Lai Yiu Kai

Biography Highlights Records Photos & Documents
Night soil collection in tenement house: ‘’You have never experienced this kind of thing!’’
After the war, the Lai family continued to live in Queen’s Road East. The flat only had a kitchen but no washroom. The residents took a bath took baths or empty their bowels at a corner of the kitchen behind a curtain. In the midnight, someone would come for night soil collection which was commonly known as‘emptying the honey bucket’. The honey bucket was shared by different households but each had their own spittoons



Title Night soil collection in tenement house: ‘’You have never experienced this kind of thing!’’
Date 08/02/2010
Subject Community
Duration 1m27s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-001
Teacher throwing duster: ‘‘The student’s hair turned white completely!’’
Lai Yiu Kai attended primary one when he was seven or eight, a normal age of schooling. His classmates were of similar age. Like other active and naughty boys, he usually got a ‘C’ grade for conduct. On one occasion a male student spoke to his classmate in a low voice, the teacher threw the chalk and duster at him. The boy’s hair turned white with chalk dust.



Title Teacher throwing duster: ‘‘The student’s hair turned white completely!’’
Date 08/02/2010
Subject Education
Duration 1m11s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-002
Feeling at ease with the opposite sex: ‘‘I could easily make female friends. Don’t know why.’’
The young Lai Yiu Kai felt at ease relating with the opposite sex so he could easily make female friends. When he worked as an outgoing bill collector, he came to know his wife who worked in a wireless electrical appliance shop. She was open and took the initiative to ask him to go see movie. Lai Yiu Kai started dating girlfriends when he worked in Eveready and he used to go to the theatres with them on holidays.



Title Feeling at ease with the opposite sex: ‘‘I could easily make female friends. Don’t know why.’’
Date 08/02/2010
Subject Social Life
Duration 1m40s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-003
During times of fighting: ‘‘To be frank, you don’t have time to spend what you earn!’’
Looking back on his several-decade career, Lai Yiu Kai saidhe had the greatest workload when working in an artificial leather factory in Tsuen Wan. He was the assistant-in-charge (an equivalent ofassistant officer) of the production department and was responsible to supervise the workers. He worked 15 hours a day from 3pm to 6am. He was so tired that he always yawned in the noon and night shifts.



Title During times of fighting: ‘‘To be frank, you don’t have time to spend what you earn!’’
Date 04/03/2010
Subject Industry
Duration 1m28s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-004
Way of Success: ‘‘History is more important than qualifications.’’
Looking back on his several-decade career, Lai Yiu Kai believed things went smooth because of his talents and social connection. He was good at socializing and never offended others so he earned a reputation among his counterpart in textile industry. Although he didn’t have a respectable academic qualification, he worked his way up the career ladder by means of personal talents. His motto was ‘History is more important than qualifications’.



Title Way of Success: ‘‘History is more important than qualifications.’’
Date 04/03/2010
Duration 1m23s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-005
Unemployment but not retirement: ‘‘I don’t think it is a retirement!’’
Lai Yiu Kai started to work at the age of 12. In his several-decade career life, he has never been unemployed. He worked until 2006 when he temporarily left the workplace. He emphasized that he was only ‘unemployed’ but not retired. He had applied to the Social Welfare Department for the unemployment relief, but was refused.



Title Unemployment but not retirement: ‘‘I don’t think it is a retirement!’’
Date 25/03/2010
Duration 58s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-006
Work Until his last breath: ‘‘I don’t want to be an old man in the park!’’
Lai Yiu Kai has no intention to retire and does not want to become the ‘old man in the park’. He wants to follow his father’s example and works until his last breath. His father had lung cancer and it was only 70 days between the diagnosis and his death.



Title Work Until his last breath: ‘‘I don’t want to be an old man in the park!’’
Date 25/03/2010
Duration 1m7s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-007
Being a shopaholic in the good days: ‘’Sometimes I am a shopaholic therefore I don’t want to g...
When Lai Yiu Kai worked in Kam Kee Fabrics, he earned high commissions. He had spent his $4,000-bonus on a gold watch after his boss’s example just to keep up with the Joneses, but his former employer had criticized him as a shopaholic.



Title Being a shopaholic in the good days: ‘’Sometimes I am a shopaholic therefore I don’t want to go out.’’
Date 25/03/2010
Duration 53s
Language Cantonese
Material Type
Collection
Repository Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No. LKF-LYK-HLT-008