Ng Chuen Kung

Ng Chuen Kung (CK Ng) was born at home in Lai Chi Yuen, Tung Tau Village, in 1924. His family hired a midwife to deliver his birth and collected a birth certificate for him. When he was born, his father was already in his 50s. Because it was so long ago, he did not know well about his grandfather or his the former generations. He just knew that their tombs were in such places as Tseng Lan Shue and Lion Rock Mountain. His father had a large house of a couple storeys in Lai Chi Yuen. CK Ng and all his elder brothers were born in that house. A tiled house with a small courtyard, it faced a big garden of tens of thousands square feet. There was an orchard full of fruit trees on the uplands nearby. 

CK Ng lived in Tung Tau Village. His doorplate wrote ‘5A Lai Chi Yuen Tung Tau Village’. The big house did not come with a mailbox and the postmen dropped the mails on the floor. Tung Tau Village was vast and Lai Chi Yuen was one part of it. Tung Tau Village in that era was gone, and replaced with the high rising buildings as seen everywhere today. In Tung Tau Village most houses were single-storey stone houses of about 200 or 300 square feet each. Some had little mezzanines. As they were quite scattered, it was hard to tell the total number of houses in the whole village. To CK Ng, Tung Tau Village should not be regarded as a village, but only Nga Tsin Wai, where the houses were arranged more orderly, could be said as a village. What’s more, Tung Tau Village residents had mixed surnames such as Ng, Lee and Tong, but there was no dominant surname. Some people in there grew vegetables and raised pigs.  While watercress was most commonly grown, sweet potato shoots were grown as a pig food by quite a number of people, who had built independent pigsite beside their houses. CK Ng’s family had also once raised pigs. The houses in Lai Chi Yuen were also quite scattered, and most of them were built on the field.  

CK Ng’s large house had an independent 7-foot-tall wall full of flowerpots on the top. The main door of the house was a wooden sliding door. The wall had another door. Between the wall and the large house there was a big yard, which was 40 feet in length and 15 feet in width, occupying an area of about 700 square feet. During the Seven Sisters Festival in July of the lunar calendar, the family sometimes built a bamboo shed by the yard. CK Ng’s elder sisters asked their girl friends to come over and celebrate the festival. In the evening inside the bamboo shed, they worshipped the deities, burned joss paper and prepared sundries such as jewels. The Seven Sisters Festival was noisy, and those who worshipped the deities were mostly single women. 

CK Ng liked to stroll about when small. His pastimes in those years included swimming, ball games, kites, marble games, and fishing. Kowloon City had a small population but vast open grounds. He never had to worry about the lack of recreational spots. He bought himself a monthly bus pass on 3 dollars, and sometimes went to Lai Chi Kok for swimming or some ball games. He used to go fishing mottled spinefoot at Kowloon City Pier. In those years the fish was aplenty in the sea. Dozens of it could be caught with a bucket plummeted into water. Mottled spinefoot was sold at 1 cent or 2 per catty. CK Ng was never into books when small. His parents never controlled him, and there were hardly any interactions between the two generations. 

On the evening of every Mid-August Festival, a show called Pok Sheng Ngau Chai was put up by the yardpond in Sha Po. One villager or two would come up for some kungfu. They would introduce their schools and claim to be disciples of Maoshan masters. They still looked good after fires were ignited on them. Drums were played to cheer for them. CK Ng recalled that the performers’ skills could hardly be spotted the other days, but that evening they acted as if they were possessed. The show lasted for an hour or so with villagers speculating around the pondyard. CK Ng always went to the show. This tradition vanished after the restoration of peace. With plenty of places for hanging out, CK Ng seldom went to Nga Tsin Wai when small. He could hardly recall anything about it. There used to be a ‘Chui Lok’ Club outside Nga Tsin Wai. It was a gathering place for grown-ups. CK Ng and other kids seldom went inside. 

When small, CK Ng was keen in tomb visiting, and he never missed any occasion. Everyone involved got an allotment of money. Even kids were benefited as long as they were boys. In those years everyone could get about 10 cents or so. At every Chung Yeung Festival, CK Ng went everywhere to visit tombs, including the ancestral grave in Cheung Sha Wan, Wong Tai Sin, Diamond Hill and Cheng Lan Shue. CK Ng did not follow the grown-ups when visiting tombs. He gathered with other kids of the same age on the mountain. Kids could not tell which tomb was for which ancestor. They just left after getting the money. CK Ng’s parents were buried in Diamond Hill. It was a large ancient grave approved by the government. CK Ng regarded the visits to his parents’ grave as visiting a private graveyard. The new generation now hardly visit the graves for worship.