Yeung Hon Yuen

Yeung Hon Yuen delivered takeaways to the policemen in the district. In those days, it was the policemen’s habit to order food at street-side stalls and ask the stalls to deliver the takeaways to a designated place. It was a unwritten rule that the policemen shall eat without paying. Yeung Hon Yuen delivered the takeaways to the Yau Ma Tei Police Station on a bicycle. He saw policemen watching television in the report room (the restroom). On one occasion, he saw more than 100 bottles of white wine kept in the police station. Sometimes, the stall workers were discontent with the picky policemen who wasted food, but they dared not utter a word. Instead, they played tricks on them by cooking their food with drainage and corn starch. Yeung Hon Yuen was a good cyclist and he could ride with one hand on the bicycle and the other hand holding the takeaways. In those days, the foam food containers were not available. The food was contained in ceramic bowls or dishes so he had to return to collect them. One day, he delivered takeaways on a bicycle. When he reached the junction of Canton Road and Saigon Street, a minibus appeared from a corner and drove towards him and he turned his direction and crashed into the railings. It was common for the Yau Ma Tei police to neglect their duties and eat at bakeries in the evening. The places included the Leung Kin Kee Pastry at 12-14 Battery Street, Ma Po Shan on Temple Street, and Lucky Bakery at 529-531 Canton Road. Leung Kin Kee Pastry was the most popular place where they gathered because it was situated in a prominent location with low pedestrian flow.

Yeung Hon Yuen admitted that he was a street child. When he was a child, he loved roaming about so he was familiar with the streets and shops. He liked watching western movies shown at 5.30pm because they charged a lower price at 20 cents. But, very few cinemas in Yau Ma Tei had any after work show, therefore, he would go to Mong Kok, Tai Hang Tung and San Po Kong to watch a movie. The cinemas he frequented included Ying King Theatre, Metro Theatre, Broadway Theatre, Pak Ho Theatre, Great World Theatre, Good World Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Victoria Theatre and Lai Chi Theatre. Some cinema operators owned two theatres and showed different types of movies in the same session in their theatres to cater needs of  different audience.

In the late 1950s, Ning Po Restaurant was relocated to Ning Po Street, the section near Canton Road due to road repair. Its neighbor Chung Kee Chaozhou-style Food Stall and Yan Yan Wonton Noodles also moved there. At the new location, Ning Po Restaurant operated under a new name Fat Kee but rice with roasted goose and a la carte dishes were still on the menu. The new stall stood between Battery Street and Canton Road facing the Wing Tai Chun Yip Coolie Agency. (Editor’s note: ‘Coolie’ was the old name for transport workers). When business was good, small tables for two would be extended towards Canton Road towards the direction of Tsim Sha Tsui. Fat Kee could serve as many as a dozen tables. Behind Fat Kee was the Tin Shing Store. Yeung Hon Yuen was well acquainted with the shop attendants. Fat Kee operated at similar hours to Ning Po Restaurant and offered rice with barbecued meat in the forenoon. At 4pm, they began washing vegetables and cooking rice for the dinner session.

The new stall was more or less the same in scale as the old stall and it hired seven to eight workers. Yeung Hon Yuen’s father roasted food and  mother went to the market to buy food ingredients and washed vegetables. But sometimes she would cook too. Yeung Hon Yuen did odd jobs such as washing dishes and cleaning. Fat Kee hired two masters to chop ingredients and cook respectively. Because the masters were critical to the operation of a Dai Pai Dong, they were highly respected. Yeung Hon Yuen had to obey them even though he was the proprietor’s son. Sometimes when his father was away, the masters would scold or hit him but he dared not tell his father about these. He only cried in a hidden corner. He said the masters were demanding and uncompromising. Other workers would take order, serve the dishes, wash vegetables and do the cleaning. Generally, the experienced waiter was assigned to take orders from customers. There were great differences between the stall and restaurant in the duties of a waiter. The stall workers had no clear division of tasks. All workers played more than one role. The masters might have to do odd jobs too. For example, Yeung Hon Yuen still has to carry out repair and maintenance works although he is the restaurant proprietor now. Both his parents were Chaozhou natives. Yeung Hon Yuen said 70% to 80% of the Dai Pai Dongs in Hong Kong were run by Chaozhou natives. Many of the cow innards noodle shops, Chaozhou porridge restaurants, stores, rice retailers and a la carte dishes caterers were operated by them. He estimated that more than 90% of the cow innards noodle shops and rice shops were opened by the Chaozhou natives. Chaozhou natives had an edge in the Dai Pai Dong business because they were very hardworking.

In the early 1960s, Yeung Hon Yuen’s parents opened Yeung Choy Fat, which was their second Dai Pai Dong, at the junction of Nanking Street and Canton Road. It offered noodles & rice noddles with cow innards and other choices such as fish balls, beef, beef balls and sirloin. The Yeung family rented a shop facing Nanking Street behind the stall for keeping the chairs and tables. They usually set five or six tables inside the shop and two or three tables outside the shop. Beef ball was Yeung Choy Fat’s signature dish. These fresh delicacies were uniquely prepared by punching manually with a stick. Yeung Choy Fat employed four or five workers, including Yeung Hon Yuen’s elder brother and cousin brother. The business hours were from 10am/11am to 12am/1am. The flexible hour system was adopted and the workers could leave early or come to work late when there were little customers. Flexible allocation of manpower was the key to reduce operating costs. His mother was usually the first who started to work at the stall. She was responsible for preparing beef balls and braising beef. Yeung Hon Yuen divided his time between Fat Kee and Yeung Choy Fat but he spent more time in Fat Kee. The food stall near Canton Road was mainly frequented by the jade stall operators along Jordon Road and Saigon Street. These customers in a suit had a daily turnover of $10,000 and they were important clientele to Fat Kee and Yeung Choy Fat. They always had meals at the stalls and ordered a lot of food. With time, they became well acquainted with the Yeung family.

In 1963, the water rationing measure was implemented in Hong Kong. Water was supplied for four hours every four days. At the young age of 13, Yeung Hon Yuen was given the important task of fetching and transporting water. There were two water mains near Yeung Choy Fat: one at the back alley of Nanking Street and one between Nos. 533 and 539 on Canton Road. Yeung Hon Yuen fetched water with a kerosene tank and transported it on a wooden cart to Ning Po Street where Fat Kee operated. He poured the water into another kerosene tank which was used to keep water for use in four days. Having done that, he returned to the water mains with the empty tank and filled it with water again. In the 4-hour rationing, he plied between the water mains and the stalls a dozen times fetching more than 30 tanks of water. He wonders whether his strong physique today is a consequence of such physical labour.

In 1965, Fat Kee moved from Ning Po Street to Nanking Street where it rented the stall of Tat Kee. Fat Kee’s original stall was occupied by Man Kee, a coffee stall with long history in the district. Yeung Hon Yuen recalled the spectacular reopening of Fat Kee at the new location. Firecrackers were set off and flower plaques were displayed. At the beginning, Fat Kee paid a rent of several hundred dollars and it was increased several time later on. It was eventually raised to $2,000 or $3,000, the Yeung family could not afford it and they moved out. In those days, a shop was rented through oral tenancy agreement without a written lease. Fat Kee moved to the location next to Yeung Fat Choy on Nanking Street. The Yeung family operated with fewer workers so management became easier.

Lai Heung Yuen operated from the morning to the afternoon serving milk tea, coffee, sandwich and toast. In the early years, Dai Pai Dongs seldom served breakfast. In 1965, when Yeung Hon Yuen became a skilful coffee master, he started to manage the coffee stall, but his mother continued to do book-keeping as he was considered too young to handle money matters. Lai Heung Yuen operated daily from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm without a break but it closed for 3 days during the Chinese New Year. During lunch time, Yeung Hon Yuen would eat at the Grand Palace Restaurant at the junction of Woosung Street and Saigon Street. Yeung Hon Yuen started to train his own apprentices after taking over the stall. Today, many of his apprentices run their own stalls in various districts. In those days, Yeung Hon Yuen worked hard and seldom socialized with other stall operators. He spent most of his time at the stall and sometimes he even slept there on a plank to watch the stall from theft. He stayed the night even in cold winter.

In the early years, it was uncommon that operators of Dai Pai Dongs in Yau Ma Tei would settle their cash problem with a bank loan. Generally, the operators saved money or raise funds through ‘chit fund’. A chit fund was mainly participated by fellow operators or market hawkers who knew each other well. In every meeting, a trustworthy and integrated member was chosen as the ‘leader’ and the other members shall pay their contributions to the leader on regular basis. The leader had the right to make use of the funds within a timeframe and return the money to the members at maturity. There were two kinds of chit fund: ‘daily fund’ and ‘monthly fund’.

1) Daily fund. Each member pays a certain sum of money to the leader on daily basis. The money shall be put in the leader’s custody, who shall keep a record of the payments. At the end of the month, the leader shall return the money to the members but keep 10% as the interest. For example for a $5 daily fund, each member shall pay $5 daily and a total of $150 for the month. At the end of the month, they shall receive $140. The daily fund is a mandatory form of savings. Although part of the money is paid as an interest to the leader, the members are glad to participate because they have their small sum of money put in somebody’s custody and receive a lump sum when they need money. At the time, banking service was not popular and the grass roots were not good at managing wealth and were lack of self-discipline (those who did business in cash tended to quickly used up all the money), a chit fund was a form of compulsory saving.

2) Monthly fund. Each member pays a certain sum of money to the leader on monthly basis. One month later, the members meet and the leader fully returns the payments to them, the new leader shall be decided by bid. The one who offers the highest interest rate shall become the leader. The one who is awarded the bid shall bear the expense of the gathering. When the members meet one month later, the leader shall return the payments and the interests to the members. The leader shall not have his or her term renewed or reelected. Each member has a chance to be the leader. The leaders of the first and last rounds need not pay the interest. The one who is awarded the bid of the last round is commonly known as ‘last round bidder’. For example for $500 monthly fund, the members shall pay $500 to the leader at the meal gathering for the first round. When the members meet one month later, the leader shall return the payments to the members without collecting or paying interests. The attendants shall bid for the new leadership. If the one who is awarded the bid is willing to pay $50 as the interest, each member shall only pay $450. In the next month, the leader shall pay $500 to each member, which implies that each member has earned an interest of $50. Each month the members bid for new leadership. The monthly fund provides a useful means for stall operators to raise funds and to strengthen the friendship among themselves.

Most of the Dai Pai Dong operators were Chaozhou natives. The old generation Chaozhou natives generally had little education. They accumulated their wealth by working hard and spending less. Brotherhood was important to Chaozhou natives, they always met at tea gatherings and offered their help if anyone of them had troubles. The Dai Pai Dong operators in Yau Ma Tei formed the Chiu Chow Public Association and jointly organized the Hungry Ghost Festival every year to pacify lonely ghosts and roaming souls. Most of the Dai Pai Dong operators could get along well with ech other, but operators of adjacent stalls which offer similar food might fight over customers occasionally.

Yeung Hon Yuen deplored that the old generation spent all their time working without any entertainment and much rest. Both Fat Kee and Yeung Fat Choy operated by his parents closed at 3am. Their main customers were labourers of ship repair and transportation. There were many coolie agencies run by transportation companies on Canton Road and Battery Street. At midnight, the coolies would sail to the large vessels anchored in the typhoon shelter by a walla-walla (small electric boat). If the barge was anchored along the shore, they conveyed the goods from the vessel ashore via a narrow plank. The coolies crossed the plank easily despite carrying a heavy sack of rice on shoulders. Yeung Hon Yuen always found it amazing. In the past, when Canton Road was still along the coast and the Ferry Street was not built yet, Yeung Hon Yuen used to swim in the sea near the typhoon shelter.

In the mid-1970s, the Urban Council arranged removal of the Dai Pai Dongs to the  concentration camps (cooked food markets) in the district. It was done to keep Yau Ma Tei streetscape tidy, as the stalls were considered undesirable both hygienically and visually. Any owner who was unwilling to move shall have his or her licence recalled and was compensated by a sum of  $60,000. The area from Battery Street to King George V Memorial Park was the first of such cooked food market. Later, more were built on Shanghai Street and Reclamation Street. The Yeung family gradually withdrew from the stall business in the mid-1970s. Fat Kee, Yeung Choy Fat and Lai Heung Yuen had different fates.

The licence owner of Fat Kee recalled his licence from Yeung Hon Yuen’s parents and applied for government compensation. Chung Kee and Yan Yan were Fat Kee’s neighbors. The former moved into the concentration camp on Reclamation Street while the licence holder of the latter applied for government compensation. At first the Yeung family was not the licence holder of Yeung Fat Choy. In 1970, the original holder sold his licence to Yeung Hon Yuen’s mother. His mother leased the licence in 1975 to others. Later on, Yeung Fat Choy moved into the concentration camp on Reclamation Street. When his mother died in 1995, Yeung’s father became the licence holder. When his father died in 2000, his younger sister inherited it through a complicated procedure. When the government implemented a new measure, Lai Heung Yuen’s licence owner recalled the licence in August 1975 and renamed it ‘Leung Kee’. It was moved into the Temple Street concentration camp (behind Wing On Department Store) After 1975 Yeung Hon Yuen stopped operating the Dai Pai Dongs. He had already got a taxi driving licence in 1972. He tended the business of Lai Heung Yuen in the morning and his younger brother worked his shift in the afternoon. At night he worked as a taxi driver. After Lai Heung Yuen’s licence was recalled Yeung Hon Yuen got a temporary job in the Post Office. In March 1976, he resumed his catering career by opening the Lai Heung Yuen local café restaurant at a shop premise he purchased on Reclamation Street. Today, he is still operating the café.

According to the government’s zonal division in the former days, Yau Ma Tei district started from Dundas Street in the north and ended at Austin Road in the south with Nathan Road as the dividing line. The views and atmosphere in the eastern and western parts were totally different. The quiet area to the east of Nathan Road was close to the hillside. In the past, King’s Park was commonly known as the ‘reservoir hill’ or ‘observatory hill’. When Yeung Hon Yuen was a child, he used to play soccer on the sand ground on reservoir hill. There were old women selling tea and dumplings wrapped in Elephant’s Ear leaf and it was a popular arena for the elderly, bringing their birds in cages, to do exercise in the morning. On Waterloo Road, there was a long stairway leading to the hill top and people could walk up the hill along the stairway adjacent to Methodist School. The South Kowloon Magistracy (formerly known as Chief Magistrates’ Court) used to stand next to Methodist School. Occasionally, Yeung Hon Yuen attended a trial at the Court because of matters relating to his stall. Most of such cases were resolved with a fine.

The area to the west of Nathan Road was dubbed the ‘oil and jute field’. The specific area included Nathan Road, Ferry Street, Austin Road and Waterloo Road. It was the hub of strong triad influence with rampant drug trafficking, gambling and brothels. Pedestrian flow in the area near Jordan Road Ferry Pier was high and it was a busy place where taxi passengers alighted. Some children opened the taxi door for the passengers in exchange for tips. Special kind of bicycles was available as rented vehicles for passengers outside the entrance of King George V Memorial Park. The bicycles had a special design which had two sets of pedals. To cycle, both the driver and the passenger had to operate the pedal jointly. Also operated outside the park were the child bootblacks, they paid ‘protection fees’ to the triad elements. The area section from Waterloo Road to Public Square Street was relatively gloomy. All kinds of illegal activities were carried out in the side streets and narrow alleys. The area around Nathan Road, Jordan Road, Shanghai Street and Man Ming Lane was the hot spot for shopping and eating. The popular Temple Street lies within the area and still enjoys prosperous business today. Yeung Hon Yuen said the pedestrians in the day time and night time were two different types of people. Having lived in the district for decades, he can easily recognize the drug addicts. In the night market, the stalls operated on Temple Street, Woosung Street, Parkes Street and Nathan Road were most busy. There were also many cinemas, dance parlours and gambling stalls there.

The cathouses (slang for brothels) in Yau Ma Tei also frequented the Yeung family’s food stalls. Yeung Hon Yuen had delivered the whole set of hot pot utensils and takeaways to a cathouse. They included the ancient coal-fired stove, dishes of assorted ingredients, and a sieve of vegetables. The cathouses were mainly located on Canton Road, Reclamation Street, Battery Street and Temple Street. They were mostly operated on the attic, 2nd floor and 3rd floor of the post-war tenement buildings. Six or seven out of 10 cathouses were situated in the attics. The rentals were higher but it was convenient for the clients. Each cathouse had a number of rooms. The anteroom was used as the client waiting area. In the 1960s, there were mainly two types of cathouses. One type was run by the bawds who raised little girls they bought and made them prostitutes when they grew up. Many of these prostitutes were kept by rich men so they charged a higher fee. Another type was operated on a profit-sharing basis (commonly known as ‘pouring water’). The bawds solicited business at the stairways of houses on the side streets and alleys, and they were paid commissions for each transaction. There were many low-end cathouses on Hi Lung Lane and Man Ming Lane operated under the name of a lodging house. They were dirty places but charged a low price of $5. Yeung Hon Yuen pitifully said it was difficult for the prostitutes to change their profession and the old prostitutes were unable to ‘drink well water’ (slang for getting married). When they grew old, most of them worked as a pimp on the streets or amah at cathouses. Some wealthy cathouse owners operated in the form of a chain business. They rented flats in different tenement buildings for operation. Yeung Hon Yuen has witnessed changes in the district’s prostitute business. The early brothels were named the ‘pool’, such as Yuk Gwut Pool, To To Pool and Hoi Sum Pool. They operated in Shanghai Street, Woosung Street, Parkes Street and Jordan Road. The ‘one-woman brothel’ was a rather new mode of operation. Some of them were operated by the prostitutes themselves and others were operated on a profit-sharing basis. The operators of both modes had to pay protection fee. Today, it is common that the operators employ prostitutes from the mainland and smuggle them to Hong Kong as a tourist.

The areas around Jordan Road, Nathan Road and Nanking Street were a place of evil. There were active triad activities and numerous dance parlours and gambling stalls. The gambling stalls were commonly known as the ‘big stalls’. The ‘big stalls’ which Yeung Hon Yuen was familiar included the Ning Po Street Big Stall, Lee Kum Lan Big Stall and Shi Shun Big Stall. The Ning Po Street Big Stall was situated in the alley at the junction of Ning Po Street, Woosung Street and Temple Street. The stall was operated under the disguise of an ordinary shop. It operated with a closed gate but was open all the year round. It was operated by Shar Pei, Goat Tung and Lard Boy who were blood brothers. Originally, they sold fried chickens at the public square in front of Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. They bought dead chicken at low cost to make deep fried chicken. They had good business. When Shar Pei and his brothers had earned enough money, they opened a big stall. Later, they opened a Chinese restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui. Lee Kum Lan Big Stall was situated in the alley at the junction of Nanking Street and Shanghai Street. It was named after the Lee Kum Lan Tea nearby but was not associated with the operator of the Lee Kum Lan Tea Co. Ltd. Shi Shun Big Stall was situated in a building at the junction of Temple Street and Jordan Road. In those days, the big stalls installed no neon signs, their names and locations were not known by anyone except the gamblers. Yeung Hon Yuen did not frequent the gambling stalls but many of his friends were frequent visitors. Yeung Hon Yuen said there were many illegal businesses in the district. For example, dog meat was sold at the alley behind the Jordan Road Government Primary School.

Looking back on the years when the Yeung family engaged in the catering business, Yeung Hon Yuen compared the operation of a Dai Pai Dong to ‘selling oneself as a slave’ for the long working hours. Besides, the work was so hard that no time was available for rest and entertainment, let alone leisure time or ideals in life. Perseverance was thus all an operator needed. At the very beginning when the Yeung run a Dai Pai Dong in Ning Po Street, they lived in Sham Shui Po. When the parents returned home after work, their young children were sound asleep. When the children went to school in the morning, the parents were still in bed. The parents and children spent so little time together that on one occasion, one of the children could not recognize his parents. In the early days, the ten children of the poor Yeung family slept on one bed. Yeung Hon Yuen remembered that one day when he was helping in Fat Kee, he was so tired that he slept on a plank placed on folding chairs. For some time in the early 1970s, he attended a night school after a day work at Lai Heung Yuen . The burdens of work and studies had exhausted him to the extent that he would bend over the table for a nap in the afternoon when there were little customers. When he needed a nap, he would instruct his younger brother to tend the stall. Lai Heung Yuen operated as usual when the typhoon came. (The anti-typhoon precaution was securing the stall from top to bottom with a hemp rope). Regular customers came even when the typhoon signal nos. 8, 9 or 10 was hoisted. It was the habit of the hawkers to refresh with a cup of coffee so the stall business was as good as usual.

Yeung Hon Yuen recalls that when the riots happened in 1967, “pineapples” (the common name of homemade bombs) were planted from Canton Road to Battery Street. When discovered, the police would detonate them on the spot. One day when he took his youngest brother, who was under two years old, to the Temple Street to buy fake shark fin soup, he saw anti-riot police firing tear gas at rioters on the street outside Yat Ding Ho Chinese Restaurant. To protect his younger brother, he ran home breathlessly. Work may be hard, but it gave Yeung Hon Yuen a lot of good memories. He had greatest satisfaction from the Lai Heung Yuen coffee stall, which had good business under efficient management. He gave all the money earned to his parents and became the bread earner of the family. At the time, his parents still operated Fat Kee and Yeung Choy Fat. Business was prosperous at the beginning. However, as his parents were getting too old to take care of the business and some employees might misuse the stall money occasionally, the stall could make less and less money later. Besides, there were too many children in Yeung’s family. Seeing that the stall business was good, Lai Heung Yuen’s licence holder recalled his licence in 1975, it was managed by his own son who was a policeman. In 1976, Yeung Hon Yuen transformed the street-side stall into a cafe under the same old name ‘Lai Heung Yuen’. His start up capital was mainly from his saving during operation of the coffee stall, a small portion was his mother’s savings through the ‘chit fund’. Yeung Hon Yuen is always proud of the restaurant he opened.