Li Kit Fai

In 1945 Li Kit-fai was born in Dongguan. He studied at his hometown until graduation from junior secondary school, later landed a job managing a food warehouse. In 1970 Li Kit-fai came to Hong Kong and was referred by his uncle to work as a banana ripener ripening worker at the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market. At the time his uncle was a labourer at Lee Fung Fruit Stall, which wholesaled bananas from Dongguan, Shiqi and Jiangmen. The cargo was transported to the pier next to the Fruit Market, where it was moved to market by the labourers. Each basket of bananas weighed some 300 to 400 kg. The banana ripening worker would place the cargo in a trough, then light some specifically designed incense and use the smoke to remove the surface resin. The banana was then cooled with water, then ice was poured in to firm up the banana fruit. As the fruit was riped, the outer skin turned yellow. Li often suffered from back pains for cleaving the bananas. His uncle arranged him to be a coolie at Lee Fung, when he was 20 years old and he was physically fit with this job.

The wholesalers had permanent employees and while coolies moved cargo regularly for certain shops, they were not considered permanent employees of the wholesaler. Lee Fung Wholesaler was a member of the Fruits Company, which was made up of 10 large-sized wholesalers. It was the designated wholesaler for fruits from the Mainland. Its goods include pears, apples and oranges from the north of China. Upon arriving at Hong Kong the cargo was divided to the large wholesalers according to the capital proportion of each wholesaler in the company. The wages of the coolies were actually paid by the company, but the wholesalers would paid first and reimburse the amount from the company. The wages were calculated piecewise – the amount was determined by the weight of the cargo. The wages were agreed upon by the company and its employees, and all coolies working for any wholesaler would be paid the same wages.

In the old days the imported fruit cargo to the Fruit Market was transported to the pier next to the Fruit Market. The boaters at Yau Ma Tei either operated individually or were employed by shipping companies. The cargo boats served particular cargo type: fruits from South China, North China, Overseas were moved by particular group of cargo boaters. Each boater served more than one wholesaler. Before 1993, fruits from the Mainland were bulk purchased by the Fruits Company. Boaters who transported Mainland fruits to the market was paid by the Company; boats who transported cargo from overseas were paid by the respective shipping company. The wholesalers retrieved the cargo at the pier by the coolies (labourers) they hired. They didn’t need to hire boaters. Upon arriving at the pier the coolies would board the boats and move the cargo to the market. It was a rule of the trade that coolies worked for certain wholesalers; coolies who moved Mainland fruits were employed by the Fruits Company. Li Kit-fai was a coolie for Lee Fung Stall. Initially he was an employee of other wholesalers, and before he left he was earning a monthly salary of HK$420. Upon changing to work as a coolie his monthly salary rose to $700 to $800. Coolies were paid by piece rate, and the more they moved the more income they earned. They worked for less time a day than the regular employees. Li Kit-fai considered coolie was better paid. When he first arrived at Hong Kong he lived in To Kwa Wan. He later rented a cubicle unit at an old building at No. 3, Waterloo Road, which was close to the Fruit Market.

Before he worked as a coolie there existed the custom of paying 5% of the wages to the coolie supervisor. In the 1970s there was a special system to record the amount of work done by each coolie. First the Fruits Company would give a card with a number to the cargo boater listing the type and volume of cargo each boat had to carry. The coolie supervisor would copy the card number at the Fruits Company and distributed a number of chips (bamboo strips) to each coolie. The coolies were allowed to move cargo from the boat only when they could show these chips. Coolies working for different wholesalers would carry chips of different colours. There were misdeeds in the trade where coolies collaborated with cargo boaters and stole cargo imported from overseas. These boaters allowed coolies to move cargo without the chips and the coolie hid the cargo away ashore, later the boaters and coolies shared the stolen cargo or money. The cargo boaters had to report the missing cargo anyway. The boater said that the imported volume did not match with the expected volume so that the problem was solved by having the shipping company to pay the compensation. Shipping companies, to avoid this kind of malpractice, would send sorters to make an inventory on the boat, and monitor the coolies as they worked.

There was fine division of labour at the Fruit Market. Upon arrival in Hong Kong, fruits from the Mainland were moved by cargo boaters onto their cargo boats, which were then berthed at the market pier. The coolies of the market came onto the boats to move the cargo ashore. The employees of the wholesalers examined the cargo and moved them back to the market. Upon making a sale with retailers, the wholesalers would have another party make the delivery. The cargo boaters and the coolies of the market each belonged to the Lighter and Cargo-boat Transportation Workers Union and the Fruit and Vegetable Union. There were permanent and part-time coolies at the pier; the permanent coolies worked for particular wholesalers. Part-time workers were hired during peak seasons, and on ordinary days took care of other moving tasks. Fruit from the Mainland was bulk purchased by the Fruits Company formed by the 10 large wholesalers. The coolies of the company had to stand by at all times, and when they were waiting for boats to berth they dally the time with cards and mah-jong. Every time the flags of ship were seen, the coolies started to work upon a cry: “Ship berthed!” The wholesaler employees would begin work after the coolies finished unloading the cargo. They had more free time and could leave the market for the teahouse or for movies, letting coolies move the cargo into the market. Coolies were more hardworking than wholesaler employees as they had to keep on unloading cargo from boats.

The Fruits Company divided the coolies into 3 teams with each team responsible for a different task. The teams would rotate. The first team was responsible for moving the cargo from the cargo cabin; the second team manned the deck; the third team walked the gangway and moved the cargo ashore. The workload of the first team was the heaviest: they were required to throw cargoes onto the deck like throwing a basketball. Li Kit-fai was young and strong; he was often at the bottom of the cargo cabin (meaning he was assigned to throw cargoes at the bottom of the cabin). He found unloading from direct barges most arduous. Direct barges were boats that transported cargoes from their point of origin to the market. Direct barges moved mostly lychee and bananas and carried the highest amount of cargo. The time needed for unloading was long, and the coolies couldn’t rest even if they were soaked with sweat. Accidents were rare for pier coolies; mostly minor incidents like falling into the sea or scratched by hooks. Whether coolies injured in work accidents depended on whether the wholesaler was kind-minded; most were willing to compensate upon negotiation, for example Po Wo Stall once paid the medical expenses of injured coolies. Because they worked hard moving cargo all year round, the shoulders and backs of many coolies suffered repetitive injuries and had to pay medical expenses themselves. They could lose several days of work because of back pain.

Coolies moving Mainland fruits were different from those moving foreign fruits in terms of wage negotiation. Coolies moving foreign fruits applying for wage raise would obtain agreement from the foreign supplier, the Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association, and the Fruit and Vegetable Union, and with a chop printed on the form. Wages for Mainland fruits required agreement among Ng Fung Hong, Fruits Company, and the coolies. Ng Fung Hong was governed by the Mainland government, who were sympathetic to workers and would mostly agree to a raise. Applications, however, required convincing reasons, for example difficulty of living for workers. The level of the raise would range from 10 cents or several cents per piece of cargo. Upon a raise of transportation charges for Mainland fruits, foreign fruits supplies may also follow suit and raise the charges. The wholesaler may offload the additional costs to the supplier (exporter) or the customer (smaller wholesaler/retailers). They would sometimes propose raises for coolies.

In the old days coolies would threaten strikes demanding pay rises, and most of these demands could be met. In the 1980s when Mainland China underwent reforms and opening up its economy, the business of the Fruit Market was affected. The last strike was held in 1995/1996. Last year the workers failed to apply for pay rise. They were told that suppliers were losing money; if they had to pay higher wages they would sell their cargo to directly chain supermarkets, which would further worsen the business volume of the Fruit Market. In recent years when chain supermarkets began selling fruit, the business volume of the Fruit Market was seriously affected. Supermarkets could purchase cargo directly from suppliers (trading agents). They hired cargo boaters to move the cargo directly from the cargo liners to the supermarkets without having to go through the wholesalers at the Fruit Market. The wholesalers suffered huge business losses and the supplies dwindled; coolies had less work and had less income. Also, after the popularization of cargo containers, there was less demand for manual labour and this had affected the livelihood of labourers.

There were few occasions of leisure activities between pier coolies and wholesaler employees. Coolies only socialized with their peers. Wholesalers provided meals to their employees but not to coolies. The annual dinners of the Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association and groups of individual wholesalers, however, invited two coolies to attend. The logistics association organized by the boaters would invite coolies by offering them one table. The Fruit and Vegetable Union was formerly a workers’ group, an informal organization that offered mutual support among the coolies. There were a head, executive members and other on-site administrators. The positions were filled by election by recommendation. Because the membership was large, candidates were recommended by active members and then opened for voting by members. Most members of the group were coolies of the Fruits Company; only a few were coolies moving foreign fruits. Membership due was 2 to 3 dollars a year. The Ng Fung Hong mandated the Fruit Company to offer income support to the worker’s group. For each cargo item moved by the workers for Ng Fung Hong, the Hong had to give one cent to the group.

Chinese companies encouraged workers to participate in unions, and would even pay the first annual fees for their workers. When Li Kit-fai was working at the pier he was already a member of the group, so it was natural that he joined the union. When the workers got married or had new-borns, the group would offer gifts of daily necessities such as diapers and milk powder; during the Chinese New Year gifts of preserved meats were given to the workers. When a worker was sick, the leaders of the group would visit him; when a worker was in financial difficulty, the group would offer his rice. The group organized local tours during holidays, and each year there was a dinner at Kam Sha Lau Restaurant on Reclamation Street. Most members of the group were also members of the Union of Godown and Wharf Transportation Workers, who spinned off from the worker’s group in 1975. The Fruit and Vegetable Union was organized with more formal regulations. The union would represent workers to negotiate with the Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association for increasing charges of moving cargo. Li Kit-fai had been the union president twice.

In the 1970s business in the Fruit Market was in full bloom. Throughout a year supplies never ceased with cargo from Foshan, Jianmen and Zhanjiang by boats, and those from Huiyang, Dongguan, Baoan were sent by train and truck. Li Kit-fai was busy carrying cargo the whole day; he worked 16 hours a day during the peak at the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New year. He recalled passionately that there was pressing demand for workers in those days but one was only limited by his own health. There was no resting time until all cargoes were moved. Oranges from Thailand were packaged by sizes of Large, Medium and Small, denoted by characters L, N, S. The older generation of coolies knew little English and used Chinese terms to represent these characters.

At the late 1970s the customs officers were strict when they  examined cargo ships from Thailand preventing them from importing illegal items into Hong Kong. Once there was a cargo container carrying Thai oranges to the Fruit Market. The customs officers arrived with x-ray machines and drug hounds. They had no ideas of what the coolies spoke about the L, M and S boxes. In the 1970s Ng Fung Hong was the agency for importing Mainland vegetables, and for several years Li moved vegetables. Lee Fung Stall, which he Li Kit Fai served as a mover, was a member of the Fruits Company. Apart from this large stall, the owner also opened smaller wholesale stalls at Shek Lung Street and Canton Road and sold goods to retailers. He also operated a vegetable wholesale stall at Cheung Sha Wan. All were business operations belonged to one owner. Now all wholesalers in Yau Ma Tei were small wholesalers.

In the 1970s the coolies of the Fruit Market were used to have morning tea at Fu Yu Teahouse. After tea, they went to the pier to move foreign fruits. Ships loaded with foreign fruits were berthed offshore, and cargo boats would go out and take the cargo back to the market. At 8 AM, the Fruits Company would negotiate the price with small wholesalers. After the foreign fruits, the coolies would move Mainland fruits and go off work in the afternoon. In the morning the coolies would move cargo from north China, which arrived by train. The cargo was moved to the market pier from the train station the previous night and unloaded to the wholesalers in the morning. In the afternoon the coolies moved the cargo from South China, from Guangdong and Guangxi; the cargo took both the land and the sea route. Cargo from Huiyang, Dongguan and Bao’an took the land route through Man Kam To border crossing. They were transported back to the Fruit Market by lorries of Man Luen Transport Co.

Cargo from Jiangmen, Foshan, Zhanjiang, Wuzhou and Beihai took the sea route; the barges carrying the cargo was berthed at Hong Kong Island then transported by cargo boats to Yau Ma Tei. There was a small pier by the side of the Fruit Market that was dedicated to unloading Mainland fruits. The landfills in the 1980s moved the waterfront of the typhoon shelter outward, , while the pier, the barges and the gangways were retained. The landfills in 1990 however removed the pier and since then cargo containers were used. In the 1980s cargo containers grew popular and the cargo was transported from Kwai Chung Container Terminal to the Fruit Market by container trucks. The cargo was unloaded around the area of Tung Kwun Street, Shek Lung Street, Ferry Street, Reclamation Street, Shanghai Street, and Square Street. In the old days, boaters used to unloaded foreign fruits from ships. Although the mode of transportation had changed and there was no need to unload goods from ships offshore, the boaters serviced the suppliers in different ways. They were in charge of sending goods from Kwai Chung Container Terminal to the Fruit Market. In the 1970s, as the member wholesalers of the Fruits Company could import fruits from the Mainland, the owner of Lee Fung Stall opened another wholesaler “Wing Hing Stall” to sell foreign fruits.

The 1970s and the 1980s were the peak periods of the Fruit Market. Recently with the opening up of the Mainland and the social changes of Hong Kong, the Fruit Market saw a decline in business. In the old days, foreign goods had to pass through Hong Kong before admitted into the Mainland. Since China was admitted into the WTO, foreign fruits could be imported directly into the Mainland. Nowadays foreign fruits of better quality were first sent to the Mainland and the fruits of less than good quality were sent back to Hong Kong. Even if there were now quality fruits imported to Hong Kong they were quickly snapped up by merchandisers and shipped to the Mainland. In recent years, group supermarkets introducing fruit section had a huge impact on the business of the Fruit Market.

In the old days the sidewalk stalls and hawkers selling fruits constituted were the major customers of the Fruit Market. Nowadays many housewives bought fruits from the group supermarkets and there were very few sidewalk stall retailers. Group supermarkets purchased fruit directly from suppliers without the involvement of the Fruit Market; they also had partnership agreement with certain big wholesalers that the wholesalers would send quality fruit to the supermarket. Wholesalers at the Fruit Market faced with much difficulty in sustaining business, and the situations of the small wholesalers were even worse. Now coolies had less work to do. At its peak Lee Fung Stall, where Li Kit-fai worked, hired 13 coolies; now they hired only 3. The work hours had reduced greatly and coolies had much less income. Now Li Kit-fai accepted job orders  as a chance to do exercise. The coolies either had changed their profession or retired. The membership of the Union dropped to a low of about 100.

The centre of the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market was at Shek Lung Street. At the periphery of the Fruit Market, there were wholesalers along Reclamation street and Waterloo Road who opened their business at ground level shops of Kam Tong Building, Wah Tak Building, and Toho Court. In the 1970s there were as many “peripheral” wholesalers as there were nowadays. There was only one wholesaler “Wah Kee” which specialized in Thai fruits. It was located under Fu Yu Tea House at Reclamation Street. Later Fu Yu Teahouse was demolished and Wah Kee moved to Wah Tak Building. When Toho Court was built in its place, some wholesalers opened business at the ground floor shops. Many peripheral wholesalers used to work at the Fruit Market; later they set up their own business but couldn’t find a location inside the Fruit Market. They then opened shops at the periphery. Wholesaling shops owners who failed their businesses returned to the market to work for other wholesalers; and then the cycle repeated. After the dissolution of the Fruits Company, the supply of Mainland fruits was opened up and there were a greater variety of products and sources. Yau Ma Tei wholesalers went to China to source fruits and managed to eke out a living in the tough business environment selling fruits that were not sold in the supermarkets. For example, some wholesalers only sold watermelons, jackfruit or pomelo. Only some of the coolies of these peripheral shops were members of the Fruit and Vegetable Workers’ Union. They could wait for job orders at the wholesaler’s shops and would not spend their time at the union’s leisure room. In some wholesaling shops the employees served as coolies.

As early as the 1970s, the Government had proposed relocating the Fruit Market by integrating it into the Cheung Sha Wan Vegetable Wholesale Market. The wholesalers were reluctant to move and the proposal had been shelved for 3 decades. The wholesalers inside the Fruit Market demanded that all the wholesalers inside the Fruit Market and on the periphery had to move altogether to a new centralized market. It was because if the peripheral wholesalers remained at Yau Ma Tei, customers turned to buy fruits from these peripheral wholesalers, the wholesalers who moved to the new Fruit Market would be less advantageous and would suffer business losses. Many wholesalers inside the Fruit Market were also landlords of the stalls; they earned money by leasing out part of their shops to other wholesalers. After the relocation they would lose this part of their income and they would have to pay rent to the government. In addition, not all old employees preferred to work in the new market. New employees would not be as efficient as the old staff who had been working in the Fruit Market for decades and were familiar with the methods of handling different kinds of fruit. Li Kit-fai believed that the mode of operation of fruit stalls in the new market might have to be changed. The experience of the Fruit Market in the Western District was a bad example. After relocation, the business situation of the fruit stalls turned bad. That was why the Yau Ma Tei wholesalers were particularly cautious of the relocation proposal.