Ng Sai Ming

Ng Shing Tat Sho (9th generation) originally moved from Dongguan to Hong Kong.  It was then called “Kowloon, Xinan County”.  Ng Shing Tat Tso thought that Hong Kong was an ideal place to live.  In those days, San Po Kong used to be farmland.  The present Ng Wah Catholic Primary School was formerly a beach.  Lung Cheung Road and Ma Chai Hang were a forest area, where farming and fishing were possible. Furthermore, Nga Tsin Wai got its water supply from a river.  Therefore, he decided to settle down there. After he had set up a foundation for the family, he brought his father’s ashes from Dongguan to Hong Kong for burial. Ng Ting Fung Tso of the 16th generation lived during the reign of Qing Emperor Shunzhi.  Due to the revolt of Wu Sangui and pirate attacks at that time, some of the clansmen fled to Dongguan.  The Ng Tat Fung Tso branch escaped to Siu Lek Yuen.  When Emperor Kangxi reigned, there was social stability.  Apart from the Ng Tat Fung Tso branch, all the clansmen came back to rebuild their homes in Kowloon.  Ng Wai Wing Tso of the 18th generation rebuilt the village and created a moat that surrounded it in order to unite his clansmen against the pirates.  It was the time of Emporer Yongzheng.  They named the reconstructed village Hing Yau Yu, with the meaning of “celebrating yearly surplus”.  The elders said that there was a hill behind Nga Tsin Wai where they placed the ancestors’ ashes in urns.  Soldiers used to station there during Emperor Jiaqing’s era to collect taxes.  The locals called the hill “Koon Ying” (national army’s barrack).  As such, Hing Yau Yu was also renamed Nga Tsin Wai", meaning “the village before the yamen”.

Nga Tsin Wai had a broad tract of agricultural land, covering the entire San Po Kong of today including the area around Tung Tau Estate.  Three clans – the Ngs, the Lees, and the Chans – lived inside the village wall.   A sect of the Ng Clan moved to Siu Lek Yuen during the time of Ng Tat Fun Tso of the 16th generation.  The Chans also branched out to the village of Nga Tsin Long, now the site of the Kowloon City Market.  The Lees, on the other hand, split out to the area of the present Morse Park and developed into a large village.  Subsequently, members of the Chan and Ng clans also moved to Tseung Kwan O. 

Ng Sai Ming belongs the Ng Tak Ko Tso branch in the 26th generation.  Kam Shing Tso of the 21st generation of this branch built the village in Sha Po.  Sha Po, which became Block 23 of the present Tung Tau Estate (Editor's note: behind Ng Wah Catholic Primary School) was located in-between the old Ng Clan Ancestral Hall and Nga Tsin Wai.  Sha Po Village also consisted of the Chan, Lee, and Ng families.  Houses of the Chans and the Lees were grouped closely together.  Ng was the majority clan with the largest population.  During Japanese Occupation, the Chans’ and the Lees’ residences were demolished to make way for airport expansion.  However, the Ng’s houses were spared and some of the villagers were forced to move to the Model Village in Kowloon Tong or even as far away as in Yuen Long.

Ng Clan members scattered everywhere were connected mainly by the Jiao festivals and ancestral worships.  The clansmen worshipped both their own branch founders as well as Ng Shing Tat Tso during Ching Ming and Chung Yeung.  Ng Sai Ming worshiped Tak Ko Tso on the 6th day of the 9th lunar month, Tsun Wah Tso on the 7th day, Wai Wing Tso  on the 8th day, Ng Shing Tat Tso on 9th day, Yat Un Tso  on the 10th day, and finally his private ancestors on the 11th and 12th days.  The main reason for people to identify with their heritage line was the right to share the ancestral properties.  Before WWII, Ng Shing Tat Tso earned rents from the family-owned fields (which mainly located in the present San Po Kong but was confiscated later by the Japanese and the British).  Every year, on the 7th day of the 1st lunar month, the clansmen would audit the properties at the Ancestral Hall and announce the amount of land income. After deducting the expenses on the worships and Jiao festival from the money, the rest would be shared equally among the clansmen. After the land was confiscated, there was no earning to share anymore.

Sha Po’s village houses were about 440 square feet large, which was twice of the size of houses in Nga Tsin Wai.  Village houses were divided into two categories: 1) flat-roofed houses without kitchen and patio; and 2) hip-roofs with open central courtyard and kitchens on both sides.  Ng Sai Ming’s house was built of granite bricks and roof tiles, whereas poorer villagers built with mud bricks.  Those were the oldest houses.  Sha Po did not have any drains or in-house toilets, so the villagers had to pour the waste away every night.  Sha Po had no village walls and the village boundaries were not obvious.  In pre-war Sha Po, one could find the Ng, the Lee and the Chan families settling there.  The Ngs lived on the left side of the village inside neatly ordered houses.  All of the three families had their own fields.  During the period of Japanese occupation, the Japanese wanted to expand the airport and resumed the houses and fields of the Chan and the Lee families.  Villagers were relocated to Ap Chai Lake in Kowloon Tong.  A lot of people died because of food shortage. The Ngs were unaffected by crisis and were able to made a living by farming.

Ng Wai Wing, who belonged to the 18th generation of the Ng Clan, rebuilt Nga Tsin Wai Village during the third year of Emperor Yongzheng’s reign (AD 1724).  Later on, the population swelled within the village and it resulted in a shortage of land.  Some clansmen began building outside the village walls (Editor: at the present Kai Tak Nullah on Choi Hung Road).  Around 200 years ago, other branches of clansmen moved out to Tseung Kwan O and Sha Po.  The first branch to go to Sha Po was Ng Kam Shing of the 21st generation.  Ng Sai Ming belongs to the 26th generation, and when he was born, his family had already lived in Sha Po for several generations.  Ng Sai Ming’s great-grandfather Ng Wai Pong owned four houses in Sha Po in the back of today’s Ng Wah Catholic Secondary School.  Three of them were situated in the front; one was in the back.  Ng Sai Ming’s great-uncle and grandfather each inherited two houses.  His grandfather lived in the one in the back, which he later passed down to Ng Sai Ming’s uncle.  The uncle let his second son “Hack Lo” (a nickname meaning “Dark Man”) lived there, while he occupied the wood house next door with his wife.  His eldest son was adopted by a person from the Man family in Sha Po.  

Ng Sai Ming pointed out that the Kowloon Walled City was built 150-160 years ago, but Nga Tsin Wai predated the Walled City.  He stressed that the name "Nga Tsin Wai" has nothing to do with the Walled City.  Ng Tak Ko Tso bought land from the Chan Brothers in Nga Tsin Long during the era of Emperor Qianlong.  "Nga Tsin" already existed then, before the Walled City was even built.  Nga Tsin Wai was formerly known as Hing Yau Yu when it was constructed (Editor’s note: the beginning of the 18th century).  The Qing Government used to collect taxes for the military at an office behind the village during the era of Emperor Jiaqing, hence the villagers called the place “Koon Ying”.  When the New Territories’ villagers were on route to Kowloon, they would see the “Koon Ying” yamen, and in relation to that, they called the village Nga Tsin Wai (walled city in front of the yamen).  This name became increasingly popular.  From his great-grandmother, Ng Sai Ming heard stories about Kowloon City.  His great-grandmother, named So, came from So Uk Village, and married Ng’s great-grandfather at the age of 21 – a time when the Kowloon Walled City was being built.  The stone used for fortifying the City came from Inverness Hill (the present Kowloon Tsai Park).  Stone were not quarried from the hill behind the City for the protection of the City.

Both Ng Sai Ming’s mother and grand-aunt had the surname Chan.  The two women knew each other very well.   The grand-aunt also learnt many stories from Ng Sai Ming’s great-grandmother, which she would share with Ng’s mother in detail.  Ng’s mother in turn retold the stories to Ng.  The great-grandmother once introduced a niece from So Uk Village to marry her brother's child Ng Choi Hing (Editor: Ng Sai Ming’s grandfather’s cousin).  Therefore, Ng Sai Ming’s family had two women named So.  After their death, both of them were buried in Pak Shek Hom in two connected graves.  Both gravestones had the inscription "Ms So, of the Ng family".  His great-grandmother's niece was a vegetarian, so her descendants worshipped her by offering vegetarian food.  One time, when the graves were opened, the remained of the two women were mixed up.  Ng Sai Ming’s uncle was responsible for the incidence but he did not bother to do anything.  So, when Ng Sai Ming and his fellow clansmen worshipped their great-grandmother, they just tried to make the best of the mistake and worshipped both women with vegetarian food every time.

Ng Sai Ming grandfather died at the age of 59, before Ng himself was born.  His grandfather’s generation made a living by growing mainly standing grain.  The farmland was spread over two locations - one at the junction of today’s Prince Edward Road and Choi Hung Road; the other at the present Tung Tau Estate.  The ancestral home was located at the former Block 23 of Tung Tau Estate (Editor's note: the present Tung Wui Estate).  The villagers’ lifestyle changed after the British Government leased the land north of Boundary Street.  Job opportunities increased.  Some worked for the government, whilst others became seamen.  Less and less people were engaged in farming; they simply leased the land out to other people for growing vegetables or flowers. 

When Ng Sai Ming was 8 or 9 years old, there were still fields of grains in Ngau Chi Wan Village, although people primarily grew vegetables in the rural villages of Kowloon City.  His grandfather had two wives.  The first wife was named Yuen, and came from Man Wo village, Ho Chung.  She gave birth to Ng’s father and his father’s elder brother, but she passed away when Ng’s father was seven years old.  The second wife, named Pang, came from Fanling and gave birth to only one daughter.  When Ng Sai Ming was four years old, Nga Tsin Wai Village held a Jiao Festival.  His grandfather and his step-grandmother carried him on their backs and brought him to watch a puppet show.  At the age of 10 or 11, his father would occasionally bring him to visit his step-grandmother’s brother in Fanling.  Ng Sai Ming liked the white sugar cake the most, which were made by Fanling villagers.  The villagers made a living by farming and once gave Sai Ming’s family gifts of sweet potatoes, taro and other kinds of crops.  The Sha Po villagers in those days were rural residents of the New Territories.  They lived and dressed in the country way.

After Ng Sai Ming was born in 1922, he lived in Sha Po Village.  He has a brother and a sister.  His father was a seaman who sailed on Japanese ships.  After the Japanese invasion of Northeastern China in 1931, his fathered returned to Hong Kong in 1932-1933, and started farming on the land owned by the Ng Clan in present-day Tung Tau Estate.  His mother was surnamed Chan and lived Nga Tsin Long Village, a branch of Nga Tsin Wai.  She came from a large family.  Ng Sai Ming had, in his childhood, studied at the Lung Tsun School in the Kowloon Walled City for six years, and is therefore familiar with the environment of the Walled City.  In 1898, when the British leased the New Territories, Kowloon City villagers got a lot of employment opportunities to work in the police force, fire service, in sailing and in the British military, which improved the villagers’ livelihood. 

After the British military posted about recruitment on the newspapers, Ng Sai Ming heard the news from fellow villagers.  In order to get better livelihood and benefits, he applied to join the British military in 1941 at the age of 19. There were many other candidates from his village, but they were too short in stature to be admitted.  Ng Sai Ming passed the assessment in newspapers reading, and his height also fit the requirement, so he was easily admitted as solider in the artillery unit. Nga Tsin Wai villagers Ng Gap On and Ng Hong Lun  were also admitted and given military training in Sham Shui Po. Ng Sai Ming, on the other hand, was trained in shooting and marching in Lei Yue Mun.  After three months’ training, they faced the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong.  Ng Sai Ming was stationed at the fort at Tai Shue Wan, Wong Chuk Hang, which is the spot at the top of the escalator inside today’s Ocean Park.  They were unable to resist the Japanese army and finally he took off his military uniform after dinner in the Christmas Eve of 1941.  He then put on a Chinese costume and began his escape to Sai Wan via Aberdeen.  He sought refuge at his friends and relatives for two to three days until the British surrendered.  He subsequently took a sampan to Mong Kok Typhoon Shelter, from where he travelled back to Sha Po Village for farming.

Ng Sai Ming’s father came from a poor family and only studied under a private tutor for a few years when he was small, unlike his wealthy cousins who were able to enrol in Queen's College.  Ng’s parents were joined by a matchmaker.  His mother was from the village of Nga Tsin Long (the present Kowloon City Market) which had 20 to 30 households and was surrounded by fertile wetlands.  Due to the patriarchal culture, Ng’s mother never went to school.  In six or seven years before the birth of Ng Sai Ming, she had been planting grains for a living, and later switched to growing watercress.  When Ng Sai Ming was 9 to 10 years old, Nga Tsin Long village was not yet demolished.  Later when the British government tore down the village for development purposes, the villagers used their compensation money to build new houses in the area around Nam Kok Road and Nga Tsin Long Road.  When Ng Sai Ming was born, his father was already a seaman, working on cruise lines among Nagasaki, Osaka, Taiwan and other places.  After the “September 18th Incident”, he returned home and made a living by raising pigs and farming vegetables.  Ng Sai Ming’s uncle and his family also grew vegetables for living, while the more affluent children of the same branch got to continue their studies.  The employment benefits before the war was generally good.  Salary in the military would be about HK$11-12, while salary in the police force was $13-14.  People from Shandong and the Hoklo people (from Haifeng) came to Hong Kong to work as policemen; many of them were illiterate.

Ng Sai Ming Village grew up in Sha Po Village and studied for two years at the Ng Clan Ancestral School before entering Lung Tsun School. Lung Tsun was then a famous school which was not easy to get in. Many children had to study a few years first in order to enter the first grade at Lung Tsun. Ng Sai Ming studied for six years there until primary School graduation.  The school was located in the Kowloon Walled City (now the museum of Kowloon Walled City Park).  He still remembered the couplet on the gate of the school.  Ng Sai Ming later applied to join the British army.  Candidates at that time were required to be at least primary school graduates, and fit enough to pass the physical test and newspaper reading test.  Ng Sai Ming had a relatively taller stature so he was easily selected. 

Ng Sai Ming got married after the war and lived in the ancestral home with his wife and their nine children.  After the war, he was transferred to the police force and was allocated a large housing unit at the Cheung Sha Wan Police Quarters.  He was the only surviving son of his parents at that time; he did not want to leave the parents so he did not move into the quarters.  Ng Sai Ming had a brother who was 5 years older, who also studied at the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall and Lung Tsun School.  His brother later worked at a military bar on Stonecutters Island, but the Japanese started invading Hong Kong only a year after.  During Japanese Occupation, his brother smuggled goods from Yuen Long to Hong Kong for sale (Editor's note: Hong Kong Island).  He contracted a disease because of the hard work, but he lacked medicine.  Finally the disease worsened and took his life at the time when the Japanese made their surrender.

When Ng Sai Ming was small, people in Sha Po Village married not only people in neighbouring villages, but also, with help of the matchmakers, those as far as Ho Chung, Siu Lek Yuen, Tin Sum Village, etc.  It was inconvenience to travel in those days.  Shatin Pass Road and Fei Ngo Shan Road did not exist until 1939.  When a bride was married into Ho Chung from Kowloon City, the send-off team needed to depart at 10am to avoid missing the auspicious hour for wedding.  Regardless of weather, the carriers of the bride’s sedent chair had to arrive at Ho Chung by 3pm.  The bride would worship the village ancestors upon arrival, and then the groom’s family would immediately initiate the wedding banquet.  The bride’s family returned to Kowloon City after the meal. 

Ng Sai Ming was married after the war.  His wife came from a family who moved from Dongguan to Hong Kong a generation earlier and did farming in the open space above Chuk Yuen Village (now Our Lady’s College).  During the Japanese Occupation, Ng Sai Ming worked in a grocery store named Yee Fat  in Kowloon City.  His wife was a vendor of vegetables on Lion Rock Road.  Since she frequently visited the grocery store, she and Ng Sai Ming left each other a good impression.  Although the two did not talk, each time they had eye contact when they met.   One time, the two were walking back to back in opposite directions.  By coincidence, they both turned around to glance at each other.  From that, both of them knew that they were in love.  A matchmaker contacted them later on, not knowing that they had been acquainted before.  When asked whether he would accept the proposal, Ng said yes straight away.

The most affluent branch of the Ng Clan was Ng Sz Ko Tso, many of its children were admitted to the universities in Hong Kong or overseas without needing to pay a tuition fee.  Some even got government subsidies to get married.  In the pre-war period, Ng Sz Ko Tso members were contractors for government projects, including Mong Kok Typhoon Shelter and Tai Po Road.  In the pre-war period, a lot of Ng Clan members took up government jobs, but the majority of them still engaged in farming after the war ended.  Jobs in those years for the Ngs included postman, fireman, police officer, as well as positions in the Urban Council and Marine Department.  After the war, Ng Sai Ming again applied to the British Army and re-entered the training academy in April 1946.  Half a year later, the unit was disbanded and he rejoined the police force.

Some Ng Clan members had emigrated to foreign countries long ago.  For examples, Ng Chiu Fung Tso’s Ng Kwai Hing (24th generation), settled in the United Kingdom and the family had stayed there for 6 to 7 generations now.  He married a foreign woman, and his descendants looked westernised in terms of their names and appearance.  Some of those who emigrated, however, led a poor life.  They were said to be “Mai Chu Tsai” ("sold away as labours”).  For example, Ng Hin Pong (23rd generation) from Ng Tak Ko Tso left the country more than 100 years ago to work at a gold mine in the USA.  His eldest son stayed in Hong Kong, whilst the second son settled in USA.  In Ng Sai Ming’s generation, there are still people who went abroad to earn a living mainly in the UK and USA.  Clansmen in the UK opened restaurants or did dish washing, but generally not as commonly the case as that of the indigenous inhabitants from the New Territories. Overseas clansmen kept in contact and would definitely come back to Nga Tsin Wai for the Jiao Festival.  Occasionally, they also returned to attend the Tin Hau Festival.

The villages of Nga Tsin Wai League of Seven held a Jiao Festival every ten years.  The seven villages include Nga Tsin Wai, Nga Tsin Long, Sha Po, Tai Hom, Chuk Yuen, Kak Hang and Ta Kwu Leng.  They existed when Nga Tsin Wai was established.  Their formation was related to the Wai Gap System.  Nga Tsin Wai was the leader of them, and the surrounding villages were under the scope of its jurisdiction.  This formed a regional cluster within which all villages jointly participated in managing major affairs.  The Jiao Festival was co-organised by the seven villages, wherein every village forked out money according to their number of population – a process called "reporting the ding".  Each man made a donation of 50 cents to 10 dollars; the amount of donation changed over the years.   Names of donors would be listed on a ranking table and called out by Taoist priests.

Before the war, the rural practice was to choose an auspicious days in advance, on which a woman from Nga Tsin Wai, who were thought to be blessed and lucky, would bath and dress the “Ma Leung” (Tin Hau) statue.  On the day of the festival, villagers would carry the statue from Tin Hau Temple to a theatre where people performed a puppet show for Tin Hau.  Then, the statue would be put onto a sedan chair, led by a white horse, and paraded around the villages including Ma Tau Wai, Nga Tsin Long, Chuk Yuen, Po Kong and Yuen Ling.  Sheung Shou (the elderlies) also got to sit on sedan chairs. The statue would be brought into each village’s temple, such as Tin Hau Temple in Po Kong Village and Pak Tai Temple in Ma Tau Wai. Each village must prepare refreshments for the parade team. In 1936, when Ng Sai Ming was 14 years old, the last parade took place. The seven villages were close geographically, so the villagers knew each other well and many of them were relatives.  Due to uneven distribution of water supply in Ng Sai Ming grandfather's generation, there were occasional disputes and even fighting between Nga Tsin Wai and the nearby villages.  However, none of the dispute escalated into a major event, and no one was there to mediate.  By Ng Sai Ming’s generation, there was little competition for water.

Old rural communication mainly happened via the marketplace, such as the one on Old Street, Kowloon City.  When Ng Sai Ming was at school at 8 or 9 years old, the Kowloon City Old Street was located at the East Gate of the Kowloon Walled City, i.e. from the present Po Yan Catholic Primary School up to Regal Oriental Hotel.  The Street was very lively; each section had shops selling different goods, such as fruit, fish, meat, foreign products, paper models, and tailoring service. People from Sha Tin and Sai Kung also carried loads of firewood and food to this trading spot for sale, and they came to know people of Kowloon. Since communication was not convenient, whenever there was a festive event, everyone in the marketplace exchanged information about it.  Ng Sai Ming’s home was close to the urban area, so posts could be delivered to the people’s houses directly.  When Ng Sai Ming was in the police force, he still lived with his parents at home.  Many fellow policemen from the village moved into quarters, but their families still lived in the village, so they were able to keep in touch with the villagers.  In pre-war Nga Tsin Wai, Tsui Lok Club – an entertainment venue for nearby villagers – was established by collective fundraising.  The villagers in those years could not afford expensive leisure activities such as watching films, so they loved playing mah-jong, Shap Ng Wu and Luk Wu at Tsui Lok.  Sha Po Village also had similar entertainment venues called Kung Yu  and On Yin.  These places of entertainment were important points of communication in the villages, and were the predecessor of the Village Offices established after the war. 

Ng Sai Ming's great-grandfather's generation made a living on both fishing and growing grains.  On the hill behind the present Morse Park (Editor's note: the small one occupied by Bishop Ford Memorial School), there used to be a rock where fish were dried.  He heard that his great-grandfather once owned a fishing boat, but from his grandfather’s generation, none in the family went fishing at sea any longer.  Sha Po villagers, during their leisure time, gathered at the ground outside Sz Ko Private School.  When festival came, there would be dragon and qilin dances among other performances.  Chinese New Year was especially a lively time, when hawkers would carry different goods into the village for sale, such as sweet soup, bean curd, preserved fruits, braised meat and other snacks.  Sha Po was the branch of Nga Tsin Wai, and there had been exchange between the Ngs from both sides.  During the Ching Ming, Chung Yeung, Chinese New Year and other festive occasions, they set up a feast in the old Ng Clan Ancestral Hall to celebrate.  The old Ancestral Hall was is a three-chamber big house with a courtyard, well and stove, which makes it convenient for holding a feast.

Next to Nga Tsin Wai was the Tsui Lok Club, where villagers played games like Luk Wu, Mah-jong and Pai Gow.  Sha Po also had two clubs – Kung Yu and On Yin – next to the large open square.  Kung Yu was opened by Ng Wing Tong’s uncle where a lot of seamen gathered.  They seldom gambled, and kept the place quiet and simple.  On Yin was opened by the elder brother of Ng Sai Ming’s father and it had a more complicated and depraved where people set up mahjong games and charged commission.  Before the ear, only the man would go to clubs; the woman had got much entertainment but to work in the vegetable garden and do housework.  The villagers washed their clothes at the water pit at the present Morse Park, and took drinking water from the well.  Well water inside the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall was the best and tasted sweet.  The well in the large square at Sha Po village was close to the sea and tasted salty.  When Ng Sai Ming was born, the government already installed standpipes in the square for all the villagers’ use.  They could take water without restrictions.

The festivals were largely similar in pre-war Sha Po and New Territories villages. Both sides celebrated Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, with similar festive food and the ceremonial rituals.  Ng Sai Ming thought the happiest festival was the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Kwong Sin Festival. Every 15th day of the 8th lunar month, Sha Po would hold Pok San Ngau Tsai in the evening in the open square.  The villagers gathered around to watch performance that was similar to Spirit Possession.  The atmosphere was very lively. During the performance, someone would play the percussions.  A group of possessed people then started to tremble all over their bodies with ferocious eyes and grim faces, calling themselves "Maoshan Masters", or masters from the sects of "Kunlun Mountains" and Chicken Feet’s Mountain.  They murmured and cursed the ancestors.  They also burnt themselves with incense sticks, but did not show any pain.  They also fought with real blades and spears.  Someone could even pick up 100 kilos of iron rods.  After the performance, they would shout "let’s go back to the mountains”, and then casually exit. These people were ordinary villagers living in the vicinity such as Meng Tsai, Chan Po Tsai who looked like ordinary people except during their performances on the festival days.  Ng Sai Ming thought that Pok San Ngau Tsai was amazing and that it was difficult to distinguish between what was true and what was not.  People could not help but believe in what they saw.  Ng grew up watching this show, which only ceased when the Japanese came to Hong Kong. 

Ng Sai Ming thought that before the Japanese occupation of Guangzhou, Hong Kong was a picturesque place.  The golf course and the British firing range (now Morse Park) were beautiful sites.  The British fired one to two days a week and children could enter the range to play at other times.  The area from the present Lung Cheung Road to the Lion Rock was a bush without no other building but a private Taoist temple called Sik Sik Yuen.  When he was 9 to 10 years old, Ng Sai Ming had followed the villagers to Sik Sik Yuen to collect vegetarian food.  He once went to the Sz Ko Private School in Sha Po Village, built by Ng Sz Ko Tso (19th generation).  Ng Sz Ko Tso’s descendants were very rich, and they set up a school solely for their own branch’s children.  The private school was not far from the home of Ng Sai Ming.  It was just half a minute away.  Behind the private school, there were a garden, public toilet and kitchen which could be used for holding feasts.  Behind the private school was also an open square paved in concrete.  Ng Sai Ming used to play marbles and shuttlecock there when he was a child.  Children from the Lee and Chan families also played there.  The Ngs, Lees and Chans lived in Upper Sha Po, while the Chengs, Yaus and an assortment of other families, a lot them being Hakka people, lived in Lower Sha Po.  The private school was demolished during the Japanese Occupation.  Kui Lee Sauce & Preserved Fruit Factory was rebuilt after the war on its original site on the square.

When Ng Sai Ming was a teenager, he played with the Sha Po children and rarely got to know other children in the village.  Children from different villages were hostile to each other.  One day at the age of 10 to 11, he went to Ma Tau Wai Village to visit his aunt who was married into that village.  When passing the Pak Tai Temple on Lomond Road, he was surrounded and beaten up by local children because country children were not friendly to strangers.  He sometimes played with his friends in Kowloon Tong, and often got into fighting with the “Western Boys” (Portuguese children) whose fathers mostly worked in the government or banks.  He rarely went out alone; instead he travelled together with four to five friends from the same village, including the Lees and Chans.  Ng Sai Ming sometimes left home to catch fighting spider, but generally would not go too far.  At the age of 14 to 15, however, he went up to Kun Yam Shan with his cousins and was treated as intruders by the villagers there.  They were slapped on the face a few times before they were released.  They first set out at the present Ng Wah Catholic School, passed Tsz Wan Court and the Kun Yam Temple on Tsz Wan Shan, and went up the hill along a small path.  Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1939 (Editor's note: Second World War), the British constructed Shatin Pass Road and Fei Ngo Shan Road, setting up pillboxes and machine gun posts on the hillside.  Those pillboxes were demolished after the war.

When Ng Sai Ming was born, Sha Po Village did not have factories.  The villagers did farming for a living, although there were no grain fields seen.  After the Japanese occupation of Guangzhou, many factories moved to Hong Kong.  Weaving factory, dyeing factory and towel factory began to emerge.  The Guangzhou factory owners opened their plants on fields rented from the villagers.  Few Sha Po villagers worked at the factory in those days.  Rather, most workers were refugees from Guangzhou.  Farming yielded litter income after the war, so the Ngs, Lees and Chans indigenous inhabitants of Sha Po leased the low-lying agricultural land to various types of factories, including Wo Fat Hing Distillery Limited, Tung Chun Soy Sauce, Kui Lee Sauce & Preserved Fruit Factory, King Hing Confectionary, Hang Chun Yuen Confectionary, leather factory, dyeing factory and watch band factory.

Before the war, there was a canal in front of Nga Tsin Wai, where water was clear.  It flew from the present Fung Mo Street through Choi Hung Road, and exited toward the sea at today’s Yue Xiu Plaza (formerly San Po Kong Magistracy).  On Sai Kung Road, there was a renowned wonton noodle shop "Ng Ling Kee”; many of its patrons drove all the way to eat there.  Pre-war Sha Po had a Tin Hau Temple, near the Kowloon City Police Station on Sai Kung Road.  During Japanese Occupation, it was moved into the Kowloon Walled City.  The Police Station was built after 1898 and resembled the Sham Shui Po Police Station and Yau Ma Tei Police Station.   Outside the Station was a small park where they placed eight locally made cannons.  Next to the Station was a pier that offered ferry service to Hong Kong Island.  When Ng Sai Ming was a child, he often went to the park at night to relax in the shade and to take a nap.

When Hong Kong was under the control of the Japanese, sometimes a curfew would be imposed.  Since Sha Po was closer to the Japanese-guarded Carpenter Road and Hau Wong Road, most of the guerrillas operated in Nga Tsin Wai.  The Japanese went searching in Sha Po for guerrillas in the middle of the night twice.  Japanese had an informant in Nga Tsin Wai, which helped them capture two to three guerrilla fighters from the Ng family, but Ng Sai Ming and his folks did not know who in the village belonged to the guerrilla force.  Those who were arrested would be put into the Japanese police headquarters, which is now the Munsang College, and put through tortures like hanging and water torture until they died or became disabled.  NgTai Hing and Ng Fat (Editor's note: the two names are transliterated) had been detained at the headquarters.  They became deranged by the time they were released.

When the Japanese expanded the airport, they demolished two-third of Sha Po Village in order to build the “big canal” (Kai Tak Nullah), including the area where the Chans and the Lees lived (now the Ng Wah Catholic Secondary School to San Po Kong Magistracy (now The Latitude).  The Ngs’ houses were, fortunately, retained.  Villagers got a ration of eight to ten catties of rice from the Japanese army, and were forced to move to the Model Village in Kowloon Tong.  The Japanese spent two to three years on the construction of the airport, exhausting the stone in the area around Nga Tsin Wai to Kowloon City for the airport and the nullah.  At that time, up to several thousands of people worked at the airport in exchange a daily small cup of rice and a dollar of military yen.  Most of them were Kowloon urban residents instead of Kowloon City countrymen.  The latter, including Ng Sai Ming’s family, mainly subsisted on farming.  Besides, some Indian and Pakistani prisoners-of-war from the British army were working as guards at the airport. 

There were relatively more kinds of job available before the war, and most people went to work and leased their land to others for growing vegetables.  However, the villagers lost their jobs during Japanese Occupation, so they returned to do farming at home.  Ng Sai Ming went to the market in the morning with other villagers to sell crops such as melons and vegetables.  The market was located on abandoned land around Lion Rock Road and Junction Road.  Before the war, villagers had to go to the more distant Mong Kok Market.  In the market, there was someone responsible weighing goods using a public balance.  Ng Sai Ming’s older brother once worked on that job.  Shortages of food in those days made life very hard.  People worked all day and had no entertainment at all.  When the weather got cold, a lot of people starved or froze to death on the streets.

The British government resumed land in Sha Po village in 1962 for the construction of resettlement areas.  As early as in 1959 and 1960, Sha Po villagers had begun discussing compensation with the Government.  When the Government published the amount of compensation in the Gazette, the villagers disregarded it.  Subsequently the Secretary for Chinese Affairs held an arbitration with the villagers, who were represented by the managers of the four branches of the Ng Clan, clan elders, Sha Po village headman and a few members of other families.  There were three judges responsible for the arbitration, two of whom represented the Government and one represented the villagers.  Therefore, when the government insisted in land resumption, the villagers had nowhere to turn to for help.  They could do nothing but to accept the compensation and moved out of Sha Po Village.  Ng Sai Ming pointed out that the Government provided different compensation arrangements for indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants.  The indigenous inhabitants were those whose families had been living in Sha Po before 1898.  The indigenous landowners were offered a "land-for-land" arrangement, which gave them new allocation of land in Fung Wong Sun Chuen.  Agricultural land was resumed at a price of one dollar per square foot, and the villagers failed to secure more than that.  As indigenous people were entitled to preferential compensation, this caused the dissatisfaction of non-indigenous people.  The latter hired a left-wing lawyer Percy Chan to sue the government and finally won the case.  This won them the same treatment as the indigenous inhabitants. Ng Sai Ming was serving as police officer at that time, so it was not appropriate for him to get involved in the matter.

Villagers from Sha Po and Yuen Ling moved into Fung Wong Sun Chuen after getting compensation for land resumption.  If the villagers wanted to construct on the compensated lot, they must submit a prior plan to Public Works Department for approval before commencing any work.  Some land owners were allowed to build eight-storey buildings because they lost more land than others.  Ng Sai Ming’s family was land owner in Sha Po Village, so they enjoyed the land-for-land compensation plan.  In partnership with the builders, they constructed a five-storey building.  The builders occupied three levels while the Ng family occupied two – one for their own use and the other for lease. The villagers were generally unable to build by themselves so they cooperated with different builders.  Some builders seized the opportunities and sent a broker to approach and talk to the villagers.  Though Ng Sai Ming moved away from his home land, it did not affect the relationship with his kins in the clan.  The clan still gathered on major occasions in Nga Tsin Wai such as the Jiao Festival.

The indigenous inhabitants of the village of Sha Po comprised the Ngs, Lees and Chans.  In 1898, the Hakka people moved in and bought houses from the indigenous inhabitants.  Those varied families scattered around Lower Sha Po, which was low-lying area and could be more easily flooded.  After the Japanese occupation of Guangzhou, many refugees entered Sha Po Village.  The indigenous inhabitants set up wooden cabin on their agricultural land and rented them to refugees coming from the north.  Those were wealthy immigrants; some of them opened factory plants on rented land in Sha Po.  Population increase resulted in drainage problems in the houses, such as clogged pipes.  The smell of sewage was very unpleasant. 

After the Japanese captured Hong Kong, food prices increased and the Guangzhou immigrants could not afford to buy food.  Many people starved to death in the houses, and most of the survivors returned to the Mainland after the war ended.   In the post-war days, the British government demolished Sha Po Village (Editor's note: in 1962).  The indigenous inhabitants fought for the land-for-land arrangement and was compensated with new land in Fung Wong Sun Chuen.  The superstructure on the lot was compensated at a rate of 30 dollars per square foot.  As for the sublet property owners, they received a smaller compensation because the government had to make additional arrangement to relocate their tenants.  The varied families in Lower Sha Po were not indigenous inhabitants, so they were not entitled to the land-for-land plan.  Instead, they were offered 30 dollars for each square foot of land lost.  Later, they hired Percy Chan to sue the government and finally succeeded in getting the same treatment as the indigenous inhabitants.

Ng Sai Ming moved out of Sha Po when the village was demolished.  He was upset that the ancestral home was gone.  The site became Block 23 of Tung Tau Estate (Editor's note: now Tung Wui Estate), he often returned to Sha Po to reminiscence the past days at the ancestral house.  He believed that it was better to live at the ancestral home because the neighbours were be closer to each other and it was easy to see and talk to each other.  Communication was convenient.  Before the war, villagers went to sleep and get up early.  They had dinner at around 4pm to 5pm.  After dinner, the elderlies sat on the stone benches in the square to relax in the shades and chat.  The atmosphere was very lively.  At 8pm to 9pm, people would go to sleep.  Very few households had lamps in those days.  The elderlies got up and began working on the fields; this was their morning exercise.  There were few cars and factories before the war, and one seldom saw vehicles running on Sai Kung Road.  The air was fresh then, and Ng Sai Ming really missed the old days.

Ng Sai Ming never heard of story about the establishment of Sha Po Village by Ng Kam Shing Tso.  He guessed that Sha Po’s location met the requirements of feng shui because it was backed by agricultural land and was facing Lei Yue Mun.  Sha Po’s houses were built on the sand dunes, which were not fertile enough for farming.  Besides, they were situated on the higher ground which helped avoid flooding when it rained.  The villagers paid attention to feng shui and would consult a feng shui master before building houses.  A feng shui site generally faces from north to south, toward the ocean against the mountains in the back.  Ng Clan's largest ancestral grave was that of Ng Shing Tat Tso, where the remains of Chung Tak (8th generation), Shing Tat (9th generation) and Sai Sheung (10th generation) were buried.  The graves were upon a sand dune in Sha Tin Tau (now a small garden next to the San Po Kong Post Office), facing Lei Yue Mun.  In terms of feng shui, it carried the auspicious meaning of “a common carp jumping over the dragon’s gate”.  During the Japanese occupation period, the graves were fenced up by barbed wires and became a restricted area due to the expansion of the airport.  Ng Wai Chi made a request to the Japanese for the exhumation of the remains from the graves, but none of the clansmen dared to carry out this task.  Eventually, the remains were kept underground.

The grave of Ng Yat Un Tso (11th generation) was originally situated at Yuen Ling Village, facing Stonecutters Island.  It was relocated three times during Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.  First it was moved to Hammer Hill Road, and later moved to Pak Ma (i.e. Wong Tai Sin Temple).  Ng Yat Un Tso left behind a lot of ancestral properties (land), so when clansmen relocated the grave, they could choose a site where feng shui was relatively better.  At last, the grave was moved to the mountain behind Wong Uk Village in Sha Tin.  The grave was on government lot, but the government did not regulate it and residents of Wong Uk had no objection either.  The Ng Clan member in Siu Lek Yuen, Ng Shou Tong, was familiar with Wong Uk residents, so that Ng Clan was permitted to lay a 1000-feet rubber waterpipe in the village to take water uphill.  Ng Sai Ming thought that the main consideration for the clansmen in building the graves was feng shui, thus little attention was paid to the distance from Nga Tsin Wai.

Ng Wai Wing Tso’s grave was initially located at a rock where fish were dried (the hill occupied by Bishop Ford Memorial School today).  After the hills were razed (Editor's note: during the Japanese occupation period), the grave was moved to Amah Rock, Sha Tin.  People used to walk to the grave for worship.  Since the journey up to the mountain was hard and challenging, the grave was moved to Kun Yam Shan Shap Yi Watt for the clansmen’s convenience and merged with Ting Fung, Shing Wah, Shing Wah’s graves there.  The graveyard was located on government land.  Ng Wai Chi paid a villager to help build the new grave so that the other villagers of Sap Yi Watt would not accused the grave of damaging feng shui.   The grave of Ng Wai Wing Tso’s wife, Ms Chau, was located in Wang Tau Hom and was demolished when the British Government was constructing Lung Cheung Road.  Since the clansmen did not exhume her bones when the grave was destroyed, there is now nowhere people could worship her.  Ng Tak Ko Tso’s ancestral grave was huge.  Originally located behind the old Ng Clan Ancestral Hall, it was later moved to Diamond Hill when the Hall was demolished.  That grave was built on private land and therefore the clansmen need not pay “military salary” to the government (Editor's note: to pay taxes).

NgTak Ko Tso (19th generation) had four sons: Yuen Yam, Hang Yam, Yin Yam and Shing Yam.  Hang Yam’s branch ceased to continue because he had no offspring.  For Yuen Yam and Yin Yam, one can still trace the location of their graves.  The grave of Shing Yam’s branch is no longer traceable.  According to Ng Sai Ming’s analysis, if a certain branch had only one son from generations to generations, the branch’s property would oftentimes be sold, leaving no funds for descendants to conduct their worship.  Gradually, the ancestors and their graves would fade from memory.  This was why many single-line branch can only trace their heritage back to their grandfather’s generation.  Furthermore, clansmen had a short life span in the past, and they did not get to introduce much about their family ancestors to descendants down the family line.  This caused problem in recognizing one’s ancestors.  Ng Sai Ming and Ng Wai Kei belonged to Yin Yam’s branch, which was a populous branch.  It was not easy to divide up the properties.  Therefore, the properties were passed down from generation to generation until today.  Worship activities have never stopped.

Ng Yin Yam Tso’s branch is divided into two descent lines: Cheuk Lai and Yip Lai.  Ng Sai Ming and Ng Wai Kei belonged to the line of Cheuk Lai.  Cheuk Lai had an ancestral home in Nga Tsin Wai on No.6, Third Lane.  The clansmen leased the house out and used the rental income to fund worship activities.  Ng Cheuk Lai Tso is further divided into three lines.  Each line would elect its own manager to take charge of the annual worship.  Ng Cheuk Lai Tso’s grave was located on She Dei, Ho Chung, occupying a large hill top area around Tate's Cairn.  When clansmen worshipped in the 1950s and 1960s, they would ask a local cowboy to lead their way.  The clansmen had to cut through the grass and woods on the way across the mountain, which was not an easy journey. The grave was also difficult to find.  Since the elders passed away, the ancestral grave was left unattended.  Grass has been growing all around it and there were bees and warps flying everywhere, preventing the decedents from getting to the graveyard.  Ng Wai Kei (Editor’s note: around 60 years old) used to do worship in Ho Chung when he was small.  Four to five years ago, he went back to the grave two to three times with his cousin.  It was their plan to exhume the ancestors’ remains for cremation, and then put the ashes into urns.  However, they could not locate the grave in the midst of bees and snakes.  Therefore, they set up a Ng Clan spirit tablet inside the Ancestral Hall for clansmen to make their worship.

Ng Sai Ming recalled that worship was an ordeal when he was small.  The clansmen assembled at Nga Tsin Wai and went through Ngau Chi Wan, Pak Fa Lam, Wong Keng Tsai, Tai Lam Wu, Tin Liu, Fei Ngo Mountain and Tate’s Cairn until they reached the ancestral tomb on the mountain.  They set out at early morning, walked on foot throughout the journey and returned late at night.  The sacrifice items were similar to those seen today.  A whole roasted pig would be brought up to the mountain and sliced up.  Each family got a slice of roasted pork.  Around 10-20 family usually attended the worship.  Some year before the war, the clans rebuilt the graves and commissioned Chu Yim Kee Stone Mill Factory on Ta Kwu Leng Road to make a grave stone.  Chu Yim Kee’s staff even helped carry the stone and cement to the mountain in order to complete the repair work.  Villagers also carried a lot of food, such as light pastries and peanuts.  Women were responsible for bringing sacrifice items up the mountain.  While they were given wages, they did not take part in the worship.  When the young Ng Wai Kei went to worship Ng Cheuk Lai Tso, some people would drive on their own cars or take a 14-seat mini bus.  Other took a car to Ho Chung and changed for another vehicle to the grave.  People also walked from Ho Chung to go up the mountain via Tin Liu.

The branch of Ng Cheuk Lai Tso used to have land and an ancestral home, from which they received abundant rental income.  Ng Sai Ming also got a share of the money during worship when he was small.  Ng Cheuk Lai Tso’s lots were once leased to Kowloon Soy Co Limited.  Later when the government resumed their land, they got compensated with cash and new land in Fung Wong Sun Chuen.  Ng Cheuk Lai Tso had an ancestral house in the No.6 Third Lane, Nga Tsin Wai.  Ng Wai Kei was responsible for collecting rents.  The land was later acquired by Cheung Kong.  Ng Kam Shing Tso (Editor’s note: Ng Cheuk Lai Tso’s father) also owned a lot of land which he leased out to sauce factory before the war.  The income was shared by the families of Ng Sai Ming, Ng Wai Kei and Ng Koon Lin.  (Editor’s note: Ng Kam Shing Tso had two sons: Cheuk Lai and Yip Lai.  Ng Koon Lin is the descendent of Yip Lai).  In the post-war period, the sauce factory closed down.  After that, Ng Koon Lin started to farm there for a living.

Ng Sai Ming thought that pre-war rural area was quite feudal in the sense that the elders had the utmost authority.  The best food was enjoyed by the elders during ancestral worships, and the children coming up to ask for food would be driven away and given only inferior food.  The pre-war Ng Shing Tat Tso only had one manager, who dealt with rental affairs at his full discretion, kept property records and a rent book.  The Ng Clan rented a lot of land to factories, such as sauce factory and cow leather factory, on 10-year leases usually.  Few factories withheld their rents, and the rent collection process was smooth.  The manager looked after all the leasing, and was responsible for signing leases and deciding the level of rents.  He paid a sum of money annually to ancestral hall and kept the rest of the rental income himself.  Therefore, this managerial position was regarded as a lucrative job.  Every first lunar month, on the seventh day, the elders gathered at the ancestral hall to discuss the asset management arrangements for the year.  People fought at the meetings because everyone wanted to be the manager.  Lots of Ng Clan’s land got leased out cheaply because the managers wanted to lease land in large quantity regardless of how much the rent actually was.

In 1962, the Ng Clan Ancestral Hall moved into its present location.  The British government at the time had included Nga Tsin Wai in New Kowloon.  Forming any association in the names of ‘Tso’ or ‘Tong’ was not allowed.  The clan had only two choices:  to sell the ancestral properties and share the money, or to set up a limited company.  The clan opted for the latter option and set up a limited company to manage Ng Yat Un Tso’s properties.  They had to submit an audit report annually to the Government.  Ng Sai Ming thought that the clan become more democratic and fair after the setting up of the company. When he was young, Ng Sai Ming was not involved in the clan’s affairs.  Those were the business of the elders.  His grandfather was not much educated and his father spent a lot of time sailing overseas, so both of them rarely took part in clan affairs either.