Reminiscences: Life in Hong Kong's Built Heritage
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Ying-wo

Ancestral halls and temples are our two most important worshipping places. My grandpa and dad used to go to Tang Tsing Lok Ancestral Hall to make offerings to our ancestors during the spring and autumn ancestral worship days every year. After completing the rituals, pork specially prepared for the occasion would be distributed in the ancestral hall to all the clan males. The older you were, the larger the portion of pork you would get. Tang Tsing Lok Ancestral Hall is not the only ancestral hall of the Tang clan in Kam Tin. There are also Tang Chan Yui Kuen Ancestral Hall, Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall and Tang Lung Yau Wan Tsuen Um Ancestral Hall.

Our village has worshipped Hung Shing (God of the South Sea) for several hundred years, and we have a Hung Shing Temple in Shui Tau Village. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month every year, villagers gather in front of Hung Shing Temple to celebrate the birth of Hung Shing. Different “floral tribute clubs” are formed with the goal of grabbing the “floral tribute” during the festival. It was so hilarious and exciting. Inside each floral tribute is a tablet representing Hung Shing. The body of the floral tribute is made of paper strips and decorated with mascots. The climax of the entire celebration was the "floral tribute scramble". When the fuse tube was launched up into the sky, members of different floral tribute clubs scrambled desperately for the fuse tube, competing intensely and even fighting. The person who managed to grab the fuse tube got to carry the floral tribute to his club’s own shrine, a great honour. The floral tribute would be returned the following year, when there would be another floral tribute scramble.

Tang Chan Yui Kuen Ancestral Hall

Tang Yum, the father of Tang Tsing-lok, was the eldest son of Tang Hung-yee, the founding ancestor of the Tang clan in Kam Tin. Tang Yum had three younger brothers: Tang Chan, Tang Yui and Tang Kuen. Their descendants built the Tang Chan Yui Kuen Ancestral Hall during the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) of the Qing dynasty in a three-hall, two-courtyard style for worshipping their ancestors. Members of the Tang clan in Kam Tin today descended from the four families: Tang Yum, Tang Chan, Tang Yui and Tang Kuen.

Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall

Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall was built in 1701 to commemorate Tang Kwong-u, the seventeenth generation ancestor of the Tang clan in Guangdong Province. The ancestral hall is a building with two halls. A stone tablet was found inlaid on the right wall of the altar in the rear hall during a renovation in the 1990s. The tablet is an important relic, providing a written record of the history of the construction of the ancestral hall and its renovation in 1782.

Tang Lung Yau Wan Tsuen Um Ancestral Hall

Tang Lung Yau Wan Tsuen Um Ancestral Hall was built by the descendants of Tang Man-wai (alias Tang Tsuen-um) as a family ancestral hall in the thirty-third year of the Qianlong reign (1768) of the Qing dynasty. It has a three-hall, two-courtyard layout. Tang Man-wai was a Jun Sze, which means he attained the degree in the national civil examinations, in the twenty-fourth year of the Kangxi reign (1685) of the Qing dynasty. He was once a magistrate in Longyou (“Lung Yau” in Cantonese romanisation) County, Quzhou City, Zhejiang.

Hung Shing Temple, Kam Tin

Hung Shing Temple was built by the Tang clan to worship Hung Shing (God of the South Sea). This two-hall structure has over 500 years of history. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the villagers would gather at the temple to worship Hung Shing with lion dances and a “floral tribute scramble” competition in front of the temple. For safety reasons, it has been changed to floral tribute-drawing in recent years.

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Mary

In the days of secondary school, I joined the school choir with my best friend Yan-yan. We performed many times in the choral Evensong at St John’s Cathedral in Central. The cathedral was quiet and solemn. There were formal services every Christmas and Easter, which attracted Anglicans from various districts. Our music teacher was British. She often attended services in the cathedral. Our teacher said that the cathedral building was built in the style of Early English and Decorated Gothic and her homesickness was relieved whenever she was there.

St John’s Cathedral

Built in 1849, St John's Cathedral, the mother church and main cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of Hong Kong Island, is the oldest surviving Christian ecclesiastical building in Hong Kong. Its architecture was influenced by Early English and Decorated Gothic style as displayed by architectural features including the pointed arches and rib vaults.

Former French Mission Building

The former French Mission Building was built in 1917 by the French Society of Foreign Missions as its Procure of Hong Kong. The three-storey building with basement was built with granite and red bricks in Neo-classical style popular in the Edwardian period. A chapel was incorporated in the northwest corner with its cupola projecting above the roof. Since 1953, the building has been used by different government departments. It was used as the Court of Final Appeal from 1997 to 2015. The building is being converted into offices for law-related organisations.

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Photos


  • Tang Chan Yui Kuen Ancestral Hall

  • Tang Chan Yui Kuen Ancestral Hall in the past

  • Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall

  • Interior of Tang Kwong U Ancestral Hall

Videos


  • Ancestral Tablets Relocation and Rehabilitation Ceremonies of Tang ...

  • Hung Shing Festival in Kam Tin

  • Autumn Sacrificial Rites and Man Mo Tai Parade, Man Mo Temple of Tu...