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Hung Gu
Hung Gu
Long-time resident, Nga Tsin Wai
Sex: Female Birthyear: c.1931 Age at Interview: about 81 Education: No schooling Occupation: Factory Worker Theme: Community, Japanese Occupation Hung Gu enjoyed listening to stories told by the senior villagers when she was a child so that she could learn the history of Nga Tsin Wai. The great grandmother of Ng Chin Hung liked mahjong games, but the villagers did not like having games with her because she was harsh and played slowly. To listen to the stories, Hung Gu played the games with her. From the senior villagers in Sha Po Village, she heard the stories about Emperor Bing of Song Dynasty. According to what she heard, the emperor had passed through Nga Tsin Wai in his journey and Sung Wong Toi was built in commemoration of his visit. Originally, Sung Wong Toi was a large piece of round greyish black boulder which the villagers dubbed the ‘Ding Dong Boulder’. The boulder was so named because the boulder would make a nice, tender ‘dong’ sound when knocked by a long bamboo stick. Not everyone who knocked the boulder would make that sound, but Hung Gu could do it. Later on, the the Japanese shattered the Ding Dong Boulder with a bomb. One of the fragments was kept – it is the boulder now erected in the Sung Wong Toi Park.
Title Tracing legends of the old man: Emperor Bing of the Song Dynasty and the Ding Dong Boulder Date 31/05/2012 Subject Community Duration 3m1s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-001 Hung Gu recalled that the moat surrounding Nga Tsin Wai was clean running with water from the nearby hills. As people kept fishes in the moat, it was also known as the fish pond. On one occasion, she went to the moat with friends for fun. As the moat bottom was covered with mud, one of the girls tripped and fell into the water when picking duckweeds in the water. The water was so deep that she was drowned. Her playmates on the shore shouted for help. Fortunately, a man who could swim jumped into the moat and saved her. Hung Gu and her playmates used to play the game of wedding. They carved the duckweeds into the shape of a roasted piglet (the real roasted piglet was usually prepared for sacrificial offering) with a knife and dyed it red with incense sticks. They also made the bridal veil with worn clothes. When things were ready, they played the game of wedding. In the game, the bride and bridegroom knelt and bowed to the god of heaven and earth, as well as the ancestors. Later, when the Japanese soldiers entered the village, they discovered that the fish pond water was murky and asked for the reasons. They held a meeting with the grandfather of Ng Siu Kei (Editor’s Note: Ng Yun Chor) and suggested to discharge the fish pond water into the sea. The Japanese hired the villagers to dig the big gully (now known as Kai Tak Nullah) and remunerated the villagers with the rice held in the worship cups. When the gully was completed, the Japanese filled the land outside the village and built a small airport of Kai Tak. They also filled the moat with soil.
Title The now disappeared moat at Nga Tsin Wai Date 31/05/2012 Subject Community Duration 3m32s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-002 In the past, protection houses were built along the moat of Nga Tsin Wai. The house walls facing the moat formed into the village wall, resembling the ‘great wall’ of the village. A protection house had the same height and width as other houses in Nga Tsin Wai, but it had only one door, which opened to the alley inside the village. Hung Gu’s elder brother had lived in a protection house built at a corner of the village. Hung Gu emphasized that the enclosing walls were thick enough for a person to lie on it with stretch-out limbs, so she used to lie on it for a nap after work. Later on, many protection houses were demolished and their traces could hardly be found when unauthorized buildings appeared in Nga Tsin Wai. Before the Second World War, Hung Gu lived in Sha Po Village, but sometimes would go to Nga Tsin Wai for fun. She had heard that there were cannons in the village, and had seen one after the War. In those days, the turrets still existed in Nga Tsin Wai. When she went to Nga Tsin Wai with a group of playmates, she had found a turret on the 6th Lane. The house with the turret was also a dwelling unit and there was a stairway in the house leading to the outlook and embrasure of the turret.
Title Nga Tsin Wai’s blockhouses and great wall Date 31/05/2012 Subject Community Duration 3m37s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-003 There were more than 30 clustered houses in Lower Sha Po (3 houses as a cluster). Hung Gu and her family lived in the first house of one of these clusters. Another one was occupied by a family named Lee. The village houses in Sha Po were quadrangles, the layout included bedrooms, living rooms, courtyard and gatehouse. They were larger than the houses in Nga Tsin Wai. As their shape looked like the bamboo tube, they were dubbed as ‘bamboo tube house’. The living room had a high ceiling, and the cockloft was large enough to accommodate 2 to 3 beds. Hung Gu and her brothers slept in the cockloft and their parents had the bedroom. The courtyard was the place for cooking or bathing, the big stove for cooking pig forage was also placed in the courtyard. The gatehouse was a roofless house with a small door. Hung Gu’s family kept 6 pigs on one side of the gatehouse, and the other side was used for storage.
Title Sha Po Village’s four-hall houses or bamboo barrel-style dwellings Date 07/07/2012 Subject Community Duration 3m1s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-005 Hung Gu was keen to learn of the history of the village. One night in the early post-war period when she was outside her home door with her young niece on her back, she noticed an iron bar resembling a chimney. She found it interesting and intended to tell his elder brother about it. But, the chimney-like object disappeared the next morning. It was not until later that she knew it was the cannon for fighting the pirates in the past. Hung Gu believed that the pyramidal roof of houses in Nga Tsin Wai was a concept imported from Egypt. She came to know about this one year at the Village Office from when the villagers told of the history of the village to the outsiders who came to visit the Jiao Festival – she was downstairs when the interview was underway.
Title Nga Tsin Wai’s pyramids and cannons Date 31/05/2012 Subject Community Duration 2m40s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-004 Hung Gu loved to learn of the history of Nga Tsin Wai. She emphasized that the village had a history of 600 years, with tiles from the Ming Dynasty, and the orthodox thirteen rows, stopping stones, door beam and protection houses. Two stopping stones were placed under the roof of each house. They were there to convey the message of ‘no entry’ to anyone who approached the house. It marked the dividing line between the house area and non-house area, and the house owner could not extend his property beyond the line. The thirteen rows referred to the houses with 13 rows of tiles on the roof. In the past, most houses in Nga Tsin Wai were built of stones. The house which Hung Gu lived was built with double-layered stones, which meant the walls had two layers of stones. Besides, each house had a stone door beam for support of the main door. (i.e., the stone placed under the door.) The door beam of Tin Hau Temple was exquisite and refined in design.
Title An undimmed passion for the real history of Nga Tsin Wai Date 31/05/2012 Subject Community Duration 1m31s 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. NTW-WCH-HLT-006