Yeung Hon Yuen

Biography

Yeung Hon Yuen, also known as Yuen Gor, born in Hong Kong in 1950. Yuen Gor’s parents started their Dai Pai Dong (street-side food stall ) business in Yau Ma Tei when he was 5. The Yeungs had been operated three stalls subsequently. Yuen Gor started to help with odd jobs at the stall at the age of 6 or 7, so he claims to have grown up as a street child. Yuen Gor quitted school at 15 and learned how to operate a coffee stall. He is familiar with the operation of a Dai Pai Dong in Yau Ma Tei and also understands the history of the removal of street stalls to government-managed cooked food markets. He even knows about the brothel, gambling and drug trafficking in the Yau Ma Tei district from his takeaways delivery experiences. Due to government demolition of Dai Pai Dongs and licence recalls, the three stalls operated by the Yeung family closed one after another. In 1976, Yuen Gor opened a cafe named ‘Lai Heung Yuen’ on Reclamation Street. It was a street shop which he purchased with his savings and bank mortgage. The cafe is still in operation today.