Leung Wai Chiu, Molly

Mrs Chiu’s father died one year after being diagnosed to have cancer. At that time, studying in Primary 4, Mrs Chiu had to quit school for a year. After a year, Miss Hung, Principal of the primary section of Belilios Public School, suggested that Mrs Chiu could take the entrance examination for free places in the school’s six-year English class. Originally, after discussion, the school authority did not think Mrs Chiu was eligible for sitting the examination as the free place quotas were mainly for students who had completed Primary 4 at other girls’ schools. However, in view of the relation between Mrs Chiu’s biological mother and the school, the school authority eventually allowed her to take the examination on condition that she should get top result. There were four subjects in the examination included English, Chinese Writing and Mathematics. Once an examination of a subject was taken, the candidates who were not good enough were eliminated. As a result, for each subject, the number of students being disqualified could fill a whole classroom. Mrs Chiu was very frightened, but she finally managed to be one of the five students being accepted. Her biological mother accompanied her all the while, waiting outside the classroom.

Title	Enrolling in a free place of Belilios Public School
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	2m23s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-001

Afterwards, thinking that it was too quiet at home, Mrs. Chiu whole family temporarily moved to her elder sister’s place, bringing along their furniture. Her sister, her brother-in-law and their children were living next to a petrol station at the junction of today’s Hennessy Road and Heard Street, and where Caltex House is now. Their flat, which had a big balcony, was at one end of the third floor. There was once when the Japanese army fired a cannon-ball at the petrol station from Beacon Hill and mistakenly hit her elder sister’s flat. Fortunately, the whole family had moved to their neighbour’s place next door. Moreover, fragments of the cannon-ball had fallen onto the frame of a cubicle apartment inside the flat instead of dropping on the ground. Otherwise, Mrs. Chiu’s younger brother who was inside it would have been killed.

Title	Almost hurt by fragments of cannon-ball from Japanese Army while living in Wan Chai
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Japanese Occupation
Duration	1m57s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-002

Ming Shun Company was located on the second floor of Pedder Building. The owner of Ming Shun Company used to work at a liner company which had Japanese employees. During the Japanese occupation, he became unemployed, so he opened Ming Shun Company. The company had obtained the entitlement to “entrusting” – assisting the Japanese to seize ironware shops and iron factories. For any company, once a piece of white cloth with the characters “囑託”(entrusted) was stuck onto its door, the goods inside would be taken by the Japanese. Therefore, Ming Shun Company needed an employee who could speak Japanese to answer the phone and receive Japanese visitors who went there very often. Mrs. Chiu was hired because she could speak some Japanese. During her employment at Ming Shun Company, a total of three companies were being seized.

Title	Entrusted Company seized ironware factories on behalf of the authoirty during Japanese Occupation
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Japanese Occupation
Duration	2m11s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-003

Near the end of the Japanese occupation, there was once when Mrs. Chiu boarded the junk feeling sick. A translator from Hong Kong suggested that she should go ashore to see a doctor, so she stayed overnight at the translator’s friend’s place in Tai O. Next morning when it was almost time for departure, a crew member came to tell Mrs Chiu that their junk disappeared. Eventually, in the afternoon the translator’s friend helped them find a boat in Tai O to take them to Macau. What happened was that the big junk, with people and goods, was kidnapped by pirates. Fortunately, the passengers later managed to get to Macau safely. While Mrs Chiu was stranded in Tai O, she was not able to contact her biological mother, who was scared and worried. Her biological mother did not allow her to leave Macau.

Title	Big junk going to Macau were kidnapped by pirates during Japanese Occupation
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Japanese Occupation
Duration	3m4s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-004

Mrs Chiu's biological mother often sharpened the pencils by boulders outside the classroom for her students when she was teaching at the primary section of Belilios Public School.

Title	Biological mother's unforgettable teaching memories at Belilios Public School: Sharpening pencils for primary students
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	30s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-005

Around 1939, Ms Medley advocated forming English Society the members of which had to speak English in the class; whoever failed to do so would be fined. The fine would then be used for a one-day tour on the Peak.

Title	Members of English Society of Belilios Public School would be fined if they didn't speak English
Date	16/12/2010
Subject	Education
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-006

One naughty primary school classmates of Mrs. Chiu oftened played a trick on the teacher who had only one eye. When she was told to stand up as punishment, she often asked the teacher to get some tissue from her schoolbag so that she could go to the toilet.

Title	Students of primary section of Belilios Public School was told to stand up as punishment for playing tricks on teacher
Date	09/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	38s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-007

It was not until Form 6 was there Chinese in the curriculum. Mrs. Chiu’s teacher (trained in classical Chinese) who taught that subject was very old. There were some students who were bold enough to play truant in order to buy tickets at Queen’s Theatre. The students mainly watched movies at the nearby Queen’s Theatre or Entertainment Theatre (today’s Entertainment Building). Mrs. Chiu usually watched movies with her elder sister and her brother-in-law. On the night before the Japanese army bombarded Hong Kong, she watched “Gone with the Wind”.

Title	Students of Belilios Public School played truant to watch movie
Date	16/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	1m36s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-008

Mrs. Chiu thought that studying in Belilios Public School had changed the second half of her life. She was glad to have been able to enter a good school which provided her with learning and various activities. In reminiscing about the difficulties and disappointments in life, she thought that she had also learned a lot of things. With the floats on her back and her children by her side, her biological mother travelled all the way from Wan Chai to Central and took the ferry to Lai Chi Kok swimming pool for swimming lessons. This was all for the purpose of giving what was best to her children. To Mrs. Chiu, the happiest thing was for her family of eight to ten people to rent a motor boat for swimming at Stonecutters Island. At that time not many children had a chance to go swimming like that.

Title	Life review: thanks the upbringing of biological mother and Belilios Public School
Date	16/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	1m38s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-009

Miss Ho of Belilios Public School despised the poor and fawned over the rich, so she only asked the rich students questions in the class. Mrs. Chiu was a poor student using her cousin’s old books, but her academic result was quite good, and she despised Miss Ho. When Mrs. Chiu was in Form 8, there was once when Miss Ho asked her questions and reprimanded her for giving a wrong answer. However, when asking another student whose father was a teacher of King’s College, Miss Ho said that the student’s answer was right although it was the same as Mrs. Chiu’s. Mrs. Chiu reminisced about her conflict with Miss Ho

Title	Quarrel and conflicts with a teacher who fawned over the rich students
Date	16/12/2010
Subject	Education
Duration	1m54s
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.	TW-LWC-HLT-010