Liu Kwai Ying

Born in 1934, in Shunde, Liu Kwai Yin spent most of her working life at Hing Wah Battery Factory.  She often lingered near the factory in those years.  When she entered Hing Wah, the factory was located on Mong Kok Road but moved to To Kwa Wan six years later.  Being a teenage girl then, she followed the factory to To Kwa Wan.  She had always been living in Mong Kok.  After the relocation of the factory to To Kwa Wan, she walked every day along Tin Kwong Road to the factory plant at Hoi Shum Temple near To Kwa Wan Road.  At age 20, she married her husband, who was her colleague at Hing Wah.  The factory plant was already in To Kwan Wan when the couple got married.

Liu Kwai Ying had worked in To Kwa Wan’s Hing Wah Battery Factory for more than 20 years.  Toward her later career, she was promoted to be a department head.  When her daughter got married and gave birth to a son in 1974, Liu chose to retire at the age of 40 to take care of her grandchild.  Hing Wah had not closed yet when she retired.  At that time, the factory had a front block and a rear block, which were connected to one another.  The front block had six floors, with a laboratory, a liquid room (commonly know as “pharmacy”), a workshop for binding wires, a packaging area, etc.  Liu Kwai Ying worked in the front block and was not familiar with the situation in the rear.  She was then working in the soaking department, which had a production line on which batteries were carried in iron basins.  She would stand beside the line and took charge of pouring “thick liquid” (Editor's note: electric hybrid glue) into the battery cells and sealing them with carton paper.

Other than her seven years in the soaking department, she had handled works in other sections such as attaching letters to the bottom of battery cells and packaging.  She would lend her help to other departments when a shortage of labour occurred.  Liu Kwai Ying described that those processes were actually quite simple, and she only needed to watch others demonstrate once or twice for her.  She pointed out that there was little conflict between workers.  Everyone focused on his or her work.  She did not particular feel happy or unhappy about it.  There were more female workers than male at Hing Wah.  Almost the entire workforce in the factory plant was made up of women; the male workers mainly were responsible for pressing cells or working in the pharmacy.

Liu Kwai Ying went to work every morning at 7am.  Lunch time started at 12pm and the workers had one hour of break.  She would go to different places to eat.  In those days, there were a lot of huts that provided lunch mainly on Ha Heung Road.  The majority of female workers took lunch at these places.  Prices varied from three to five dollars, covering both rice and dishes.  After lunch, work continued until around 6pm.  Occasionally, when deadlines had to be met, the workers would have to work overtime.  Overtime work lasted around one to two hours.  Liu Kwai Ying had gone to work in the morning as early as 5am.  If female workers had to return to factory early in the morning, the factory would provide each person two pieces of bread as breakfast at 7am.  (Editor's note: Two kinds of meals were sold at the huts on Ha Heung Road: the three-dollar and the five-dollar ones.  The former kind of meal included easily cooked dishes such as stewed potatoes, while the later might include fish.  The stalls occupied the entire Ha Heung Road and were housed in sheds.  Tables and chairs were also provided for the workers coming to eat.)

Liu Kwai Ying and other female workers sometimes went to Hoi Shum Temple for lunch. Before land was reclaimed around Hoi Shum Island, one had to reach there by taking a boat from the dock. Beside the temple and the hill, the Island also had a lot of shops selling snacks and drinks with opportunities to play mah-jong. At night, they even supplied seafood. Sometimes the female workers would dine and play mah-jong there after work. Liu Kwai Ying said the women usually got the chance to go out only during lunch time. At other times, they had to work inside the plant. She only knew about several other factories near Hing Wah, such as Wyler Mill and Chiap Hua Iron & Steel Works from street signs, and was not familiar with the situation in those factories. Although female workers did not wear uniforms at Hing Wah, they got off work at similar time as those from other factories. Furthermore, having worked for Hing Wah for many years, Liu Kwai Ying showed up the plant frequent and therefore many other factory workers knew she was employed by Hing Wah. Liu did not feel particularly proud of this and cared only about doing her own job well.
 

Liu Kwai Ying recalled that she became addicted to mah-jong soon after learning how to play it, and therefore often would only buy a sandwich at lunchtime and then go the Hoi Shum Temple to play mah-jong before returning to work at the factory.  At that time, female workers generally gathered in groups of four people to hire mah-jong tables at a kiosk at Hoi Shum Temple. In the beginning, the kiosk only provided drinks and snacks, but later mah-jong tables were available there for the workers’ entertainment. Rental for each table was around two to three dollars, so on average that would be one dollar per person. Sometime the kiosk even included lunch and dinner as part of the mah-jong game. A lot of boat people lived on the Hoi Shum Island in temporary sheds.

At that time, the female women also strolled around the stalls on Sheung Heung Road and Ha Heung Road in addition to Hoi Shum Temple. A variety of goods were sold there, e.g. melons, vegetables, meat and other food stuff which the workers could shop and take home to cook. There were also snacks like “put chai ko” (red bean pudding) and pancakes, daily necessities and toys too. When it was lunchtime or after the end of work, a lot of people would hawk goods on the street in cases or on carts. When the crowds dispersed, the hawkers also left immediately. In those days, the male workers and senior staff of Hing Wah would eat at the top floor of the factory; their meals were provided by the factory. When it was lunch time, the staff would put food on dishes on the table and the workers ate at theirs designated seats. Workers were allowed to bring their own lunches and heat them up at the factory kitchen. They first wrote their names on the lunch boxes and put them into huge steamers in the kitchen. When the meals were cooked, the workers took their boxes out. The boxes were mostly made of stainless steel.

Liu Kwai Ying’s mother and many relatives had worked in Hing Wah Battery Factory.  She also got acquainted with her spouse there.  Before her husband became a technician at Hing Wah, he once worked in a pharmacy.  Liu Kwai Ying's mother also worked in the pharmacy, so it created an opportunity for Liu and her husband to meet.  They went to travel together and watched films after work at Kwong Chee Theatre in Yau Ma Tei.  Since Hing Wah was still located in Mong Kok, they often walked together from Mong Kok to Yau Ma Tei for film.  Sometimes, they also walked from Mong Kok to Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park to play.  Two years after their marriage, their eldest daughter was born and was cared by Liu Kwai Ying’s mother.  At the highest, eight people lived together in Liu Kwai Ying’s Mong Kok residence.  (Editor's note: Liu’s four daughters and only son, the couple themselves, and Liu’s mother.)

Liu Kwai Ying said many workers, like herself, lived in the Mong Kok neighbourhood, although some lived very far away.  She did not know too much about where those lived.  After Hing Wah moved from Mong Kok to To Kwa Wan, almost all workers were willing to move to the new factory site because then it was difficult to find other work.  After the factory plant moved, Liu Kwai Ying walked to work daily for half an hour along Tin Kwong Road from Mong Kok because there was no factory shuttle. Liu Kwai Ying’s best friends in the factory were all workers in the same department. She was not close to workers from other departments because there was not much chance to interact. She only had a small number of friends in other departments. The usual activity the friends did together was to go to meals or shopping. When they did not need to cook at home, they would linger around the stalls on Sheung Heung Road and buy necessities. (Editor's note: Liu Kwai Ying added that she could take Bus No.11 to work as an alternative to walking. Later, her husband bought an old car, which allowed her to commute to work and back home.)

Some of those who used to go to Hoi Shum Temple with Liu Kwai Ying either remained as workers or got promoted like Liu. As they became busy taking care of children, they kept in touch less and less frequently. In fact, Liu Kwai Ying thought of changing her job before she got her promotion because she knew that the wig industry offered a higher pay. However, she gave up the idea because she had to pay a fee to learning about wig production and would not be getting salary during her training period.  After her promotion and pay rise, she confirmed her willingness to stay in the same industry. Though Liu worked in To Kwa Wan, she only went as far as Sheung Heung Road and Ha Heung Road. She seldom visited the Ruby Theatre and the Federation of Trade Unions, and rarely travelled to Hung Hom except for one to two times a year. She usually hanged around Mong Kok, in places like Reclamation Street and Mong Kok Market. In addition, Liu Kwai Ying never joined any trade union throughout her career because her boss had instructed the staff not to take part in any workers’ union or association.

In the middle to later part of her career at Hing Wah, Liu Kwai Ying was promoted to rank of a forewoman. The position required her to assign workers to different posts, to supervise worker and to train newcomers. If a worker left for the washroom, she needed to temporarily take up the worker’s work. If the department became understaffed, she had to inform her supervisor. In a real sense, Liu was a “generalist worker” who had to learn every procedure in production. After the various departments were equipped with machines, the factory seldom hired newcomers.  However, workers who became redundant after the introduction of the machines would not be fired. Instead, they were transferred to other departments.

Through the many years Liu worked at Hing Wah, she rarely saw any worker resigned.  Only some of the younger employees changed jobs because pay was higher in the wig or garment industry. Married women generally were more conservative and did not want to pay to learn new knowledge and technologies. Most of them chose to stay in Hing Wah. Liu Kwai Ying first received a daily wage, and then a monthly one after she got promoted. She did not want to leave the factory. She pointed out that the factories around Hing Wah were demolished or moved during the past 20-30 years – many converted into residential buildings such as Wyler Gardens. To Kwa Wan’s once prosperous huts and temporary stalls also disappeared along with the demolition of the factories.

The male workers of Hing Wah Battery Factory often organized recreational activities.  For example, they once organized a football team. In the 1960s, when workers were granted permission to have Sundays off, the male workers would also organise day trips. The organisers informed the staff of the event details through their different department heads. Interested workers enrolled on a first-come-first-served basis and most workers would bring along their families too. Liu Kwai Ying said many male and female workers met each other in the factory, then dated and finally got married.  It was easy for the male workers to get to know their female colleagues. Sometimes they asked each other out to the cinema, or went on to day trips together on Sundays.  Female workers in smaller factories also got to know their colleagues from other factories, such as tailors from garment factories. (Editor's note: The male workers spontaneously organised trips in those years. They would rent cars and travel to different places such as Luk Keng. Workers could sign up for the trips with their families. Liu Kwai Ying oftentimes participated in those day trips.)