples. It was specifically stated on the room-for-lease bills they displayed on the street that the room was ‘For Couples Only’. Couples were preferred because it was worried that men without a family might be bad elements or would default in rent payment. The tenants seldom socialized with each other because all had to work. In those days, unemployment was uncommon because there were ample job opportunities. The living standard was low in the early post-war period and a cement worker earned a daily wage of $3. But the food prices were low. A plate of rice cost a few dozen cents and a plate of barbecued pork buns (two for a plate) in the early tea session of a Chinese restaurant only cost 30 cents. It only cost 50 cents to have tea at the Ying King Restaurant.

When Lai Yiu Kai was a child, he used to play shuttle cock and marbles near the coffin shop in the back alley. He also had games using soft drink caps, tobacco cases and throwing coins for pogs (a kind of gambling). His father gave him 5 or 10 cents for snacks. He used to spend it on orange juice or Sarsae at the Watson’s.Lai Yiu Kai always played soccer at the Southorn Playground. In those days, the soccer pitch was called the ‘ball ground’. During the Japanese occupation, his mother sold second-hand clothes to make a living.The day when the Allied Force bombarded the Fung Wong Terrace, his family took shelter under the beds and tables when the air raid siren wailed.

In 1957, Lai Yiu Kai’s father changed his job and worked as a building caretaker. The whole family moved to Kowloon and rented a room in a building on Pitt Street. It was a new-style building with a low ceiling. The flat had no balcony and was shared by three or four households. It was a crowded living environment and the whole family would eat and sleep in the room. At the time he worked in Sham Shui Po, he used to walk to Nathan Road for the bus. In the days when he lived in Pitt Street, he seldom participated in community activities because all his time was spent on work and evening school. The only activity was to have Chinese tea at Lung Fung Restaurant. Later, they moved to Pei Ho Street because the Pitt Street flat was too small.

Ancestral worship has always been practiced in the Lai family and they have spirit tablets handed down from generation to generation. When they lived in Queen’s Road East in Wan Chai, they accommodated the tablets in a god-shelf. Besides the ancestors of the Lai family, the Kwan Tai and Monkey King were also worshipped. All the 7 households worshipped the gods, they waited orderly for their turns. The god-shelf was at a high spot, the worshipper had to stand on a chair to offer the incense. Other tenants worshipped the god of land and god of kitchen. Each household hung a photo of the family’ s ancestor in the room. When the Lai family moved to Pitt Street, they only took away the tablets of the grandparents and Monkey King and the god-shelf was left behind. In the new home, they were kept in a case because there was no space for enshrinement. It was not until they moved to So Uk Estate that the tablets were re-enshrined for worship.

Lai Yiu Kai moved to So Uk Estate in 1960. His father was the applicant for the public housing unit. When the government investigators came to assess their application qualifications, his father highlighted that his son had served in the disciplinary force. Lai Yiu Kai though it was probably because his father revealedsuch relationship that they were allocated a unit. At the time, his father, his younger brother and him all had stable jobs. One of his younger brothers was a bus driver.They were allocated the unit after a wait oftwo to three years when the unit was vacated by tenant’s removal.Later, when the Lai family applied for Pok Hong Estate, they waited for more than a decade before a unit was allocated.The Lai family chose to apply for So Uk Estate because it was close to their workplaces.

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 tothe Social Welfare Department for the unemployment relief, but was refused. He 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. He deplored at the unpredictability of life. His wife always advises him against reminiscence.When he worked in KamKee Fabrics, he earned high commissions. Lai Yiu Kai had generously spent several thousand dollars and treated his family and relatives to dinner gatherings at the Tai Woo Restaurant in Wan Chai andeach feast cost more than $2,000. 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. Lai Yiu Kai never has much savings. To avoid being the victim of price manipulation, he never invests in the shares market. He cannot afford to buy a residential flat neither, so he emphasizes that he ‘owns nothing’. Now he still ‘depends on himself’ by selling his gold ornaments to make ends meet.