Li Lin

As the only child in her family, Li Lin stresses that “poor children had to manage household affairs early on in life” and that difficulties caused small children of her generation to mature much earlier than they do nowadays. Li Lin’s father worked at CLP, getting paid a meagre income every Saturday. As the family were so poor, Li Lin’s father could never afford more than one or two catties of rice, taking them home packed in old newspaper or seagrass straw. When buying cooking oil, he could only afford to take home a couple of taels in an old can or bottle. Li Lin thinks that Hongkongers back then were more thrifty and environmentally minded as many people in resettlement estates used to buy things second-hand. She recalls once exchanging a pair of broken scissors for a couple of malt biscuits.  

By the time Li Lin had turned 10, she had already joined a few friends looking for work in factories all over the Territory. She mainly worked in industrial areas such as To Kwa Wan, Kwun Tong and Sham Shui Po. She was especially fond of jobs in To Kwa Wan which was nearest to her home and did not require much travelling to or from work. Over the years, Li Lin was employed in many industries such as battery production in a factory located in what is now the Hing Wah Centre, wig making, spinning and weaving. As wages in those days were pretty good, workers frequently changed jobs to improve their quality of life. Very few people stayed in the same factory for long periods. It was popular back then for factories to pay piece-rate wages and employment was free and flexible.  

Li Lin lived in an old-type seven-storey resettlement block (Editor’s note: at the former Tai Wan Shan Resettlement Estate) when she was growing up. While still attending school, she had already started taking outsourcing jobs from squatter factories in the Eight Wan Streets area by the time she turned 10. In those days, people used to find outsourcing jobs through street bills. Back then, lamp posts and walls were posted with a lot of A4 size bills with “Staff wanted” and the factory address written on them. Upon finding a squatter plastic factory, casual workers like Li Lin would take home plastic flowers for assembling. Back then, getting and changing jobs was easy as no one was that bothered about signing contracts. Seven days’ prior notice was all that was needed to resign. If a worker was willing to give up a few days’ salary, he or she could even quit jobs without giving any notice at all. 

Li Lin recalls that workers in To Kwa Wan used to take their meals in three different ways. The first involved a catering service where a group of four or five workers ordered food which the caterer then delivered to the factory gate. The workers later returned the cutlery after finishing their meals. Li Lin felt that this approach enabled workers to make the most of their time. In those days, lunchbreaks tended to last one hour. Workers using outside caterers could finish their meals in 20-25 minutes, leaving them plenty of time to rest. Each noon time, factory areas’ streets were full of wooden carts transporting meals. Food and cutlery for each group of workers was wrapped in a piece of cloth, with individual dishes placed on a plate covered with an antimony cover. Food intended for several groups of workers at the same plant was stacked in layers.

The second popular way of eating lunch was to go outside of the factory. At lunch time the streets were full of carts carrying all kinds of food. Workers just stood or sat around the carts while they ate. Li Lin did not like this practice as she feels it was not very hygienic. Once she recalls biting into a piece of nail and resolving to take more care of where and what she ate in future! The third way workers liked to eat was to bring their own lunch to the factory. Most factories back then had a stainless steel water heater that supplied hot drinking water and workers often used to heat the food in their lunch boxes.

Li Lin gets nostalgic when asked to recall To Kwa Wan’s changes over the years. In the past, To Kwa Wan had many factories and the air quality there was very poor. Back then, there was a uniquely unpleasant smell specific to each type of industrial area. For example, areas around the cattle depot were filled with the smell of slaughtered pigs. Homes near the Nanyang Tobacco Company were filled with the aromas of cigarettes and smoke. Near the site of what is now Sky Tower was a cow bone factory whose production of fertilizers produced the most unimaginable stink! Li Lin recalls she used to feel uncomfortable simply walking past the plant! It was difficult to imagine that people actually managed to live next to such smelly factory. Later larger production facilities either moved away or closed down. The disappearance of such large factories greatly improved residents’ quality of life in the neighbourhoods where they used to be based. 

In the past factories paid their workers their wages in envelopes with the pay amount and production output written on the front for the workers to sign and acknowledge receipt. Each time Li Lin received for her wages, she would hand over everything to her mother for meeting household expenses. The day Li Lin received her very first pay packet, her mother gave her the go-ahead to go out and celebrate. She subsequently went out with several co-workers to a restaurant and ate steak. Back then, even taking a set meal was memorable for someone like Li Lin. Likewise, eating with a knife and fork was considered to be the high class. In those days, life was full of hope and everyone was easily contented and happy. Li Lin feels now that people of her generation were very loyal to their parents, simple and hardworking. While everyone had to think about survival at every moment, people’s lives in those times were enriched, full of ideals and goals.