Yau Suk Fun

In the early 1970s, when Yau Sk Fun’s husband’s tailoring business waned, the couple joined the jade trade. In 1972, they started their business outside the porch of the Yan Yan Chinese Restaurant on Canton Road. They laid their goods on a piece of newspaper or white cloth placed on the street. At the beginning, Ms Yau sourced from her mother-in-law. When the goods were sold, she paid her the retail prices. She and her husband earned the difference between the selling price and retail price. It was the days when the jade business was prosperous, the turnover was satisfactory. Many young people joined the trade. In 1972, there were several hundred jade street stalls in the area from Shui Heung Yuen to the Saigon Street park entrance, but they were only set on the footpath close to the Yan Yan Chinese Restaurant (the spot of the Four Seas Jade Centre). Because of limited space beneath the balcony, Ms Yau took the risk and hawked on the roadside. It was not illegal to hawk beneath the balcony, but on the roadside she had to flee and hide her goods at the sight of the police on patrol. She was always arrested for illegal hawking. Because she had a mobile hawker licence, her goods were not confiscated, but she had to pay a fine.

After she gave birth to her second son, she hawked as usual but with her son on her back. When she fled the police, she had to push somebody’s carts to make way for escape. She was really scared. Therefore, she decided to operate next to a newspaper stall at the entrance of Yan Yan Chinese Restaurant. She paid the newspaper hawker a monthly rental of $300 and operated at a 2 ft x 4 ft stall. Selling here, she no longer needed to flee from the police. Later, the couple rented a workshop on the Ferry Point. They manufactured jade pieces with material stones, a cutting machine and several workers. The products were jade beads, bracelets and figurines. In the mid-1980s, she moved her street stall to a spot beneath the Gascoigne Road flyover (the spot where the jade market stands today). Her eldest son has helped with their jade business since he was a primary six student. He even followed Ms Yau to trade in Singpore and Malaysia. Today, he has joined his mother’s trade and runs his own business.

In the early 1970s, Ms Yau and her husband operated a street stall on Canton Road, which was the trading centre of jade merchants. Before street stalls appeared on the pathway, the retailers used to visit other jade merchants for transactions of jade pieces wrapped in papers. Before Ms Yau joined the trade, she sourced from the older generation of the trade. Many jade pieces manufacturers ran a workshop or home shop upstairs the buildings on Canton Road. They processed raw stones and sold them to retailers.

From the 1970s onwards, the manufacturers set their street stalls on Canton Road and sold the products manufactured in the workshops upstairs. Gradually, a jade street was formed. The jade pieces had no fixed prices, they always fluctuated. The speculative reselling was active. Many people earned huge profits with excellent insight. So, a jade merchant must have the expertise of jade quality and good clientele. For the business on Canton Road, the buyers included both the shops and jade merchants from South East Asia, the US and Japan. To buy from the workshops upstairs, one needed referral of an acquaintance. In the 1980s, the couple gained expertise of the jade profession. They began the jade piece production business

Ms Yau’s jade stall served both the local and overseas markets. Buyers from different countries preferred products of different colours and sizes. The goods targeted at Singapore were dubbed the ‘bor zong’. The Singaporeans liked the small unique rosy jade pieces. Products targeted at the US market were dubbed the ‘yeung zong’. The Westerners liked large jade pieces in red, purple and mung bean green. The local jade merchants bought at Ms Yau’s street stall on Canton Road and resold them to the US. Products targeted at Taiwan were dubbed ‘Taiwan zong’; they were mainly greenish yellow in color. The merchants usually decided the style to be processed according to stone quality.

In the late 1960s, Ms Yau’s mother-in-law did jade business in Singapore where she developed a stable clientele. In 1974, Ms Yau followed suit. The Singaporean market just emerged and the merchants did not know availability of the Hong Kong supply, so the Hong Kong jade merchants could earn 50% profits by selling their jade pieces in Singapore.  Carrying jade pieces from Hong Kong to Singapore were duty free. She would arrange dealings with Singaporean clients at a hotel. The buyer paid right before she left Singapore. Before she left Singapore, she would send the money back to Hong Kong by telegraphic transfer. Because the Singaporean clients bought on credit, and taking into consideration that she lost the time on the journey and lost business when she was away from Hong Kong, she stopped doing business in Singapore later. Now she does business in Hong Kong mainly selling the ‘yeung zong’ to regular customers.

The public order was good when the hawkers sold on street stalls on Canton Road. The chairman of Hong Kong Jade Association had told the triad elements that jade hawking was decent business and did not justify the protection fees. In 1980, the government set up the hawkers control team. They always came to check their licences. A hawker was allowed to register only if he or she was confirmed to have operated at the same spot in 5 visits of the team staff. In 1984, the street stalls from Canton Road were moved to Kansu Street Jade Market. It was just an empty lot designated as temporary market. The hawkers were allocated a spot for business by the government. Turnover at the new site was more or less the same before and after the removal. At the beginning, the market was enclosed with wire netting. Each stall was given a large umbrella to shade the hawker from the sun.

In 1986, a cover was built over the market. The hawkers paid an annual fee for a licence which specified that they operated jade dealings. Later, hawkers moved from the temporary market to the building which is still the market today. The new market was divided into small zone A and large zone B. The Hong Kong Jade Association hired workers to provide the clean upl service at the end of the day, the monthly wage for each worker was $100. The business hours of the new site was 8 am to 5 pm, but usually they closed the business at 2 pm or 3 pm because it was too hot. With endeavours of the Jade Association, electricity supply and a cover was provided from the market.