Master Shek

Master Shek

Retired Staff, Chung Hwa Book Co Ltd Printing Works

Sex: Male
Birthyear: 1926
Age at Interview: 87
Education: Primary School
Occupation: Plate-making master, Chung Hwa Book Co Ltd Printing Works
Theme: Industry,Community,Social Life
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Master Shek’s migration to Hong Kong and how he entered the printing industry. The Chung Hwa pri...

Originally from Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Master Shek was born in Shanghai in 1926. When the Japanese army attacked Shanghai after the Mukden Incident on 18 September 1931, he returned to his hometown. Following Japan’s launch of a full-scale invasion of China with an attack on Ningbo in the late 1930s, Master Shek found passage on a ‘civilian ship’ and fled to Hong Kong. While here, he sought refuge with his grandmother and an uncle who was a binder at Chung Hwa Book Company’s Hong Kong printing plant. The man eventually enquired about a job for his young nephew in the printing workshop. As Chung Hwa did not employ staff as young as he was, Master Shek obtained work as an apprentice at the Luen Wah Printing Factory at D'Aguilar Street in Central. When the Japanese army invaded Hong Kong in late 1941, they landed at Shau Kei Wan and headed all the way towards Central. Lane Crawford opened its doors and allowed the public to take away its goods for free. Master Shek was among them, picking up clothes and food. When Luen Wah closed operations after the fall of Hong Kong, Master Shek returned to Kowloon to join his uncle. The two men then lived in Chung Hwa’ worker dormitory (now Ma Tau Chung Fire Station).

When the Japanese took over the running of Chung Hwa, the company’s name was changed to “Imperial Cabinet Bureau of Printing”. Back then, the plant consisted of binding, printing and various other departments which were all jointly managed by both the Chinese and Japanese. Master Shek worked in the company’s typesetting room. During the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945, Chung Hwa focused on printing bank notes, including the reserve currency used by the puppet government of Wang Jing Wei. For a while, Master Shek was seconded to Commercial Press which concentrated on printing books.

In the early period after Hong Kong’s fall, senior officers of Chung Hwa such as Plant Manager Zhao Jun fled to Chongqing. Although his uncle followed them, Master Shek himself decided to stay on in Hong Kong. Two years later when he was among those who experienced the severe rice shortages, Master Shek went to Chongqing to join his uncle. Upon his arrival there, he found work at the Hua Nan Printing Factory which was a subsidiary of Chung Hwa. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, Chiu Chun, Master Shek and the others returned to Hong Kong to begin running Chung Hwa again. During the four years of Japanese occupation, the authority had removed Chung Hwa’s large, German-made printing machines and shipped them to Japan because their country did not possess such sophisticated technology. The Japanese then replicated the equipment and made similar machines of their own. After the war ended, the Hong Kong Government asked Chung Hwa what items they wanted to claim back. Chung Hwa then sent its staff to Japan to ship the stolen machinery back to Hong Kong.




Title Master Shek’s migration to Hong Kong and how he entered the printing industry. The Chung Hwa printing worship during the Japanese occupation
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Industry,Community,Japanese Occupation
Duration 16m54s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-001
Master Shek’s work in Chung Hwa’s printing workshop after the war

When peace was declared in 1945, Master Shek returned to Hong Kong to once again resume work in Chung Hwa printing workshop’s typesetting room. The company soon sent him and another colleague to Beijing for training in advanced printing pictorial technology. After two years’ study, he returned to the Territory to engage in photoengraving until his resignation. Master Shek recalled that in the early days after the Liberation of China, Chung Hwa was commissioned to print up 1,000,000 copies of Tan Kah Kee’s book New China Perception. While Master Shek thought that the typesetting room back then might have looked good, he felt it was not really fit for work as it was filled with disorganised piles of books and obsolete equipment.

The main reason behind Master Shek’s departure from Chung Hwa in 1971 was that the company’s General Manager sent him a beautiful calendar to use as a quality benchmark. He and another master were asked to do a trial print. Frustrated that he was denied the equipment and skills needed to competently complete such high-end jobs, he quit work. The fact that he had a family with five children and Chung Hwa’s wages were insufficient to support them all was another factor in his decision. He sent an application letter to Japanese company Toppan Printing and went on to start work for them. While there, Master Shek learned a great deal of new skills and techniques that would not have been possible at the more backward Chung Hwa. As he did not really like working for the Japanese, he moved to another printing factory after he had stayed there for one or two years, but never returned to Chung Hwa.




Title Master Shek’s work in Chung Hwa’s printing workshop after the war
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Industry
Duration 14m17s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-002
Master Shek’s housing while working at Chung Hwa

Master Shek started working at the Chung Hwa printing workshop when he was just 15 or 16 years old. At first, he lived in the company’s staff dormitory on To Kwa Wan Road. This was a three-storey building which Chung Hwa rented in its entirety for use as a hostel. Back then, there were very few cars on Hong Kong streets so Master Shek and his pals played football in the road in the evening after their work was done for the day. Located directly opposite the dormitory was Man Kwok Weaving Factory. Master Shek knew this facility well as had often visited it to fetch supplies of water during times of water rationing.

In 1951, Master Shek went back to his hometown to get married. His wife came to settle in Hong Kong the same year and the couple continued to live in Chung Hwa’s quarters. While each room tended to be occupied by one unmarried worker, Master Shek and his wife continued to live in one room after they got married and began raising a family. Chung Hwa printing workshop had several hostels located in places such as To Kwa Wan Road, Ha Heung Road, Lok Shan Road and elsewhere. Some were leased properties while others were owned outright. Master Shek and his wife relocated to several places while he worked at Chung Hwa. Chung Hwa’s workers rarely bought their own home. Those who did not take advantage of the company’s dormitories mostly rented rooms in residential blocks. In the early 1960s, Master Shek successfully applied for government low-cost housing and was allocated a unit in the newly completed Ma Tau Wai Estate. When all this happened in 1965 he and his family were as excited as if they had won the jackpot! He and his wife then moved out of the company dormitory, becoming the first ever householder to move into Ma Tau Wai Estate. Soon, many other Chung Hwa workers also moved into the estate.




Title Master Shek’s housing while working at Chung Hwa
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Community,Social Life
Duration 11m19s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-003
How Master Shek earned extra money by doing casual outsourcing jobs in the evenings and holidays....

During his earliest days at Chung Hwa’s printing workshop, Master Shek was still single and went to work every day at 8:00 am to print bank notes. As the value of the currency back then could never seem to quite catch up with inflation, the bank notes that he was printing back then had a large denominations such as HK$10,000! In 1949, Chung Hwa stopped printing bank notes and Master Shek and many of his colleagues were laid off, causing him to return to Shanghai. In those days, runaway inflation was such a serious problem that people even speculated on coffins! Chung Hwa later wrote to Master Shek calling him back to Hong Kong to return to work.

Like many workers back then, Master Shek had a big family. Trying to support a wife and five kids proved to be a huge struggle. In an attempt to make ends meet, he and his wife took extra night shifts at Chung Hwa’s book binding workshop. Working on the third floor of the plant, they mainly bound Bibles, with labour charges calculated on a piece-rate basis. As this was classified as casual outsourced work to its own employees, Chung Hwa did not allow staff to work too late in case their performance the following day suffered. Master Shek had seen some workers secretly sneaking into the plant to earn a little extra to feed their families. On Sundays, he also did part-time jobs such as gold-stamping and book folding. In those years, some Chung Hwa colleagues resigned to set up their own businesses, opening up printing factories in North Point, Wan Chai and other places. Master Shek also joined several of his colleagues in taking casual shifts at these factories.

Master Shek did not have much time for entertainment when he worked at Chung Hwa as he was not fond of frittering money away foolishly. When relaxing outside working hours, he usually went climbing or swimming with his workmates. Some of them came from Master Shek’s own hometown while others were from places like Shanghai and Wuxi. As their accents and dialects were all similar, they had no problems in communicating with one and other. Popular activities in those days included climbing the Lion Rock and going swimming at North Point and Repulse Bay. Ritz Garden in North Point was a popular swimming venue as it offered very convenient transportation via ferries travelling between Kowloon City Ferry Pier and North Point. Back then, Ritz Garden was owned by Li Tsai Fa, an infamous Shanghai gangster who was renowned for helping to smuggle movie stars back to the safety of mainland China during the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945. The Hong Kong Government recognised his bravery and gave him the Ritz Garden in return. Master Shek also used to go to Hoi Sham Temple to unwind. In those days, taking a boat to the island where fishermen sold fried eels and crabs cheaply cost just five cents!




Title How Master Shek earned extra money by doing casual outsourcing jobs in the evenings and holidays. Leisure activities of Chung Hwa printing workers
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Industry,Community
Duration 15m36s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-004
Master Shek’s family life at To Kwa Wan: The company dormitory and Ma Tau Wai Estate

Master Shek and his wife lived in the company dormitory in To Kwa Wan after their 1951 marriage. Their neighbours in the hostel were other workers with family dependents, most of whom originally came from Ningbo and Shanghai. As Master Shek’s wife came from roughly the same area, she had no difficulty in adapting to life in Hong Kong. She usually went to To Kwa Wan Market (a.k.a. Red Apple Market) to buy food. Once, some northerners from China came to Chung Hwa’s plant to take some old machines back to the mainland. Since the workers were not used to eating Cantonese food, the company asked Master Shek and his wife to prepare meals for them. She subsequently cooked some Ningbo dishes which were brought to the factory by Master Shek on his bicycle. Space at the quarters in To Kwa Wan Road was so tight that many residents had to sleep in the corridors. A cockloft was even built above the bathroom to ease the overcrowding. The Sheks initially lived in the dorm’s front room. Seeing that a neighbour had a lot of kids and not much space, Master Shek took the initiative to give up the front room to him in exchange for the middle room. One day's mid-night Master Shek's child cried loudly and it disturbed the neighbour. Showing his contempt, he knocked Shek's doors and verbally abused Master Shek. The two families frequently quarrelled as a result. To end hostilities, Master Shek applied for a unit at Ma Tau Wai Estate and immediately moved away the moment his application was approved.

Master Shek and his wife and children ended up living in their new home at Ma Tau Wai Estate for the next 20 years. The neighbour living opposite to the Sheks’ unit worked at Kowloon Motor Bus. Knowing that Master Shek worked for Chung Hwa, his neighbour called him a communist! The two families often quarrelled because of political differences, even after Master Shek left Chung Hwa in 1971. There was no peace for the whole of the 20 years the Sheks spent in Ma Tau Wai Estate. Matters only improved when the Shek family moved away to Tseung Kwan O in the 1980s. Having fathered five kids, Master Shek thought that Ma Tau Wai Estate was an ideal place for youngsters to grow up. His family’s unit consisted of over 200 square feet with a balcony spacious enough for holding two banquet tables! Master Shek followed his mother’s advice and sent his two eldest sons to Shanghai where she raised them like her own. The pair only returned to Hong Kong when they got older. All three of the remaining Shek children attended prestigious schools in the vicinity. His two daughters studied at Heep Yunn School and Pooi To Middle School respectively, while his youngest son attended Munsang College.




Title Master Shek’s family life at To Kwa Wan: The company dormitory and Ma Tau Wai Estate
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Community,Social Life
Duration 13m56s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-005
Changes in the environment around Chung Hwa’s printing workshop (1). Master Shek’s family life ...

When Master Shek’s children were still young, his wife not only took casual jobs binding books at Chung Hwa’s printing workshop, she also took factory outsourcing jobs home. The jobs she tried to earn money to stretch the family budget included stitching beads on clothes and assembling plastic bag handles. When the family was living in Ma Tau Wai Estate, a neighbour and former Chung Hwa colleague opened a plastic bag factory in San Po Kong. He subsequently began outsourcing plastic bag handle assembly jobs to his Ma Tau Wai Estate neighbours. After the kids had grown up, Master Shek’s wife went to Wearbest Garment Factory to do packaging work. She wound up staying there for many years. Master Shek is of the opinion that people back then were very hardworking and unafraid of facing the various hardships involved in raising a family. When not working, Master Shek often took his children to Kai Tak and Lai Chi Kok amusement parks. They seldom stayed in To Kwa Wan as the district had no large park and very few play areas. Locally, only Hoi Sham Temple and To Kwa Wan Road really left a lasting impression on him.

In those days, there was a rock hill surrounded by agricultural lands immediately adjacent to the Chung Hwa printing plant that had been opened for many years. After it was eventually levelled, the hill became To Kwa Wan Sports Centre. At first, Chung Hwa’s security printing section was located in what is now the Merit Industrial Centre. A bus company subsequently bought this plot of land intending to build a garage there. After finding out that there was no water supply, the bus company sold the land to Merit who started constructing an industrial building. Back then, Kowloon City Ferry Pier - actually just a plank stretched out into the sea - was located along Kai Tak Road. Master Shek had been to the old pier to buy shrimps and eels. Right next to today’s Kowloon City Ferry Pier was a garbage jetty where cattle bound for the slaughterhouse were brought ashore. Once, Master Shek heard gunshots from outside his quarters in To Kwa Wan Road, he then realised that runaway cattle were shot!

The Shek family moved out of Ma Tau Wai Estate in the 1980s, relocating to a private housing estate in Tseung Kwan O. Master Shek thought that Tseung Kwan O was more convenient for eating and that his wife would also be able to live more comfortably. After relocating to the new district, the Shek’s occasionally returned to To Kwa Wan for grocery shopping as food there was cheaper. Around 2006, his wife grew tired of their high floor flat’s lack of suitability when it came to drying clothes. As a result, the family moved back to Wyler Gardens, buying their home through a real estate agent they knew. Master Shek was not particularly fond of To Kwa Wan, but thought that the area was easily accessible as it was served by many bus routes. Nowadays, the couple would just pay HK$2 for a ride to Hong Kong Island. After moving back to To Kwa Wan from Tseung Kwan O, Master Shek felt that the air was poor and the water around Kowloon City Ferry Pier was polluted.




Title Changes in the environment around Chung Hwa’s printing workshop (1). Master Shek’s family life in To Kwa Wan and his relocation in recent year.
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Community,Social Life
Duration 17m51s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-006
Changes in the environment around Chung Hwa’s printing workshop (2). Workers’ entertainment, ea...

Around the time of the liberation of China in 1949, several spinning factories were set up in To Kwa Wan by entrepreneurs who had moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai. Master Shek realised how prosperous the area had become after the spinning facilities were completed when many shops started to open in the Thirteen Streets area. While still fairly young, Master Shek had been to the neighbourhoods around the Tien Chu Ve-Tsin and Watsons Bottling plants for fun as there were plenty of spaces there. Favourite areas included the ditch mouth and a beach near the Tien Chu plant where Master Shek used to catch crabs. Located quite near to Chung Hwa’s printing workshop was a cowbone factory whose unpleasant odour affected Master Shek and his colleagues each time a northerly wind blew. When the wind blew south, the stink tended to get to the waterfront. After the slaughterhouse ceased operation, the cowbone factory also went out of business. Before getting married, Master Shek mainly took his catered food in the plant. The food, mainly Shanghai cuisine, was cooked at home by a fellow worker’s wife and brought to the workshop where it was shared by five or six workers. After they were married, Master Shek’s wife prepared her husband’s food which he brought to the workshop in lunch box.

Back then, some male workers at Chung Hwa used to go to the nearby spinning mills after work to flirt with the women who worked there. This resulted in a lot of marriages, and even friendships with married female workers with children. Since Master Shek was a Director of the Chung Hwa Book Company Trade Union, he dared not go to the spinning plants to make girlfriends. As his education level was not high, he could only help out with manual tasks such as moving and arranging chairs at the union. In all, he was elected as the union’s director for three or four terms, including the first and second sessions. During the 1967 riots, the union organised dozens of Chung Hwa workers to demonstrate outside the South Kowloon Magistracy at Gascoigne Road.

Looking back at the relationship between Chung Hwa’s workforce and management, Master Shek recalls that staff were mainly grouped into factions according to their native origins (e.g. Wuxi or Ningbo). Employees in the colour printing and letterpress printing rooms were mainly from Wuxi and Ningbo respectively, while those who operated large machines in the banknotes-printing room were mainly from Changzhou. While workers from different factions did not fight each other, those from the same home districts tended to enjoy closer relationships.




Title Changes in the environment around Chung Hwa’s printing workshop (2). Workers’ entertainment, eating habits and factions
Date 05/06/2013
Subject Community,Social Life
Duration 14m38s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Permission for use is given by Master Shek
Accession No. CC-SWW-SEG-007