Ng Sui Mo

Ng Sui Mo was born in Shek Ku Lung Village in 1937 where his ancestors had made their living as farmers. His grandfather’s generation had long been settled in Shek Ku Lung Village where many residents belonged to Ng Clan’s second branch in Nga Tsin Wai. Ng Sui Mo’s father died when he was just three. After the Japanese occupied Hong Kong in 1941, the authorities demolished Shek Ku Lung Village and Ng Sui Mo’s family was driven to Tam Kung Road in search of temporary accommodation. The doors and windows of their makeshift home had been dismantled when they moved in, making long stays very difficult. For this reason, his family relocated into Nga Tsin Wai where they initially rented a house from his granduncle Ng Wai Chi which they later purchased.

During the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945, Ng Sui Mo lived with his grandparents, mother and two elder brothers. His mother supported everyone by working as a farmer. Ng Sui Mo’s second elder brother suddenly became sick one morning and died that afternoon. It was rumoured that the boy had been poisoned by the Japanese. His grandfather passed away just one week later. Before peace came, there was a real lack of food at Ng Sui Mo’s home, so his mother took him and his eldest brother to Huizhou. They returned to Nga Tsin Wai after the war and lived there until they moved out in 2000. Like most people born in rural villages, Ng Sui Mo had a simple childhood. As a kid, he helped his mother to water vegetables and pull weeds, usually picking produce in the morning to bring to the market for sale. In those days, children’s entertainment was very, very basic and usually involved playing with home-made toys. Popular boys’ games included shooting marbles, swimming, kite flying, grabbing paper and patting picture cards. Girls loved rubber band skipping and hopscotch. Adults worked hard every day and liked to sing mountain songs each night to relax. In those days, the village had no electricity supply and the villagers lit oil lamps to illuminate their homes. Every household usually went to bed at around 8:00 pm and rose for work when the next dawn broke.

After the war ended, Ng Sui Mo had tried his hand at several jobs including cleaning work and picking stones. He subsequently received education for four years after his family’s living standards had improved, spending two years each in Wong Tai Sin’s Kai Tak School (an old-style private school) and Kowloon City’s Lap Chi School. He then moved to the Oriental School in Boundary Street. Ng Sui Mo was naughty when he was a child and his family was poor. Unmotivated in his studies, he dropped out of school when aged just 14 or 15 to become a machine apprentice in a hardware shop in Hong Lok Street, Mong Kok. Having completed his apprenticeship in three years, he became a permanent worker earning a daily wage of around HK$2. Later he moved to Aberdeen and subsequently learned all about fishing boat machinery there. His boss there paid Ng Sui Mo at his discretion, occasionally giving him HK$100 a month, while sometimes paying him no salary at all. Just over a year later, Ng Sui Mo transferred to Gammon Construction Company where he initially repaired machinery on construction sites. After the company’s repair and maintenance department was dissolved, he moved to a support job in piling. Although he was only 20 years old at this time, he was already earning what was then a very impressive income of HK$700-800 a month.

He later switched to seafaring, taking responsibility for managing machinery on ships. At first, he worked for a foreign company as a coppersmith, before later transferring to a similar role with a Chinese company within his first six months. He was then successively promoted to assistant engineer, fourth engineer and eventually third engineer. After working in the latter post for 12 years, he was promoted to second engineer. Ng Sui Mo knew that his knowledge was insufficient, but having gained the trust of his company, he just worked harder to make up for his shortcomings. After serving as the second engineer for eight years, he changed career again. In all, Ng Sui Mo’s seafaring career lasted for fully 30 years. Once his ship was moored in the US and someone advised him to go ashore for naturalisation. Citing his pride in his Chinese roots, he stubbornly refused. After leaving the shipping industry, Ng Sui Mo worked with Yau Hing Company where he looked after blowers and generator-related work for about eight years before officially retiring when aged around 60.

Although Ng Sui Mo’s family belonged to Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan’s second branch (Ng Tung Un Tso) most genealogical records were lost during World War II. As a result, second branch clansmen have no effective way to trace back their ancient ancestors. The author who compiled the genealogy of Ng Clan in 1986 initially believed that the ancestors of Ng Sui Mo’s family were not surnamed Ng. When Ng Sui Mo was young, he was powerless to mount a defense against such claims, but many clan brothers readily admitted that he shared a common ancestry with them. According to Ng Clan genealogical records, Ng Sui Mo had two uncles. While he never knew the pair, he was aware that one of the men had died during the Japanese occupation. In all, Ng Sui Mo’s parents had eight children – six boys and two girls. Ng Sui Mo ranked seventh and had two older sisters and three elder and one younger brothers.

Ng Sui Mo had never met all his siblings, and only heard about them in passing from his mother. His eldest sister was killed by aircraft during the war while his second eldest sister was sent by his father to a good friend for adoption early on in life and Ng Sui Mo had no contact with her after liberation. The other brothers either died young or passed away during the war, leaving Ng Sui Mo and his eldest brother Ng Kau alone to live with their mother. In all, fully ten members of Ng Sui Mo’s family died during the Japanese occupation. Ng Sui Mo feels sad every time he remembers the past, and still cannot let it go today. He laments his mother country’s weakness and the fact that his family had to suffer great difficulties as a result. Before liberation in 1945, Ng Sui Mo and his brother fled to Huizhou with their mother to escape the war, enduring terrible hunger during their escape. It was lucky that a generous man offered them food. Unfortunately, their saviour was killed by bombs later that same day, leaving this world forever in the blink of an eye.

In the pre-war period, Shek Ku Lung Village had two rows of houses which were occupied by about 30 households surnamed either Ng or Che (editor’s note: Nga Tsin Wai also had villagers surnamed Che). The majority of the villagers surnamed Ng included many members of the clan’s second branch. Both Shek Ku Lung Village and Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall had their own water wells. When there was a shortage of water in Nga Tsin Wai, villagers would go to Shek Ku Lung Village to fill their containers. The four corners of Nga Tsin Wai were built with blockhouses during pre-war times. Back then, the present location of the village office was a watchtower where villagers on duty climbed up via a ladder at night to keep watch. In those days, villagers held meetings at the “Chung Soh” in 6th Lane. Everyone subsequently buried the cannons of the blockhouses and watchtower underground to prevent them from being discovered and condemned by the Japanese army.

In those pre-war days, Nga Tsin Wai was surrounded by a fish pond, with a stone bridge at the main entrance serving as the only way to access the village. When Ng Sui Mo moved into Nga Tsin Wai, the fish pond was still there. It subsequently dried up after its water source was cut off. In the old days, a large banyan tree stood in front of the walled village (editor’s note: at the junction of Tai Hang Street and Pei Pin Street). The tree was so large that even several people standing together could not embrace it. During the summer, villagers used to gather and chat under the shade provided by its leaves and branches. Security in Nga Tsin Wai was good and the custom of night watch patrol endured until the 1970s. The doors of the gatehouse closed at 10:00 pm every evening after which specially assigned guards were entrusted to open and close the doors.

Ng Sui Mo returned to Hong Kong with his family after World War II and settled in Nga Tsin Wai. After dropping out of school, he worked in a hardware shop in Hong Lok Street as an apprentice. His boss there was a fellow villager from Nga Tsin Wai with a different family name who had moved to the area because of its lower housing costs. Occupying two connected houses, Ng Sui Mo’s boss lived together with 20-30 relatives across two households. Ng Sui Mo’s mother was well acquainted with her son’s boss and the two families frequently visited one and other. Ng Sui Mo’s boss promised the boy’s mother that he would let her son work as an apprentice at his hardware shop and sleep there overnight during his apprenticeship. After he started working, Ng Sui Mo continued to live in Nga Tsin Wai for most of the time, only leaving home after he went to sea. Each of his journeys as a seafarer lasted either 12 or 18 months. Before departure, the shipping company signed a contract with each of its employees at the expiration of which crew members could select whether to stay on or not. Those who decided to leave were flown back to Hong Kong while those who stayed received cash bonuses equivalent to the value of the air ticket.

As Ng Sui Mo’s family owned a lot of farmland and several ancestral houses in Shek Ku Lung Village when he was a child, his grandfather never needed to work. Ng Sui Mo’s father worked as a polisher at Hung Hom’s Green Island Cement Factory. His mother was a Hakka native from Zengcheng who lived in one of the few houses at the rear of Lung Chow Tseng Village (formally known as Lo Fu Ngam) near Munsang College. Ng Sui Mo’s maternal uncle was Ng Sui Mo’s father’s co-worker. She subsequently met and got to know her future husband through him. Interestingly, Ng Sui Mo’s father’s younger brother wooed and married his wife, a rural woman from the New Territories, by singing mountain songs! In the early days, when young men and women went cutting grass in the mountains, they could not talk to each other as they were too far away. As a result, they learned to communicate by singing mountain songs at the top of their voices. Many unmarried young men and women stood on opposite sides of Kai Tak Nullah every evening, singing such songs in both local and Hakka dialects. Such sessions generally lasted from after everyone’s evening meal to bedtime. The singers often stretched all the way from Sha Po Village at the mouth of the nullah to Tai Hom Village at the nullah’s end. A lot of couples became engaged and married this way. While Ng Sui Mo and other kids often gathered at the side of the nullah to hear the melodious singing, they did not really understand the words of the songs.

Before the war, Ng Sui Mo’s family was one of the biggest in Shek Ku Lung Village and included many members of his parent’s and grandparent’s generations. Back then, the family owned a few big houses in the village. As each dwelling had several halls, they were larger than typical village houses in Nga Tsin Wai. Each property also had a stove in its front hall; behind this was the living room, followed by a room and a cockloft. There were also spaces for sun-drying grains and a pig site. Ng Sui Mo lived with his grandfather, mother and siblings in such a house, with the old man sleeping in the living room. Ng Sui Mo also had several aunts and a grandmother who lived in the home of his eldest aunt. This lady grew flowers with her husband by the side of Shek Ku Lung Village. Whenever Ng Sui Mo’s mother was too busy to look after all of the children, Ng Sui Mo would go to his eldest aunt’s home with his grandfather to eat. While the old man had no real need to work, Ng Sui Mo’s mother earned her living by farming after she married to Shek Ku Lung.

The farmlands belonging to Ng Sui Mo’s relatives were located behind the village and close to Wong Tai Sin. His family had also leased out other areas of farmland to tenants who grew watercress there. Ng Sui Mo had helped out with watering and weeding since he was a child. When Shek Ku Lung Village was demolished by the authorities during the Japanese occupation, Ng Sui Mo’s family moved to Nga Tsin Wai. His mother still grew vegetables on the original lands back then, only abandoning her fields to come home before Hong Kong’s liberation in 1945. After the war, the British Colonial Government resumed the lands and began expanding Kai Tak Airport. Compensation for the farmers whose smallholdings had been purchased was calculated at just a few dozen cents per square foot. Shek Ku Lung Village’s farmlands eventually became the gateway (now Confucian Tai Shing Secondary School) used for managing aircraft landings and take-offs. During wartime, Ng Sui Mo’s family had leased another piece of land to a flower growing tenant. His mother took over the plot to farm herself after returning to Hong Kong.

Ng Sui Mo’s mother grew watercress, water spinach and sweet potatoes in Wong Tai Sin. At first, she took her produce to Blacksmith Street’s bazaar next to Sha Po Village to sell. As the bazaar only opened in the morning, villagers went to Hong Kong Island to sell their vegetables in the afternoon. Sweet potatoes took about three months to harvest. The secret behind their growth was to ensure the soil was deep and soft enough to enable the deep planting of the seed potatoes. Potato seedlings could also be used as pig feed. While growing potato seedlings generally required fertilizers for accelerating growth, such chemicals could not be used for growing sweet potatoes as they would adversely affect the harvest. Ng Sui Mo’s mother farmed pigs and grew vegetables at the same time. When she sold the pigs, she would inform customers to collect the pigs at their home. When Ng Sui Mo had free time, he would help his mother out around the farm. He only began returning home less after he started work as an apprentice in the hardware shop, while his eldest brother did electrical work in Green Island Cement Factory. When the Government later purchased the vegetable fields of Ng Sui Mo’s family to build the Tung Tau Estate Resettlement Area, his mother gave up working altogether. As a result, she looked to Ng Sui Mo and his brother for support even though she was only aged about 50 at that time.

In the past, the area around San Po Kong was a beach and Nga Tsin Wai was surrounded by a fish pond that helped protect its residents against pirate invasion. For this reason, houses at the edge of the walled village had no back doors. Ng Sui Mo thought that the scenery was better in the old days when the fish pond used to surround the village like a band. The source for this body of water was a stream called “Kam Shan Ceot” that ran behind the village. During the Japanese occupation, the authorities repaired and built the nearby airport so the fish pond dried up as its water source had been cut off. After the war, the British Colonial Government levelled Kam Shan, the hill behind Nga Tsin Wai, in order to mine the soil for expanding Kai Tak airport and at the same time filling up the fish pond.

During Ng Sui Mo’s childhood, Shek Ku Lung Village, Sha Po, Mao Tsin and Nga Tsin Wai all adjoined each other. For this reason, villagers all knew one and other quite well and shouted out greetings when they went to work in the farmlands each day. Fellow villagers were just like family members and were very familiar and friendly with each other. Villagers also cherished close family ties. Whenever they saw relatives quarrel with others, they would come forward to help their loved ones without having to ask for reasons or causes. Ng Sui Mo’s family raised pigs and chickens in Nga Tsin Wai and grew vegetables nearby. As their source of food was self-sufficient and they basically only needed to buy rice, they seldom went to shop at Kowloon City market. Ng Sui Mo’s mother often took him to Lung Chow Tseng Village to visit his maternal grandfather and other relatives there. As Ng Sui Mo’s father died young, his father’s younger brother often treated the boy and his brother to meals at a nearby tea house (now the Seven Joy Restaurant in Prince Edward Road).

Nga Tsin Wai held Jiao Festival once every ten years. Ng Sui Mo believed that the festivities were fairly ordinary and as a result has no lasting impression of them. During pre-war days, Jiao celebrants used to hold a customary “parade” when an elderly person seated on a sedan chair was carried through the villages. One bearer at the front and another at the back lifted and moved the sedan chair and its passenger on their shoulders while others held “Solemnly silent” and “Make way” plaques. The procession paraded through the area along Nga Tsin Wai, Sha Po and Hau Wong Temple with many children following close behind. In the early years after the war, the Jiao rituals included the carrying of the Ghost King (Tai Si) in a parade involving six or seven villagers running a 10-foot high paper-machier Tai Si statue around “in a big circle”. Along the way, the villagers chanted “May peace bless your entire family” loudly with no musical accompaniment. The kids shouted along with the adults! Finally, the Tai Si statue was burnt at Kai Tak Nullah. Wooden doll puppet shows were also staged during these rituals. Ng Sui Mo liked to watch the performances but did not really pay any attention to their content. Eager to join the fun, people from several other villages came along to take part in the shows. As villagers fasted during Jiao period, guards were posted at either end of the open space near the gatehouse and anyone carrying meat was turned away.

In the days when Nga Tsin Wai still had a fish pond, the environment was beautiful. The nearby land was lush and green, with watercress fields in front of the village (now San Po Kong). San Po Kong was originally a beach which was only developed into a vegetable field at a later stage. When Ng Sui Mo was a child, he liked to jump into the nullah (eventually known as Kai Tak Nullah) to swim. The water in those days was very clear. This was especially true after heavy rain. The bottom of the nullah was paved with soft mud and children dived directly into the water from its sides. There were eels and carp in the nullah back then. Carp appeared mostly on hot days. Ng Sui Mo tended to lay his whole body in the nullah, trying to catch the fish by using his body to squeeze them onto dry land. What a funny sight he must have made!

As Nga Tsin Wai only had one entrance, villagers living in the six lanes were very familiar with everyone and knew one and other’s addresses. Before he got married, Ng Sui Mo lived opposite the home of his wife’s family. In a village so small the two had had hardly any contact as Ng Sui Mo thought he was quite shy. When the two eventually married, they hosted a banquet in a restaurant which only close friends were invited to attend. There were some fruit trees around Nga Tsin Wai Village which were taken care of by the residents whose homes were nearest to them. Children in the village were allowed to pick guava, longan and wampee from the trees at will, usually removing the fruits with a spear before placing them in their mouths. Of all the trees, the longans were tallest and only children were allowed to pick its fruits. The children did not steal eggs and vegetables. When the village’s farmers had surplus produce, they gave it away to their neighbours as a present. There was a fruit and a sauce plant near Nga Tsin Wai. 12 to 13-year-old local kids did like to steal dried plums from bamboo woven screens placed on shelves of the fruit plant for sun-drying. As the factory was surrounded by barbed wire, the youngsters used hooks to steal the dried fruit through wire gaps, taking care not to drop their booty.

Before World War II broke out, the “Chui Lok” was an important meeting place in Nga Tsin Wai. The “Chui Lok” was a single-storey house, located near the junction of the present Tung Kwong Road and Tung Lung Road. The Club’s front door faced San Po Kong and had a big tree in front of it. This was the place where villagers chatted, played mahjong and discussed village affairs. While still a child, Ng Sui Mo chased other kids for fun outside and chopped the trees there with a knife to obtain branches for fuel. Shortly after the Japanese had occupied Hong Kong, the Chui Lok was demolished to make way for a road to enable the transporting of soil for expanding the airport. Nga Tsin Wai had a three-surname common house called the “Chung Sho” where villagers surnamed Chan, Lee and Ng played Hakka card games and chatted. After the war, the Chung Sho was converted to a residence and rented out. After the war, villagers transformed the watchtower on the upper floor of the gatehouse into the village office. Originally, villagers could only reach the watchtower by a ladder. To make it easier for old folks to access the village office, a fixed staircase was subsequently built and the area of the village office was expanded to two houses.

When Shek Ku Lung Village was demolished during the Japanese occupation, Ng Sui Mo’s family moved to a temporary home in To Kwa Wan. Ng Wai Chi, Ng Sui Mo’s granduncle, was a descendant of Nga Tsin Wai Ng Clan’s fourth branch. His son was a member of the anti-Japanese resistance and was arrested and executed by the authorities after his clansmen informed on him. Mr. and Mrs. Ng Wai Chi were both very old and unemployed. As they were poor and had no other means of supporting themselves, they intended to tear down one ancestral house and sell its timber and tiles. Although Shek Ku Lung was a branch of Nga Tsin Wai, clansmen of the two villages knew each other well and messages exchanged quickly. Ng Sui Mo’s family learned the story of the Ng Wai Chi family from their distant cousins and intended to buy the house so they could settle in Nga Tsin Wai. Ng Sui Mo’s brother-in-law lobbied Mr. and Mrs. Ng Wai Chi to sell their home, eventually paying $3,000 (Editor’s note: currency unknown) for it. After Hong Kong was liberated from the Japanese, Ng Wai Chi was unwilling to sign the deed, only agreeing to ratify it after Ng Sui Mo’s family increased the agreed price. As Ng Sui Mo and his brother were young at the time, they did not participate in the negotiations and were unaware of the closeness between the clansmen.

Ng Sui Mo’s family was friendly with Nga Tsin Wai villagers of all ages, irrespective of their family names. He recalled a funny story from the year of liberation when his mother walked back to Hong Kong from Huizhou with her kids. She carried some peanuts which she intended for sale, arriving Nga Tsin Wai about two to three days before the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month (i.e. Mid Autumn Festival). The Ng clansmen used Japanese Military Yen to buy the peanuts. Unfortunately, the Japanese surrendered soon after, totally wiping out the value of their military currency. Ng Sui Mo recalls with a smile that his mother had been deceived by other members of the family. The military currency notes were subsequently discarded. That said, he thought that the villagers helped each other in their daily life irrespective of their surnames. His mother was familiar with Lee Fu’s third aunt because they were both Hakka. Ng Sui Mo grew up with Wan Cheung in the village and they stayed friends for decades afterwards, only losing contact after they had both moved away in recent years. Ng Sui Mo and Ng Chi Wing both belong to the second branch, and members of their two families used to meet every day.

When Ng Sui Mo first moved into Nga Tsin Wai, he lived with his mother and eldest brother at No. 4, 4th Lane. After getting married, his eldest brother subsequently began renting the house next door from a man named Wong. He and his wife eventually had a family comprising two daughters and three sons. The daughters lived with their parents, while the sons lived in the cockloft in their grandmother’s house. When Ng Sui Mo married a native of Hainan Island in 1968, he was 31 and she was around nine years younger. His wife’s mother had settled in Hong Kong early on in life while his wife came to Hong Kong when she was about 10, later moving to Nga Tsin Wai. Before she got married, Ng Sui Mo’s wife worked in a transistor factory. At this time, Ng Sui Mo had already been seafaring for around 10 years, going abroad for up to a year at a time. After signing off from a ship, he generally stayed in Hong Kong for a short break of a few months which he spent working on local fishing boats. Whenever he grew bored of the daily routine, he would leave Hong Kong for another lengthy sea journey. As such, he worked alternatively in Hong Kong and abroad.

Since he went seafaring, he did not spend that much time at home and never really got to know new villagers who had moved to Nga Tsin Wai. On the rare occasions when Ng Sui Mo had met his wife before marriage, he had no intention of making friends with her. It was his mother who directly introduced the two who then went on to marry within the next year. Ng Sui Mo thought that his mother – a rural woman who spoke her mind without worrying about the consequences – might have embarrassed his wife. After their marriage, Ng Sui Mo and his spouse moved to a house he rented at 3rd Lane where they started a family that eventually included two daughters and one son. His wife stayed at home after their marriage to cook and take care of the kids. Initially Ng Sui Mo and his eldest brother joined his mother for meals for which the cooking was done by his and his eldest brother’s wives. They later had dinner on their own and only gathered for family dinners during Chinese New Year.

While Ng Sui Mo had started work at an early age, he had yet to seriously consider moving away from Nga Tsin Wai. His thinking in those days was simple – he just wanted a place to live. He later regretted not taking the opportunity to buy a home when property prices in San Po Kong were low enough for him to afford. In the early period, a flat in Yin Hing Street cost around HK$8,000, but has now risen to a whopping HK$6,000,000 to 7,000,000. Ng Sui Mo was accustomed to the living environment in Nga Tsin Wai and never even fretted about collecting night soil.He believed clearing the drains was the key to sustaining health. Otherwise, foul smells will spread on hot days. Back then, every household in the village illegally used public water to wash their floors at night, using a small hose to sluice away any foul smelling garbage. The drains in Nga Tsin Wai were seldom blocked. Only when Typhoon Wanda hit Hong Kong did water flood to around waist deep level. Fellow villager Lee Foo was working in the fire station when the typhoon hit. He took his colleagues to the village in a fire engine, smashing the nullah curb opposite the gatehouse with the back of the fire engine to divert the floodwaters into Kai Tak Nullah. All of the villagers knew that Lee Fu, Ng Kau and Ng Kam Ling were good friends. Ng Kau was the oldest of the three, while Lee Foo was the youngest.

Ng Sui Mo’s eldest brother, Ng Kau, had a previous experience in the electrical appliance industry and had even gone seafaring for a short period. After leaving his job, he opened an electrical appliances shop in Tung Tau Estate which mainly served customers from Kowloon Walled City. In the beginning, business was good. As his brother got older, the operation was gradually taken over by his nephew and business slowly started declining. Ng Kau ran another electrical shop in a two-storey building in front of the gatehouse at the entrance of Nga Tsin Wai (now Yan Sang Tong Medicine Shop). The title ownership here was never clear. At first, the place was sold by Lee Foo, Ng Kam Ling and others to people who made wooden boxes. As the shop was a magnet for drug addicts and the wooden boxes were a huge fire risk, the villagers objected to it being allowed to stay open. As a result, Lee Foo, Ng Kam Ling and others resumed control of the premises, compensating the wooden box retailer. The shop was then resold to Ng Sui Mo’s eldest brother who opened an electrical appliance store on the condition that the rear half of its upper floor would be reserved for the use of the village office. When his son grew up, Ng Kau switched from selling electrical appliances to retailing groceries. Not long afterwards, the shop was leased at a premium to Yan Sang Tong.

Ng Wai Chi, Ng Kam Ling, Ng Kau and Ng Chi Wing had all successively served as Nga Tsin Wai’s village headmen. The occupant of this post was traditionally elected by voting which was monitored to eliminate cheating. There was no set time limit as to the term of the headman who would basically remain in office until he died and a substitute had to be elected. Before Ng Kau took up the post, he was not very active in the village. That said, he was familiar with Ng Fat and Leung Shek Lun, and often chatted and played mahjong with them. Though them Ng Kau knew a lot of village headmen. Ng Fat (father of the present village headman Ng Chi Wing), from Ng Clan’s second branch, had previously been the supervisor of Chi Tak Public School. In the early years when the Government began demolishing the village (Editor’s note: In the mid 1950s, the Government began resuming the land to start building Tung Tau Estate Resettlement Area), no villagers really paid attention to such matters, only Ng Fat intervened. With his rich experience and extensive knowledge, Leung Shek Lun was active in the village for a long time. Ng Sui Mo thought that while holding the post of village headman did not involve any interests, no one was willing to serve such post. But then the villagers did need a representative for external negotiations. As Ng Kau was not working and had more external contacts, he was therefore elected to fill the post.

During Ng Kau’s term as village headman, parking fees of HK200 a month were charged and collected for the open space in front of the gatehouse with only small vehicles and Nga Tsin Wai villagers allowed to park there. Ng Kau advocated that the open space belonged to Nga Tsin Wai. As the village office had no other income at that time, the HK$200 monthly parking fees helped pay for rates and utilities expenses. The Government regarded the open space as Crown Land. As the villagers did not pay Government rent, the police station informed the village office it had no right to charge fees on the space. The matter remains unresolved to this day. Aside from that, Nga Tsin Wai has had no major disputes and gang activities were not matters in which the village headman interfered. As long as the village office acted properly, Government departments rarely refused applications for organising activities. Ng Sui Mo thinks that there were not that many big issues during Ng Kau’s term. The main problem continues to be that the Government has yet to affirm the manager of Ng Clan’s fourth branch. As a result, the clansmen are still not able to receive money from the over HK$3,000,000 generated by selling the three-surname “Chung Sho”.

Ng Sui Mo was born before World War II in Shek Ku Lung Village where his grandfather owned a few ancestral houses. The village had six families who belonged to Ng Clan’s second branch in Nga Tsin Wai. Four of these families belonged to Ng Sui Mo’s uncles who all had close relationships and visited one and other during festivals. When he was small, Ng Sui Mo did not really understand such closeness as he did not realise everyone’s common ancestry. During the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945, Shek Ku Lung villagers were resettled by the authorities to old tenement buildings in Tam Kung Road that had no doors or windows. Eventually, Ng Sui Mo’s family moved into Nga Tsin Wai. Thereafter, the family’s second branch clansmen were scattered everywhere. After the war, Ng Sui Mo’s mother received compensation for her Shek Ku Lung Village ancestral house from the British Colonial Government. As Ng Sui Mo and his brother were still small at this time, they did not participate in any negotiations. The second branch members used to meet up for ancestral worship, but since everyone has become so scattered, they now seldom meet and come together to pay their respects to their ancestors.

Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Chan is divided into four branches (Editor’s note: Ng Clansmen had ratified Ng Shing Tat of the ninth generation as the founding ancestor. The man had four grandsons who were respectively ancestors of each of these four branches). Of the branches, the fourth boasts the biggest membership and owns the most properties. The eldest, second and third branches do not own any properties and the eldest and third branches have the smallest memberships. When Ng Sui Mo was young, he heard a woman from the second branch lose her temper, grumbling that “a fourth branch son had cheated all of his elder brothers out of their money”. The statement meant that the three eldest brothers of the eleventh generation’s four brothers spent long periods working away from the village to earn their living. This left the youngest brother at home to look after the ancestral properties and to manage transactions. When the brothers’ father passed away, the three eldest brothers returned to the village. At this stage, they were already unclear about the title ownership of the properties whose ownership had been inherited by the youngest brother. This led to an uneven property distribution amongst the different branches. Ng Sui Mo regarded the woman’s complaint as a joke and did not verify the statement. The second branch clansmen had not set up an ancestral trust and merely participated in the affairs of Ng Shing Tat Tso.

Ng Shing Tat Tso is the founding ancestor of all four branches, with each of the four taking turns to chair the ancestral worships. In the past, clansmen received a share of money and roasted pork when they paid respects to Ng Shing Tat Tso. Each male descendant received about HK$10 while men aged 60 or over received an additional portion. Even clansmen who did not attend were rewarded in this way. The practice of distributing money during grave sweeping has now disappeared for many years. Nowadays, Ng Shing Tat Tso is no longer well-off and can no longer use funds raised from selling the three-surname ancestral house. It now only leases out the open space in front of the ancestral hall to a fruit stall, relying on the rent to meet any expenses needed to mount the annual ancestral worship. Unlike the fourth branch which has several ancestors, second branch members only pay respects to one ancestor, Ng Shing Tat Tso. In the past, some children in the second branch used to pay respects to the fourth branch ancestor. They were reprimanded by the fourth branch clansmen for being ineligible to do so. Some elders were not bothered about this, saying that anyone going to the hill cemetery deserved a share of the roasted pork.

A native of Dongguan, Ng Shing Tat Tso branched out to villages in Shatin, Sai Kung, Tseung Kwan O and Lung Kwu Tan after settling in Nga Tsin Wai, Kowloon. Ng Sui Mo heard from the elders that there had been contacts between Ng relatives living in different places in the past. However, the scattered clansmen rarely came back to celebrate their shared ancestral roots. While at sea, the young Ng Kau talked with a colleague who had the same surname, only to learn the man was a descendant of Ng Shing Tat Tso following his move to Tseung Kwan O. Tseung Kwan O’s Ng clansmen belong to the second branch. Tseung Kwan O is located in the New Territories while Nga Tsin Wai lies in the urban area. Tseung Kwan O’s clansmen worried that if they acknowledged Ng Shing Tat Tso as their ancestor, they might lose their male indigenous inhabitant rights. Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng clansmen regarded people living in other villages who were also called Ng as their relatives though no blood relationship had ever been formally verified. Ng Fat Chuen was active in liaising with clansmen who had moved elsewhere, and would inquire in detail whenever there was any chance that someone in a different place shared his ancestry.

In the past, Ng clansmen naturally felt closer to clansmen from the same branch as they came from themselves. That said, clansmen rarely had conflicts of interest, so differentiation along branch lines was not really that meaningful. Many second branch clansmen from Shek Ku Lung Village died or moved away during the Japanese occupation. Clansmen whom Ng Sui Mo knew from his family’s branch rarely participated in Nga Tsin Wai’s celebrations and festivals unless there was roasted pork to be distributed! At that time, the second branch had many wealthy clansmen.  For example, Law Sam Kee (Editor’s note: a sauce plant) in Sha Po Village which was run by second branch clansmen. The second branch’s membership and property ownership levels were less than those of the fourth branch. People of the fourth branch were also more affluent and better educated.

The main second branch people who now contribute to village affairs are Ng Chi Wing and Ng Sui Mo. Ng Chi Wing’s younger brother, daughter and son-in-law also help in organising village activities. There is just enough people to fill up one banquet table! Ng Sui Mo regards himself not very active, only participating in village meetings that update him about the latest village developments. His children only very rarely become involved in village affairs as his son is busy with his work. Ng Sui Mo’s children lived at home for many years. His son got married in the late 1990s eventually renting a house in 3rd Lane, while his youngest daughter moved out of Nga Tsin Wai following her own wedding. In 2000, Ng Sui Mo and his loved ones moved to Sham Tseng. As the second branch clansmen could only trace their ancestral roots back for several generations, some clansmen questioned whether they really were surnamed Ng. Ng Sui Mo said with a smile that identifying oneself as coming from the second branch carries no benefits. Ultimately, second branch clansmen can only pitch in money and effort without being entitled to a share of any property! Following the recent sale of its three-surname ancestral house, the Ng Clan agreed to use the proceeds as a common fund that would prevent any further loss of clan cohesiveness. Ng Sui Mo points out that even if the money were to be distributed, each male descendant would only receive a tiny share. As a result, he is not really that bothered about it.

During the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945, Ng Sui Mo’s family moved into Nga Tsin Wai where they bought a house at 4th Lane from Ng Wai Chi. Title owners of this property were Ng Sui Mo and his brother. The two brothers later moved out after they each got married and both started renting other houses in the village. This left their mother still residing in their old home. When the Land Development Corporation (“LDC”) began launching its acquisition of the village lands and houses, it planned for an in situ redevelopment of Nga Tsin Wai into buildings. The LDC also proposed to compensate the owners to the value of two flats for demolishing one house with each flat having an area of 400 square feet. Affected villagers would then be temporarily rehoused in Shatin and would later move back to Nga Tsin Wai upon completion of the redevelopment. The then village headman thought that the Government was concealing its true intentions and that the amount of compensation was too low. As a result, the proposal was rejected out of hand.

Subsequently, the Urban Renewal Authority (“URA”) proposed a purchase package and offered the indigenous inhabitants preferential acquisition prices. This proposal was also stalled for a long time. Meanwhile Cheung Kong Holdings (“CKH”) had been acquiring properties for many years, continuously negotiating with Ng Sui Mo’s eldest brother Ng Kau. CKH promised Ng Kau that if he sold his family’s house early on, he would get a better price. Considering that the redevelopment seemed unlikely to happen within the foreseeable future, his health was deteriorating and that his children had all grown up, Ng Kau finally decided to sell the house to CKH for HK$2,200,000. Negotiation for the sale was handled by Ng Kau himself. Ng Sui Mo took heed of his brother’s advice and only took responsibility for signing at the transaction’s completion. By the time the house was sold, Ng Sui Mo had already moved to Sham Tseng. He lived in Nga Tsin Wai with his mother, only leaving after she passed away. He did not feel sad about selling the ancestral house. As CKH had adopted a “buy one demolish one” approach, the whole village had become a messy shamble and it was almost impossible to retain the original landscape.

Ng Sui Mo had spent most of his life in Nga Tsin Wai, only moving out in 2000. He believes that the village’s demolition is inevitable. He retains no fond memories of his time in Nga Tsin Wai. As the redevelopment project has been dragging on for over 20 years, he doesn’t have much feeling about it now. As his brothers and sisters had already moved out, there was no other reason for him to feel sentimental about his former home. That said, Ng Sui Mo still cannot leave Nga Tsin Wai entirely behind him, often returning to the village to follow clan affairs more closely. He sighs that his clansmen have no money and power that they cannot retain their ancestral properties. Even Chi Tak Public School can be taken back by the Government at almost any time.

Ng Sui Mo favours retaining some of Nga Tsin Wai’s village houses so villagers can hold on to their memories. He also still remembers vividly the stone pestles of the village houses which were mostly built under the staircases to save space. After cutting the grains, villagers took home and ground the rice grains with the pestle in order to remove the chaff, creating loud pounding sounds. In the past every household in Shek Ku Lung Village had its own stone pestle while only a few village houses in Nga Tsin Wai had made a pestle of their own. Ng Sui Mo laments that the passing of the decades may have caused the decline of his village as today’s villagers have no feeling for rural life. That said, he believes it is not feasible to classify Nga Tsin Wai as a historic site as the villagers need compensation to improve their lives. While classifying Nga Tsin Wai as such a site would help save its reputation, it would have little meaning for villagers there.