Ng Chiu Pang

Ng Chiu Pang's grandmother used the US dollars her seafarer husband remitted home to buy up village houses in Nga Tsin Wai and farmland outside the village. In 1954, the Government resumed these farm lands in order to expand Kai Tak Airport. After getting the family’s compensation from the Government, Ng Chiu Pang’s father teamed up with Lee Jok Foo, a good friend in Nga Tsin Wai, to build a house at No. 88 Fuk Lo Tsun Road where their two families could share. Fuk Lo Tsun Road was close to Ng Tsin Wai and it is only around a 5-minute walk. Ng Chiu Pang’s family’s life improved a lot after they moved into their new home as they not only had sitting, dining and bed rooms but also a toilet. After Ng Chiu Pang’s father was appointed a Government school principal he enjoyed the status of a senior civil servant and was eligible to purchase a residence via the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Society. The whole family then moved to live in Briar Avenue, Happy Valley where Ng Chiu Pang’s father lived until he passed away. 

Ng Chiu Pang’s family had four properties in Nga Tsin Wai. Three of them were connecting ancestral houses in 3rd Lane while the remaining one was a shop in Nan Pin Street. Ng Chiu Pang’s father was the estate owner of the ancestral houses. After Ng Chiu Pang’s father moved away from the village early on, Chiu Pang’s third and fourth uncles’ families to move in.Ng Chiu Pang’s father passed away in 1996 and at that time, Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (CKH) sent lawyer Wong Chi Hang to try and buy houses from the villagers of Nga Tsin Wai. CKH had contacted Ng Chiu Pang’s father who was totally disinterested in selling his houses to them. After his father passed away, Ng Chiu Pang was appointed the executor of the older man’s estate.

In around 1997 or 1998, Ng Chiu Pang emigrated to Canada and CKH made a long distance call to him to explore the possibility of purchase. As Ng Chiu Pang proved as unwilling as his father had before him to sell his family’s ancestral houses, negotiations about a possible sale dragged on for several years. As his third and fourth uncles’ families were still living in the village, Ng Chiu Pang also wanted to avoid the embarrassing unpleasantness of having to resettle them if he ever sold the houses. CKH had already acquired about 70% of estate ownership in the village and according to the laws of Hong Kong could legally propose to generally acquire the remainder. Ng Chiu Pang was curious about CKH’s plans and resolved to return to Hong Kong to learn more about the situation.

Ng Chiu Pang thinks today that CKH was only a property developer with just commercial considerations. CKH’s offer prices for each 0.01 acre house and plot either with or without vacant possession were respectively HK$1,800,000 or HK$2,000,000. The offers were open to both indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants. Ng Chiu Pang asked CKH whether it had considered keeping some old structures, but found it difficult because CKH had already drawn up building plans. CKH also thought that if Tin Hau Temple was kept, worshippers would continue to burn incense, creating smoke and smog that would negatively affect its possible future sale of the properties.

Seduced by the generous prices CKH were offering, many villagers were quite happy to sell their houses. The fact that the dwellings were ancestral houses became only a secondary consideration. Indeed, so happy were some prospective sellers that even Ng Kau who was serving as that year’s village headman sold his home. Many other villagers could not sell their houses because of legal issues concerning old title deeds in respect of the houses or because their ancestors had failed to complete the property succession formalities. As a result, Ng Chiu Pang’s starting point was not the same as that of other villagers as he was reluctant to sell his properties because they were ancestral houses and a conservation plan had also been in incubation. Eventually then, CKH’s negotiations with Ng Chiu Pang grounded to a halt.

When the URA proposed to acquire houses in Nga Tsin Wai Village in the 2000s, Ng Chiu Pang was still reluctant to sell. The village houses in Nga Tsin Wai were very old and dilapidated. While Ng Chiu Pang had spent money on repairing his own three ancestral homes, their condition was still very poor. At that time, the families of his third and fourth uncles were still living in the houses and constantly faced the threat of wind, rain and termite. Ng Chiu Pang simply did not have sufficient money to permanently repair the ancestral houses. Indeed, so bad was their condition, it was only a matter of time before they collapsed. Besides, should the sale of the houses and resettlement go ahead, the families of his third and fourth uncles would have to be resettled quickly. Matters were further complicated by the fact that Ng Chiu Pang’s second uncle owned part of the estate of the ancestral houses and the man’s wife was so old and poor that she wanted to sell the houses as soon as possible so she could use the money raised to improve her quality of life. Ng Chiu Pang was sympathetic to his relatives’ needs and initiated negotiations with the URA. 

As the property’s owner, Ng Chiu Pang negotiated with the URA alone instructing lawyers, Johnson, Stokes & Master, to arrange for solicitors specialised in the sale and purchase of walled village houses to represent him. Ng Chiu Pang’s first meeting with the URA took place during a Wong Tai Sin District Council Meeting. He felt that the URA’s plan was not as extreme as that of CKH since its plan had many conservation considerations. Discussions went reasonably well with the differences between the two parties slowly eliminated after several meetings. Today, Ng Chiu Pang thanks the URA for doing so much to help keep the three treasures of Nga Tsin Wai and his family’s three ancestral houses for future generations. The URA acknowledged the interests of the indigenous inhabitants and was quite happy to compensate them accordingly. Though the URA had a formula for calculating compensation, it was not a Governmental department. As a result, it was able to deal with things flexibly as it was not bound by established government policy. 

Somebody had proposed a conservation plan to develop the entire Nga Tsin Wai into a themed conservation attraction similar to the Sung Dynasty Village or Disneyland. Key features there would include dragon’s beard candy stalls and acrobatics displays. Ng Chiu Pang felt that Nga Tsin Wai had its historic value. He also points out that his grandfather was not a dragon’s beard candy seller or acrobat and would never have agreed to the setting up such trivialities. Worse still, were the conservation park plan to go ahead, the land would revert to the Government with such compensation payable in the same manner as under any resumption of Government ownership. While the Government acknowledged the interests of the indigenous inhabitants, it had to abide by its established policy. As a result, it had to refer all cases in the New Territories and use an established formula to calculate any compensation. Such amounts would inevitably be far lower than those offered by the URA. 

Before the sale and purchase agreement between the URA and Ng Chiu Pang’s family was concluded, his third and fourth uncles’ families had successfully applied for public housing and had been rehoused. Only Ng Chiu Pang’s third uncle’s son was still living in one of the ancestral houses. Ng Chiu Pang discussed the man’s case with the URA and the parties all reached a satisfactory plan involving rehousing and the granting of a resettlement subsidy. When discussing demolition and resettlement matters with the URA, residents could choose between receiving cash compensation or being resettled in public housing, depending on their personal wishes.  

In the old days, Ng Chiu Pang rarely returned to his home village because young people were always forward-looking and only tended to look back at memories fondly as they aged. He knows that when people leave this world, they cannot take away anything physical. Though he now owns a big house, a car and watches, Ng Chiu Pang knows he will sooner or later have – and be – nothing except a memory. To this end, he believed that the village office, Tin Hau Temple and ancestral hall were all cohesive forces in village life. If all of these buildings were to be demolished, no villager would want to return to the village ever again. Ng Chiu Pang hopes to keep these symbols of the walled village for his children and grandchildren to pass down through the generations so they can understand who their ancestors were. Ng Chiu Pang’s son has not yet reached the stage that he will cherish past times and artifacts. He has so many things to keep him busy that he has not yet had time to appreciate the value of his family’s memories. Ng Chiu Pang’s father had told him old stories of Nga Tsin Wai when they lived in the Happy Valley civil servants’ quarters. Most of these stories were about his grievances because he held views different from his clansmen. Today, Ng Chiu Pang shares the same grievances as his father did before him.