Shek K. C., Arthur

Sir Shek lived in the rear part on the ground floor of 74 Portland Street during his childhood. The front part was a home-shop selling leather. Sir Shek’s mother ran a cooked food stall at a side door at Portland Street. In the morning, plain congee, beef congee, fish & peanut congee, boat congee and pig’s blood congee were served in the morning. In the afternoon, sweet soups, fried vermicelli, fried noodles, glutinous rice, rice dumplings, honeyed roasted pork buns and rice rolls were served. The whole family was involved in running the cooked food stall. Shek Sir was mainly responsible to split firewood, grind rice and bean.The courtyard at the back of 74 Portland Street was deployed as kitchen.

Over a thousand customers came to the stall each day, so the stall had to pay lots of ‘protection fees’ to the police station. Since they paid generously, they were treated with privileges from the police even they occupied the roadside by tables and chairs.Later the police station notified Sir Shek’s mother that a charge had to be laid ‘according to the laws’, specifying certain exhibits to be surrendered: 6 bowls, 6 spoons and 1 pot of congee. The Sheks held a family meeting. As a result, Sir Shek’s grandpa reported to the police station on behalf of the stall. Seeing his old age, the policeman at the station told him to put 20 dollars into the donation box and compensate for the property that had been forfeited. Each subsequent year, grandpa went to the station and paid a fine of 20 dollars. Sir Shek lamented that he was not sure if corruption was good or bad.

Title	To run a porridge stall on an alley with his family living in Portland Street
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	4m
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-001

Sir Shek graduated from Dao Kwan Primary School at Soares Avenue for both nursery and primary education. Since he was young he had walked to school on his own, passing by Pitt Street and Kwong Wah Street. Kwong Wah Street used to have short houses lining up on both sides and big banyan trees planted all along the way, creating a gruesome atmosphere which was particularly petrifying in winters. He felt scared when walking home along it from school. Kwong Wah Hospital’s mortuary provided caskets and hearses for the deceased at the hospital. There were many casket shops, flower shops, funeral services and Taoist priests near Kwong Wah Hospital. They created a scared environment in Kwong Wah Street at night.

Title	Gruesome atmosphere of roads in Mong Kok
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	1m47s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-002

The funerals of KC Shek’s grandfather and granduncle were held Kwong Wah Hospital’s mortuary. As the Sheks were hawkers who were acquainted with lots of people in the community, his grandfather’s funeral was so big that 40 funeral processions were held, each of which comprised of 10 to 20 persons. Hundreds of people went seeing him away. Suona was played all the way and the sounds were deafening.The route of the procession normally covered the places visited by the deceased when he was alive so as to let his neighbourhood know about his death. The entourage delivering his grandfather’s casket set off at Man Ming Lane, went all the way along Waterloo Road, Pitt Street, Dundas Street, and stopped at 74 Portland Street where the Sheks lived. While the vanguard of procession arrived home, the back was still in Man Ming Lane. An application for procession at specific route had to be submitted to the police station beforehand.

Title	In a funeral procession several hundreds of relatives went seeing his grandfather away
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	3m18s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-003

Sir Shek grew up in Portland Street He had been every corner of the street and acquainted with all the kids there. Portland Street could indeed be called his “territory”. Cars were rare on the street in those days. There might be not even one single vehicle rolling on it in a one hour span. The kids could play shuttlecock in a circle at the middle of the street. Sometimes the adults drove the kids away right after the kids gathered on the street so as to avoid any trouble.

Title	Grew up in Portland Street
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	1m47s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-004

The opposite of 380 Shanghai Street was Tak Yu Teahouse. The teahouse used to be just 3 or 4 stories tall. The whole block was opened for the business. It was slowly heightened later on. In his childhood, Sir Shek went to Tak Yu Teahouse with his granduncle at 6 every morning for a big bun before heading for school.Night teas were available at some teahouses in Yau Ma Tei around 9 pm to 1 or 2 am. Singers performed after 9pm. Patrons were mostly business inheritors from veteran shops in the district or those without working burdens (pejoratively called good-for-nothing), both of who were the lazzies faire who were indulged in spending and leisure. The working class never cared for a night tea as they just dropped dead right after back home from their exhausting work.

Title	Night Tea: an entertainment of the lazzies faire
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	6m10s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-005

Yau Ma Tei’s coastline used to ran along Portland Street and Shanghai Street. ‘Portland’ referred to promenade while ‘Shanghai’ referred to land near the sea. In contrast with Tsim Sha Tsui, which was Kowloon’s commercial district for the expatriates, Shanghai Street was Kowloon’s commercial district for the Chinese. Shanghai Street was a wealthy street where non-businessmen could by no means get a place. Mahjong houses, gold stores and herbs stores were aplenty on the street. Mahjong houses could be called Hong Kongers’ casinos. Gold stores were fishermen’s banks. Many fishermen had gold teeth implanted to reserve their wealth, giving rise to such proverbs as ‘all’s left after death was teeth’ and ‘strip your teeth’. One end of Shantung Street was Mong Kok Ferry Pier, from where the ships sailed to Hong Kong Island. At Portland Street and Reclamation Street, there were numerous mechanics stores selling used machines, motors, wires, ropes and others for use of barges anchored at the shore. Sir Shek liked to pick used stocks from the mechanics stores when he was a kid.

Title	Seaside Streets: Chinese’s Commercial Zone
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	6m9s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-006

Sir Shek seldom left Yau Ma Tei. He was uninterested in going to other places as he thought that he had seen life in Yau Ma Tei, an area full of colours and flavours. He said he had been used to the Yau Ma Tei lifestyle and so did not longer for such “superior” places like Central and Sheung Wan, where he had never been a part of.He spent his childhood in Yau Ma Tei and could not be more familiar with the streets and shops there. It could be said that he knew where all the holes and slits could be found. All the sceneries were exceptionally familiar. When a kid, KC Shek lived near some funeral-related shops, and got “acquainted” with the dead since then. Some of his relatives passed away successively in recent years. Their funerals were held in Yau Ma Tei Funeral Parlour. He met the staff there again after such a long time of separation, and talked with them in a language free from any taboo or barrier.

Title	Warm and familiar community
Date	17/02/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	4m31s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Video
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-SKC-HLT-007