Small Industries and Community in To Kwan Wan

Chan Chung Bun chose to open his factory at Mei King Mansion because the building was populated with a large labour force. The workshop was mainly used for placing the cutting table and packaging, also a few sewing machines for the female workers. He outsourced other production processes to freelancers at the same building. There were many other small factories (such as plastic or silk flowers manufacturers) on the 1st, 2nd and ground floors of Mei King Mansion because of the sufficient labour supply there.

Law King Hei ‘s childhood home was surrounded by light bulb factories. He and his brothers and sisters all had to make light bulbs after finishing their homework. The family workshop operated throughout the year even on the Lunar New Year’s day. Sometimes girl child workers were hired to help with the job. They normally started working at 8am and had their lunch in the workshop, and that what why the Law’s family was always packed with people. The family would also ask the housewives to do some simple work such as testing the light bulbs. As the salary of housewives and girl child workers were low, the Law’s family sometimes outsourced work to them and earned the difference.

In the 1960s, Luk Lau Ying usually had tea and took her children to school after getting out of bed, and then she   helped out at Wing Ming Workshop, the family factory in Ying Yeung Street. She shopped for grocery around noon and cooked for her husband and two apprentices. She then took a one hour break and worked until 6pm. Only her husband would work overtime. The apprentices slept at the workshop on folding canvas cots next to the work table at night (as the cots were folded and put aside in the morning).

Chan Chung Bun had a factory at Mei King Mansion. He always hired freelancers at the same buildings (more than 40 workers were hired during the busiest time). Chan hired the more skillful workers to work in his workshop. For the other freelancers, he would distribute work to them according to their time arrangement and ability. He made the appointment by phone and collected the finished products from the freelancers’ homes. A “outsource card” was used to record the pieces the freelancer did and the delivery date. The whole operation was based on self-discipline and trust.

The factory buildings at Mok Cheong Street provided a lot of job opportunities. Sometimes the factories would put out street advertisements for hiring hands, some would even sent trucks to deliver raw materials and collect the finished products. Yeung Bo Yee used to make baby pants, and diapers, cut the end of threads, or stitch embroideries. She started working as a garment maker when she was still in school until she got married.

Chan Kwok Man and 4 other partners opened an electric water heater factory. At the beginning, the less than 1,000 square feet factory was set up at one of the partners’ yard, with a room for varnishing and space for assembling top and bottom lids of the heaters. They outsourced the major production processes such as mixing the materials, cutting and punching press since these tasks required bigger machines. The outsourcers were mostly family mould factories in the area. During that time, most of the small factories in To Kwa Wan were set up behind retail stores with a few large scale machines. Different outsources were responsible for different outsource tasks. 

When Kwok Wai King was working at the Pun Lei Garment Factory, she supposed to start working at 8am and get off at 6pm, but she always had to work overtime until 8pm. Once her colleague was getting married and she was one of the bride’s maids. Mr. Hui, head of the factory only allowed them to leave work at 5pm to the banquet. The bride’s maids went back to the factory at 9pm and worked overtime until dawn voluntarily, without even taking off their evening gowns. They did not leave the factory after work and took a nap covering with their long coats. Kwok and her fellow overlock stitching workers all lived near the factory. They were around the same age and got along very well. They would visit each other’s home or travel together during their time off.

Law King Hei remembered that the street was full of food carts during lunch. The vendors started their business at 11am to noon, selling rice with meat or vegetable, congee, fried noodles, fried rice noodles, etc. The male workers usually just squatted and ate, while the female workers always had their own lunch box. The cooked food stalls at To Kwa Wan operated mostly in smaller streets such as Chi Kiang Street, Sheung Heung Road, Ha Heung Road, Lok Shan Road. The vendors put the cooked food in trays and sold them on the food cart, without caring much about the hygiene. Less food carts could be found in main roads like To Kwa Wan Road.