Cheung Chi Cheung

80% of the workers in the wholesale fruit market were Dongguan natives. Cheung Gor estimates that the surrounding areas of the market have been hangouts of the Dongguan natives since the early days. It was because the naming of Tung Kun (Dongguan) Street and Shek Lung Street was associated with Dongguan. Shek Lung is the name of a town and the core of Dongguan prefecture. His native place is also Shek Lung town. Cheung is the surname of the majority village household. In the past, it was mostly the Dongguan natives that one would meet at the market. When the workers’ children came, they addressed anyone they met as uncles. Everyone knew whose children they were. The uncles gave them candies and took them to their fathers. It was a harmonious place.

Title	Harmonious Fruit Market with workers mainly from Dongguan
Date	13/01/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	2m6s
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.	YMT-CCC-HLT-001

Cheung Gor worked in the Tai Yik Lan. In those days, work started from 7 am to 5 pm. After work, he would go for dinner with workmates. If they had to work until 9 pm, they went for midnight snack. Since the 1970s, the business hours have continued to advance because of changing packaging and transport mode. The working hours were shifted to from 5 am to 3 pm. Today, the workers work from 12 am to 9 am. When the wooden boats anchored, the workers would go and sort out the goods. They discarded the decayed fruits and kept the quality ones. One batch of oranges from the US usually contained 54 or 63 cartons.

In those days, workers used a shoulder pole for transport. Only 4 to 6 cartons could be carried in one go; 20 to 50 cartons were carried if a pushcart was used. Today, the workload is lighter and less manual labour is needed because the lifter is available - it carries the whole batch in one go. Before the reform and opening up of China, all goods from the mainland were managed by the Ng Fung Hong. A gathering was held at 7.45 am every morning at the Fruit Company to negotiate the prices based on fruit samples. The discussion was attended by veteran representatives nominated by the companies who had the necessary experiences and knowledge to determine the price. The pricing was based on quality of goods and market conditions. The prices confirmed would be the standard prices of that day.

Title	Close-up of the market: Daily operation
Date	20/01/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	2m56s
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.	YMT-CCC-HLT-002

The sound of an abacus and the odour of bananas always remind Cheung Gor of the fruit market, where he has worked for decades. The abacus was the tool of haggling, dealings and quotations in the fruit market. When the prices were agreed, the settlement was also done using the abacus. Cheung Gor thinks the abacus was the ‘quintessence’ of the fruit market.

To him, the never-ending sound of the abacus was enjoyment, and the banana odour was unforgettable. In the past, the bananas were handled in a different way. They were baked in a trough placed with large joss sticks. The number of joss sticks and the baking time depended on the room temperature. After baking, ice was spread over the bananas which were still green in skin color. Later, the trough was replaced by a copper tube. Today, the blower is used for cooling. In the past, the ripening of bananas started from the core. Today, the skin chlorophyll is removed with chemical gas before baking the skin with high temperature. The bananas came in clusters. Each cluster contained 5 to 6 cones. They were sold in hands. When ripe, they were sent to the market. Ripe bananas would give out pleasant odour.

Title	Unforgettable sound and odour of the fruit market
Date	13/01/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	3m7s
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.	YMT-CCC-HLT-003

The Association is a non-profit making body. It voluntarily coordinates communal relations, and deals with issues such as street obstruction, cleanliness and complaints. It advises the market merchants to operate orderly, arbitrates disputes between the merchants and coordinates with the government. The Association provides facilities such as security service and illumination system at low charge. 10 or so caretakers are deployed to the fruit markets and unloading bay, where the CCTV systems are installed. The security guards start their duties after the market is closed. The Association officers would be contact if anything happens. In a robbery, the CCTV system has played an important role in arresting the thieves. Since then, no theft happens again. It is the trade’s established rule to charge a few cents from each carton of imported goods. The money would be used to subsidize trade members. Two employees are responsible for daily record of the said payments. Because it involved a small sum, no default has ever happened.

Title	Kowloon Fruit & Vegetable Merchants Association Ltd
Date	27/01/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	2m11s
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.	YMT-CCC-HLT-004

Basking on the mat’ was a jargon of the trade. It refered to the period between completion of last shipment and arrival of new one. The odd-job men (known as ‘boys’ in trade jargon) had to stay in the market even if they have no work. They played games such as shuttlecock, ping pong or Chinese billiards. The senior ones played mahjong and ‘fishing’ (the card game Sap Ng Wu) to kill time. When the goods arrived, everyone had to stop playing and work. There were usually one to two relatively less busy hours every day. The deliverers’ daily wage was calculated on the piece rate. The transactions were settled in cash. With cash in hands, the workers will gamble. Therefore, gambling stalls were opened nearby. These big stalls were as mobile as the unlicensed hawkers. A stall was actually a structure of a wooden box and several planks set at a back alley corner. They fled at the sight of the policeman.

In basking time, Cheung Gor would go to the air-conditioned cinema for a nap - actually he lied to workmates that he had tea. He used to go the Kam Wah Theatre and Yau Ma Tei Theatre near the market. He would stay there from 2.30 pm to 4 pm. The teahouses frequented by the fruit market workers included Fu Yu, Yit Ting Ho and Bun Sum. Yit Ting Ho Chinese Restaurant provided facilities for hanging bird cages. Because father liked small creatures, he liked having tea at this restaurant. When Cheung Gor was a child, he liked to have tea with his father at the tea restaurant. Now he is a fruit merchandiser, he would have tea with other people in the trade. They rarely talked about market conditions; they loved to talk about things that happen in the markets they work.　

Title	Basking on the mat: Fruit Market workers kill time in their own ways
Date	20/01/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	3m36s
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.	YMT-CCC-HLT-005