Wu Wai Keung

Wu Wai Keung was born in 1933 in Qingyuan, his native place. He is the eldest son of the family and he has four younger brothers and two younger sisters. His family had their own house and farmland, but they were not well off because his father failed to make good use of their property. Wu Wai Keung started school at 10 years old and dropped off at 13. After World War II, Wu Wai Keung went to Guangzhou where he became an apprentice learning to make lampshade and spraying paint. The next year following the liberation of Guangzhou (1950), he came to Hong Kong and stayed with a relative who lived in a wooden squatter in Tai Hang Tung. Through the connection of another native fellow, he worked in a shop in Wan Chai for a monthly wage of $15. He worked 16 hours a day. The native fellow also worked in that shop, which sold herbal tea and related goods such as herbal medicine and cigarettes. Six months later, the movement of land reform was carried out in their native place. The native fellow resigned and returned to his native place to receive his share of farmland. But Wu Wai Keung did not want to do farming any more, and decided to stay in Hong Kong.

He had worked in the herbal tea house for 6 years, but never stopped looking for other jobs from reading newspapers recruitment advertisements during the period. When he was 21 or 22 years old, he got a job in a plaster mold casting factory in Un Chau Street which was opened by a Shanghainese. The factory was operated on the 3rd floor of a Chinese tenement building. Wu Wai Keung’s duty was to spray paint. He earned a monthly wage of $80 and worked from 9 am to 5 pm with Sundays off. One year later, the tenement building collapsed in a rainstorm. The proprietor set up a temporary plant at the site of today’s Ma Tau Chung Fire Station. (Editor’s note: Wu added that it was a single-storey factory with brick walls and a triangular roof made of asbestos tiles, the only one of this kind in the area.) One year later, he was laid off. He was invited by some friends to start a joint venture in the Western District producing plaster casts. The business condition was not satisfactory. Wu earned a meager income and so regarded the job as a way to learn the skills and craft. About one year later (1956), he found a job from reading the newspaper recruitment advertisements and was employed as a plaster mold caster in a plastic factory in Kwun Tong. His work performance was recognized by his employer and so he was given a month wage of $300 by 1957. At the time, he lived in a partitioned room which he paid $100 for the monthly rent. This is a big room so that he had space for studying the products. After working for 2 full years, he asked for a pay rise. His employer accepted his request, but he was dismissed one year later because he had a fight with a relative of his employer.

After leaving the plastic factory in Kwun Tong, Wu Wai Keung had partnership with some friends to open a paint spraying workshop for toy products in Shau Kei Wan. As the business was satisfactory, they had employed more than 10 workers. His former employer of the Kwun Tong factory gave him a job offer for a monthly wage of $1,000, but Wu Wai Keung declined this offer because he wanted to have his own business. The paint spraying workshop was opened in Shau Kei Wan. One year later he quit from the partnership because he felt he had no autonomy in the partnership. In 1962, he opened his own workshop on the Thirteen Streets in To Kwa Wan. His former employer of the Kwun Tong factory sought his help through indirect means and he worked for orders from his former employer.

The business was good after the Kowloon riots (in 1967) took place. In 1970, while he had sightseeing vacation in Taiwan and Japan, he observed that there would be a promising prospect for plastic factories. So he had partnership with some friends to set up a factory on the street-level. When they were notified by the Labour Department that factory operation in a street-level shop was prohibited, Wu Wai Keung had no alternatives but moved the workshop to Kwun Tong. It was a rented unit in a factory building. All of a sudden, the workshop premise was expanded from several hundred to several thousand sq. ft. In face of soaring operational costs, the shareholding partners withdrew one after another because they did not want to bear the risk. Wu Wai Keung continued to operate the factory on his own. He put all his eggs in one basket and invested more than $100,000 in it. After running the new factory for more than 10 years under limited resources, Wu Wai Keung finally decided that the factory was not viable any more. He moved the factory to Hung Shui Kiu, Yuen Long and closed it down 2 years later. Afterwards, he once again operated a plaster mold casting workshop on the Thirteen Streets in To Kwa Wan. The business was satisfactory in the 1980s and he could afford to support his children to study abroad. As mainland China reformed and opened up its economy, the molding industry in Hong Kong began to shrink. In 1995, because of bad business and his old age, he closed down the molding workshop. He refurbished it and converted it for residential uses. This marked the beginning of his retirement.

In 1962, Wu Wai Keung established Wing Ming Craft Shop, a mold casting workshop, in a building at No. 14 Ying Yeung Street. He considered that mold casting was a better way to make a living than spraying paint because he needed a larger workforce for paint spraying orders with lower profits. During the period between the 1960s and 1970s when mold casters were in limited supply, the customers were willing to pay for the molds without asking for quotations so that they could start production as soon as possible. The business was so good that the mold casters did not have a minute of rest throughout the day. Kin Ming Mold Casting Factory was Wing Ming’s major customer. To serve Kin Ming closely, which was operated in a unit near to Kowloon City ferry pier, Wu Wai Keung decided to set up his workshop in To Kwa Wan. Kin Ming Craft Shop was set up in an old building on Chung Sun Street. The front part of the unit was the workshop and the rear part was the owner’s residence.

The workshop had an area of several hundred sq. ft, 7 or 8 employees were hired. If the customers only provided design drawings, Wu Wai Keung would carve a three-dimensional mold for them. If the customers provided an actual sample, Wu would simply replicate the mold. Kin Ming Craft Shop was able to process molds for plastic products. Wing Ming Craft Shop produced the plaster molds and then had the injection, cutting and trimming done by Kin Ming Craft Shop for a final mold product. After the workshop was moved to the Thirteen Streets, Wu Wai Keung had more customers (10 to 12) and had diversified its mold types, mostly molds for spraying paint onto toys and dolls. Wing Ming Craft Shop did not visit manufacturers’ offices in person to find business. He got orders through word of mouth. The customers would visit his workshop and place their orders. He had customers from other districts all over Hong Kong, including Shau Kei Wan, Western District, Tai Kok Tsui and Yuen Long in the New Territories. Among them, Kin Ming Craft Shop was a major customer. Some customers were mold processing factories, while others were toy manufacturers.

Through the introduction of a friend, Wu Wai Keung found an apartment on the 2nd floor of No. 14 Ying Yeung Street to set up the Wing Ming workshop. His friend lived in the apartment on the 3rd floor. The apartment on the 2nd floor was originally leased to a towel printer. After the factory moved out, his friend advised the landlord to let the apartment to Wu Wai Keung. Wu Wai Keung considered that the apartment was good for operating workshop because it was safe and separate from the outside. He did not have to worry about being spied by other tradesmen who might copy his molds. Besides, the rent was low. In 1962, the monthly rent was only $310. Several years later when the 1967 riots occurred, the rent was even reduced to $260. After the riots, the landlord emigrated to the USA, he proposed to sell the apartment of No. 14 and the apartment at the adjacent building (No. 12) to Wu Wai Keung for a sum of $90,000, but Wu Wai Keung did not accept this offer because he could not afford it. By 1992, the monthly rent rose to $4,500. The old landlord insisted that he should buy off the apartment of No. 14. Wu Wai Keung eventually bought it at a preferential price of $400,000. Several years later, he bought the apartment of No. 12 at $520,000 as insisted by the landlord.

Wu Wai Keung named Wing Ming as a Craft Shop. In those days, the mold casting factories were commonly called the ‘mold factory’, ‘craft shop’ or ‘machine factory’. The factory he worked in Guangzhou was called ‘Zhen Ya Craft Shop’. The factory on Un Chau Street where he had worked for was called the ‘Man Wo Craft Shop’, so he naturally named Wing Ming the ‘craft shop’. Wu Wai Keung did not have a business licence when Wing Ming Craft Shop was opened in 1962. It was only after an inspection by the Labour Department that he registered the business with the Inland Revenue Department. The licence was issued without stating the purpose of the business. But it specified a condition that a massive storage of dangerous goods was prohibited. The dangerous goods used in Wing Ming Craft Shop included sulfuric acid and petroleum gas. They were for electroplating and mold injection respectively, the work steps themselves were not indeed dangerous. At the beginning, Wing Ming Craft Shop was frequently inspected by Factory Inspectors - once in every month. As the inspectors found Wing Ming complying with the law, the inspections were less frequent - once every six months or once a year. The workshop employed 2 young male workers and never employed any female workers, therefore Wing Ming’ operation were not restricted by law in respect of working hours.

Wu Wai Keung considered that the relationship among mold casting factory operators was good. They were willing to exchange skills and share the orders they had got. It was friendship instead of competition or hostility between them. On the contrary, competition between manufacturers was keen. They copied each other’s new products. Most of the manufacturers were of small scale with a tiny workforce. The operators focused on their own business and were not able to spare time tradesmen’s association. Most of them were operated on the ground floor while the plaster mold casting factories were located on the 2nd floor. There were several plaster mold casting factories in To Kwa Wan, and some mold processing factories and plastic products factories on the Thirteen Streets and 6 Streets (near Chung Sun Street). Some of the manufacturers rented apartments on the 2nd floor to do packaging. All these factories were small in scale. In those days, factory buildings were in limited supply because San Po Kong and Kwun Tong were still undeveloped. Wing Ming Craft Shop received orders from the small factories on the Thirteen Streets. The customers placed an order without asking for quotations, they even visited Wing Ming in person to settle bills and send in mold samples. Wu Wai Keung considered that he earned a good profit in the 1960s because the costs for rent, wages and electricity were low, and was offered good prices for his products.

At first, all the work steps of Wing Ming Craft Shop were done by the Wu Wai Keung and his wife. They worked from 9 am to 11 pm everyday. On the day he got married, Wu Wai Keung closed the workshop this day for the wedding banquet. The couple had no honeymoon, and worked as usual the following day. The couple compartmentalized one half of this apartment on the 2nd floor of No. 14 Ying Yeung Street for the workshop and used the other half for residence. After their children were born, they looked for another place nearby for their home. As more orders came in, the workshop was found to be too small to meet the demands. So, Wu Wai Keung rented an apartment on the 2nd floor of No. 3 Ying Yeung Street in 1969 to set up a new workshop.

This expansion of workshop premise was possible because he worked for the large orders from AAA manufacturer. The operator of AAA Plastic Manufacturing Company Limited (situated on Shun Ning Road) got an order from an Italian customer through a “hong” (export & import firm). It was an order to produce hanging decorative items by soft plastic in the shape of animal figures such as snake, crocodile and insect. In those days, products of this kind had never been produced in Hong Kong. The AAA manufacturer sourced molds from Wing Ming Craft Shop, and Wu Wai Keung successfully met his demands by a new method for electroplating. The products from AAA had good sales, so the customer ordered for more varieties of products to AAA and therefore Wing Ming received orders from AAA for more molds. Wu Wai Keung rented an apartment of No. 3 Ying Yeung Street for more workshop space. It was the time when Wing Ming Craft Shop reached its peak. Because Wu Wai Keung had to spend a lot of time dealing with the customers during the day while his wife had to take care of the children, the workshop was attended by 4 or 5 apprentices. Wu Wai Keung advertised the vacancies of apprentice on newspaper. The apprentices were teenagers and were offered a starting salary of $30 a month, working from 9 am to 9 pm everyday. They would eat and sleep in the workshop. Generally, it took 3 years for an apprentice to complete the training. But, most apprentices were not interested in it and left the workshop after a few months. Wu Wai Keung had trained more than 10 apprentices, but only 2 or 3 of them were able to continue in the trade.

Later on, Wu Wai Keung operated the Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. at a street-level shop at No. 19 Yin On Street which he established it jointly with friends. The manufacturing workshop had an area of more than 500 sq. ft. He employed workers to mold plastic products instead of doing it himself because it took the workers a lot of physical energy to operate the die cutting machine. The products of the factory were mainly accessories such as the rolling core of cassette tapes. He employed workers through the introduction of friends, and they were paid monthly on piece rates under permanent contracts. They came to work when there were orders. When there was no work, they did not have to come. Because the workshop was small, there were not many workers. Most of his workers came from the resettlement blocks in other districts in Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. One or two years later, Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. was moved to Kwun Tong and the factory premise was expanded to over 3,000 sq. ft.

In 1971, Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. was moved from the ground floor of No. 19 Yin On Street to Kwun Tong. Wu Wai Keung considered that the rent for a factory unit in To Kwa Wan were too high, besides, they were not as good as those in Kwun Tong in all other aspects. But, it was easier to reruit female workers in To Kwa Wan. After Wu Wai Keung moved the factory to Kwun Tong, he had to employ female workers from North Point. At the time, young female workers preferred to work for jeans factories and electronic factories. Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. could only recruit female workers of older age, between 40 and 50 years old. The factory had 30 to 40 workers in total. From To Kwan Wan to Kwun Tong, the factory premise was expanded from several hundred to several thousand sq. ft. The rent also rose from several hundred to several thousand dollars. As a result, Ming Wo faced the challenge of increased operational cost. During the oil crisis in 1972 and 1973, the price of plastic pellets skyrocketed from $0.45 to $4.50 per pound. Because the factory had signed contracts with customers before the price increase, he had to bear the cost of the raw materials himself. At the time, he was the sole proprietor of Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. To settle the bill, he had to sell the gold ornaments he bought for his wife at wedding. That was the toughest time ever in his lifetime.

Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. produced plastic products by hard plastic material, such as coin banks and cup pads in the beginning, and then extended to facial tissue holders, mirrors, combs and flower pots in the latter stage. Most of his customers were foreign companies. Wu Wai Keung took orders from hongs (import and export firms). He thought that for him as a mold caster to run a plastic factory, he had no difficulty in the technical aspect, but had to learn the methods of production management and cost control. After Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. was moved to Kwun Tong, he closed down Wing Ming Craft Shop, let out the apartment of No. 14 Ying Yeung Street, terminated the tenancy of No. 3 Ying Yeung Street and let out the street-level shop at No. 19 Yin On Street to an old friend. His friend had been an apprentice in Kin Ming Mold Casting Factory when he was young. By the time Wu Wai Keung moved his factory to Kwun Tong, this friend wanted to set up a mold casting factory of his own. So he rented Wu Wai Keung’s old workshop on Yin On Street. Because Wing Ming Craft Shop only produced molds for soft plastic products, Wu Wai Keung had to find other mold casters who could supply him with the necessary molds for Ming Wo’s operation. This friend of his was the major supplier of this kind of molds for Ming Wo.

Wu Wai Keung closed down Ming Wo Manufacturing Co. in the 1980s and re-established the Wing Ming Craft Shop in the Thirteen Streets. In the 1980s, the operating conditions were not very different from what were like in the 1960s. The movement of Hong Kong’s plastic factories northward to mainland China had led rise to greater demands for molds. As a result, Wing Ming Craft Shop had a wider scope of business, focusing mainly on making doll molds. The mode of operation for this new workshop was similar to what he did in the 1960s. Wu Wai Keung seldom visited customers to find business. The orders came from word of mouth through the network he had built up over the years. Later on, the local mold casting factories also moved northwards to lower the costs for labour and factory premise. By 1997, most of the mold casting factories in Hong Kong had ceased production. Wing Ming Craft Shop mainly sourced the raw materials (mainly sulfuric acid, fiberglass and gypsum powder) from Sham Shui Po. Sometimes, the Wu couple could find raw materials in To Kwa Wan. For example, they bought industrial chemicals and plastic materials from Kin Shing, a street-level shop on Mok Cheong Street (opposite to the Hong Kong Society for the Blind).

In the early 1980s, Wu Wai Keung closed down the factory in Kwun Tong and re-established the mold casting workshop in the Thirteen Streets. Work was not heavy partly because he had 4 to 5 workers working for him, and partly because his children had grown up. Therefore, with the help of his wife, he organized a mutual aid committee for the building. In the early years, the building was managed informally by some active residents. For example, when they found it necessary to install lights along the stairways, an old female resident was sent to visit each household to collect money. Wu Wai Keung suggested that they should form a mutual aid committee to manage the matters of the building in a more systematic way. He also suggested that a fund should be set up to pool monthly payments from each household for paying the expenses of the building. The residents nominated Wu Wai Keung the chairman of the mutual aid committee. Considering that he had some spare time to spend and it would do good to the residents, he accepted the appointment and had served the chairmanship for about 20 years.

Wu Wai Keung and his wife changed the method of collecting monthly fee. Instead of visiting the residents door by door, Wu’s couple asked the residents to pay the monthly fee to the committee directly. This had saved the volunteers a lot of time and energy. The fund was mainly used to meet the costs of installing fluorescent lights and iron gates, regular electricity bills and the repair work of stairways. At first, the mutual aid committee held no regular meetings. The members would meet at Wu Wai Keung’s workshop when they had to discuss important matters such as the need of maintenance projects for the building. To Wu Wai Keung, these were not heavy duties. The regular major duty of a chairman was to collect the monthly fees from the residents and to prepare an annual statement of income and expenditure, which was usually done by his wife. The mutual aid committee oversaw the buildings of No. 12-14 Ying Yeung Street (a total of 32 apartments with 4 apartments on each level along the two stairways for the two buildings). The committee members were mainly apartment owners. To this date, some residents have lived in the buildings for more than 50 years. The mutual aid committee is registered with the District Office in recent years. It is stipulated under government regulation that the committee members are elected every two years at a general meeting. The quorum of executive committee is 4 persons and the chairman is responsible for daily operation.

The mutual aid committee under Wu Wai Keung’s management seldom socialized with other mutual aid committees of the nearby buildings and Wu Wai Keung had never been a member of any district-based organizations. When there were concerns of redeveloping the Thirteen Streets in the 1990s, he had attended a meeting held at the Holy Trinity Church. All the other attendants were property owners of the Thirteen Streets but not all of them were mutual aid committee members. The meeting was attended by 200 to 300 people. It was held for some Legislative Councillors to collect the views of the residents about redevelopment compensation. The attendants agreed that the compensation should be able for an affected household to buy an apartment of similar size in a building not older than 7 years in the same district. But the redevelopment has not yet started to this date. Wu Wai Keung is not looking forward to the redevelopment. In his opinions, most property owners of old buildings generally prefer to have the redevelopment as soon as, but the government is not keen on doing so, leaving the residents’ concern unanswered. Wu Wai Keung has to continue living on the Thirteen Streets as he has no alternatives. He is not keen on moving to better environment because he and his wife are old and they are happy as long as there is a shelter for them.