Kong Chi Yin

Kong Chi Yin (CY Kong) was born in Haifeng, his hometown, in 1946. Life was hard in the country. His father came to Hong Kong first in the 1940s. He worked as a ticketing officer at Kowloon Motor Bus, and later became a taxi driver. CY Kong’s parents had over 10 children.  He was their fourth child. In 1948/1949, still a new born baby, he came to Hong Kong with his mother and siblings. In 1950, the Kongs moved into a rented village house around the corner in the front row of Nga Tsin Wai (Editor’s note: the junction of Tai Hang Street and Nam Pin Street). Their lessor was sub-landlord Chan, a fellow countryman from Haifeng.

After the war, many new-comers built their houses at the mountain foot. Wooden huts were found everywhere at the mountain foot in Tse Wan Shan and Chuk Yuen. Sanitation was poor and fires were common. Many Kongs’ kinfolks had lived in wooden huts. CY Kong’s maternal grandmother built a house next to Nga Tsin Wai (near Kowloon City). Fire broke out at least three times there. Residents all jumped into the Big Ditch (Editor’s note: Kai Tak Nullah) to escape the fires. In the 1950s, CY Kong’s uncles came to Hong Kong one after another, and they all lodged at his family’s place in Nga Tsin Wai Village upon arrival, as if the Kongs were a shelter. Their kinfolks moved out only after having settled down. CY Kong’s mother was a housewife who had no formal jobs. But she once took jobs from nearby cottage factories, knitting mittens and making plastic flowers. A dozen mittens would earn them 20 or 30 cents. Daily profits could reach several dollars.

By the time Hong Kong fell, CY Kong’s father had already come to Hong Kong from Haifeng alone. He lived in a wooden house near Kai Tak Road, Kowloon City. Later he worked at a bus company. When CY Kong was 3 or 4, he followed his mother and siblings to Hong Kong. Upon many referrals by their relations, the family rented a village house in Nga Tsin Wai. That house turned out to be a lodge for their mainland relations as they came to Hong Kong. CY Kong never met the landlord. The sub-landlord lived in a squatter illegally built at Pei Pin Street. He made a visit the family to collect the rent at the beginning of each month. No rent receipt was issued as they trusted each other. CY Kong recalled the old age of the sub-landlord, whose children collected the rents after his passage.

In the 1950s, many countrymen from Haifeng had built houses at Pei Pin Steet that were similar to the squatters at the mountain foot. There used to be a row of squatters standing against the wall across today’s Nga Tsin Wai Village Public Toilet. CY Kong’s maternal grandmother and several uncles of his lived in one of the squatters. A mulberry grew outside its door. When young, CY Kong often climbed the tree to pick its fruits. In the early 1960s, the government pulled down the squatters at Pei Pin Street. His grandma-in-law’s family were relocated to a 7-storey building in Wong Tai Sin. The sub-landlord moved into a Resettlement Estate block in Kai Liu, Kwun Tong.

Located around the corner of the front row (Editor’s note: the junction of Tai Hang Street and Nam Pin Street) in Nga Tsin Wai Estate, CY Kong’s home was a single-storey brick house that was rumoured to be a old-style private school before the war. The apron area was heightened in the 1960s (Editor’s note: the open ground in front of the village was few steps above the groundwork of the inner village). No tap water was available when the Kongs first moved in. CY Kong and his older sister had to carry buckets of well water from outside the village, and had to wash the clothes beside the well before taking them home for drying. Later two public water taps appeared on the open ground in front of the village. One was installed by the Water Supplies Department and the other one was through the application by the Nga Tsin Wai Village Headman. In those years, tap water was carried in kerosene tanks for sale in remote squatter areas. A bucket of water cost 20 or 30 cents. In the 1960s, the resettlement blocks in the vicinity were completed. Many Nga Tsin Wai villagers signed up for water pipes. Each house got its own water meter. Tap water gradually became available for all.

CY Kong’s house had a flat roof, which distinguished the house from those tile-roofed houses around it. The ceiling was built with cement and concrete. It came with an air-vent covered with a plank or zinc sheet, which was often blown off in typhoons. Rain water would then leak into the house. CY Kong and his friends from the village built a canopy together. The house had been mended twice or thrice. When CY Kong was a kid, the house had over 10 occupants, including the lodging relatives. In hot weather, his uncles and others would sleep overnight on woodlouse-bearing bedplates outside the house. Rice vermicelli packages were used to make a tent for blocking the sun and mists. In the house, some family members slept in bunk beds that cost 20 or 30 dollars each in those years. Some slept on bedplates lying on long chairs. A long chair was 3 or 4 feet long and about 10 inches wide. Three bedplates could be placed on two combined long chairs. In winter, the whole family were packed inside the house. Yet the relatives’ stay was just temporary. They would move to new homes right after settling down. The house used to have a kitchen, which was transformed into CY Kong’s bedroom upon his marriage. The kitchen was rebuilt outside the house. In the 1960s, the monthly rent was around $60. By 1977/1978, when CY Kong moved out, it had risen to a level of over $100.

The mongers at Nga Tsin Wai were mainly non-indigenous villagers. There were two food stalls on the open ground in front of the village. The first one sold fried noodles and was run by an old woman who lived at the 4th Lane. The other stall sold plain porridge and fried sticks. Villagers called its owner as ‘Mute Guy’. When CY Kong was small, there was hardly any shop among the front row houses except a ‘Wing Sang Wineshop’ that was run by Mr Tong who sold rice wine and Yuk Bing Siu, a Cantonese liquor. His son was fond of playing football. There were a sauce and pickle shop and some market stalls at Nam Pin Street.

The Kongs lived in the first house at Nam Pin Street. When fellow villagers passed by the door, they would greet CY Kong’s mother, ‘Morning Goo Por!’ CY Kong’s parents hardly had any recreation. His mother made plastic flowers and knitted mittens every day to help make ends meet. Life had not improved gradually until her children worked. She stayed home most of the time. Her better acquainted villagers were Third Uncle and Big Aunt, who lived at the front row. There were quite many illegally built wooden huts at Pei Pin Street. Presumably they did not lie inside Nga Tsin Wai Village. The fruit stalls today also face a row of illegally built wooden huts. Next to the wooden huts at the back of the village there was a public toilet, which was a dry toilet built with black planks. ‘Night soil’ was dumped at dawn around 5 or 6 every day. In those years villagers took showers at home and the kids directly showered themselves with tap water on the street during summers (except at times of water rationing).

CY Kong was enrolled in Kai Tak School at an age of 4. His class was kind of a nursery and the school fee was 3 dollars a month. He later could not afford the school fee and went to Tak Fook School on the hill behind Nga Tsin Wai. Tak Fook School was a Catholic school that sometimes offered milk powder. Many villagers of Pui Man Village and Nga Tsin Wai went there to collect it in a queue. Unable to pay the school fee, CY Kong switched to Tak Sau School. Afterwards, he switched to Lok Sin Tong School at Lung Kong Road to study Primary 4 owing to school fee problems again. Before long he had to quit and continue his Primary 4 education at Oi Kwan School, which was operated in the former Ng Clan Ancestral Hall of Nga Tsin Wai Village. Before Oi Kwan moved into the Ancestral Hall, HK Vernacular Normal School Alumni Association School (VNSASS) was located there.

Shortly afterwards CY Kong dropped out and remained idle at home. Then his good friend Ng Siu Kei was studying Primary 5 at VNSASS. A place just happened to pop up there. Ng Siu Kei visited CY Kong and referred him to enrol in the middle of the school term. The two boys went to school together on foot. It took them 35 or 40 minutes to walk from Nga Tsin Wai to Sai Yee Street, Mongkok, saving them a bus fare of 10 cents. In 1960, CY Kong managed to graduate from Primary 6 at VNSASS, but he missed the public exam held for Primary 6 students. He applied for a place at Lok Sin Tong Middle School on his own and he was offered a place in Form 1. Unfortunately he dropped out before he ever finished Form 1. CY Kong sighed that his schooling experience was full of frustrations. He did fairly in Chinese and Arithmetic, yet the discontinued schooling had dragged him behind in English, and he often failed the exams.

After dropping out, CY Kong remained idle at home. He was gratified to have not slid into bad habits. At the age of 14 or 15, he followed his uncle and elder brother to work at an iron and steel works. He had worked at ‘Hong Kong’ and ‘Four Sea’ in Ngau Tau Kok respectively. In those years, due to poor nutrition, he was not strong enough to move heavy things and occasionally got burned by red hot iron bars. The iron and steel works paid him 6 dollars a day. Wages were calculated by the no. of work days and released on the 2nd and 16th each month. He enjoyed 2 days off a month, usually right after he got his wages. CY Kong liked to work the night shift because he would get a night snack subsidy of 2 dollars. To him, the pay day was one of prestige. He would have breakfast with friends in a restaurant and enjoy a morning show at the cinema, where each ticket sold 60 cents. Those were pretty nice entertainment. Having worked at the iron and steel works for 2 or 3 years, CY Kong applied for a policeman post. After passing the Chinese dictation and physical examination, he formally entered the cadet school. The monthly salary of a recruit police constable was 320 dollars, which was far better than the iron and steel works. On 15 February 1965, he joined the Police Force, and went on retirement in 2001."

After dropping out of junior secondary school, CY Kong was referred by his distant uncle to work as boy at a trading company, which would allow him to further his studies at an evening school after work. He was indecisive then, and at last he made up his mind to work at the iron and steel works. Later on CY Kong was influenced by his fellow countryman and was determined to enter himself for an exam for prospective policemen. That fellow countryman, who was one year older than Kong, lived in a squatter at Pei Bin Street in Nga Tsin Wai. When in Form 1, CY Kong was entrusted by that fellow countryman’s mother to look for a school for her son, so he accompanied her son to apply for a place in a school at Boundary Street. As the squatters were cleared, that fellow countryman was resettled in Kwun Tong, and joined the Police Force at the age of 18. CY Kong, upon learning about it, was lifted and convinced that he was good enough for a try. In his opinion, the work at the iron and steel works was rough, and his poor qualifications would hinder him from competing with the many other job hunters and confine him to such occupations as ticketing officer, fireman and driver. A recruit police constable was paid about 300 dollars a month, which was quite good compared with those occupations. His father was in opposition to his becoming a policeman due to the deep-rooted belief that good boys never become cops. His mother never had much expectation on him and simply hoped that he would have a normal job.

CY Kong’s rank was Police Constable when entering the cadet school. He graduated in August 1965, and was posted in a police station report room in the beginning. He planned to study English after his employment, but it fell through in the end due to others’ influence. Today he still regrets about this. In 1971, he became Detective Police Constable (DPC, commonly known as CID). He had been attached to Yau Ma Tei, Kwun Tong as other police stations. In 1976, he was promoted Sergeant. He had been married before the promotion. In 1977, his eldest daughter was born. In the same year, he applied for the police quarters, and moved out of Nga Tsin Wai right after that. The requirements of applying for quarters in those days depended largely on the no. of family members and length of service.

Children in Nga Tsin Wai loved to play on the open ground in front of the village. When CY Kong was a kid, the apron area was not yet there (Editor’s note: the open ground in front of the village was few steps above the groundwork of the inner village). Children skipped with a rubber band on the open ground, both boys and girls. Some played marble shooting games. The Tin Hau Temple and the stone bridge below the gatehouse were the hot spots for clapping picture cards. ‘Tossing coins’ was a gambling game played by teenagers. In the village lived two brothers surnamed Lee who moved in from somewhere else. The older brother was said to be a retired soldier. He hawked snacks such as candy, biscuits and peanuts outside the gatehouse. Villagers called him as ‘Dried Seed Uncle’. Sometime later he opened a store (i.e. today’s Yan Sang Tong Drugstore) with the help from some senior villagers. CY Kong and other kids often bought snacks from him. He had witnessed the kids growing up. When he passed away, CY Kong and other teenagers took part in the funeral procession all the way up the mountain, for which Dried Seed Uncle’s brother was grateful. Apart from Dried Seed Uncle, an old woman sold fried noodles on the open ground in front of the village. A couple surnamed Tai, who sold plain porridge and deep-fried fluffy dough sticks, lived next to Tin Hau Temple.

CY Kong played football on a clay field opposite Nga Tsin Wai Village (San Po Kong) almost every day. In those days there were no industrial buildings in San Po Kong yet, and quite many villagers and nearby neighbours, including teenagers over 10 years and grownups over 30 years, used to play football there. No regular football pitch was established on the clay field. The neighbours erected the goals with wood without any net, and drew the lines by sprinkling powder. The villagers and neighbours had games on the clay field. The atmosphere was friendly and the teams never resorted to violence when playing each other. A few Nga Tsin Wai villagers were really good football players as skilful as Yiu Cheuk Yin, Leung Wai Hung and others. If they were discovered by football detectives, presumably they would be able to stand in Group A. Nga Tsin Wai Village Teens Team (called Nga Ching by villagers) was the only formal football team in the village. The team was equipped with its own jerseys and was of considerable scale.

CY Kong started playing football at an age of about 11 thanks to the PE lessons at Oi Kwan School. Students were arranged to play football on the playground, shooting the ball through two posts that acted as the goal. He had fallen in love with football since then. Teens of 10 years or so lacked recreations in those times. The teens from Nga Tsin Wai and neighbouring areas gathered on the open ground in front of Nga Tsin Wai and in San Po Kong for some football. Tai Shing Street Market used to be where the aeroplanes took U-turns. The gate was guarded by policemen in daytime to ensure smooth landing and taking off. By then there was no evening civil flight. At dawn, the kids pushed open the gate and played football on the cement field at the airport by setting up the goals with two stones. Some seniors in Nga Tsin Wai were fond of football, say Tak Gor, Yau Gor, Ng Shui Chuen, and the son of the owner of Wing Sang Wine Shop. Tak Gor was better educated and quite respected by CY Kong and others as he not only played football but also talked about worldly wisdoms as well as current affairs and news.

When CY Kong played football on the street, he met Ah Hung (transliteration) from the squatters in Kai Tak Village. He was 4 or 5 years older than CY Kong. His family dealt with chicken eggs and duck eggs and was kind of rich. Ah Hung set up an egg stall at Tung Tau Tsuen Road. CY Kong took care of the stall for him when free. Ah Hung played a leading role in the organization of ‘Tong Ching Football Team’, and financed uniform and frizzy drinks. Tong Ching comprised of 7 footballers, of whom only CY Kong and Tak Chai (transliteration) were from Nga Tsin Wai. CY Kong had been with Tong Ching for 2 or 3 years. He normally made reservations of pitches and contacts with the opponents. He booked cement pitches for sevens and scheduled matches over the phone at the Village Office on behalf of his team. In those years, the Red Green Daily had a column reserved for news about football sevens games. Different teams took newspapers as an agent for sending invitations or responses to each other to play games. Tong Ching arranged for 2 or 3 friendly games a week, which were usually played at 2 or 3 pm in the pitch in Kowloon City or Maple Street.

As CY Kong worked in the steel and iron works, he had fewer and fewer chances to play football. Tong Ching was disbanded shortly. The team was not registered and only had a signet. Later some teenagers from Nga Tsin Wai organized ‘Nga Tsin Wai Teens Team’, by which time CY Kong already became a policeman. He hardly returned to the village to play football and he did not join the team. After he became a policeman, his skills and physical fitness deteriorated a lot. What’s worse, he had to devote some energy to his studies at evening school. As such, his passion in football faded, and he just occasionally played his colleagues on behalf of the police station he was attached to.

When CY Kong was small, Tin Hau Festival was already celebrated each year, in a smaller scale. Usually the seniors and women bought roasted pork for worship while the kids watched aside and enjoyed the roasted pork. In those times the women organized a union to which every household contributed 2 or 3 dollars a month. In return, each household would be given roasted pork and eggs during festivals and extra bonuses at the births of children or grandchildren. Since the early 1970s, banquets were occasionally held at Tin Hau Festival in the restaurants in San Po Kong. But there were no lucky draws as it is today. Since 1976, CY Kong has been helping out at Tin Hau Festival with cash keeping and payment settlement.

In the early years Tin Hau Festival and the Jiao Festival were organized by the seniors. The young were responsible for the physical work. The Jiao Festival and Tin Hau Festival were celebrated by everybody in the village, including the indigenous inhabitants and villagers with outsiders’ surnames. CY Kong stressed that no distinction needed to be drawn between the two types of villagers, and the success of the events lay in whether there was a head. He felt being driven by a natural force to work for divinity and manifest his heart. That was an inexplicable affection. When he went back to the village and saw his primary schoolmates and those who had taught him football, their bonding was maintained through chats, teas and travels. It was meaningful to work with childhood buddies, but outsiders would find it hard to understand this, and they always thought that the organizers wanted to take advantage of the villagers. The Kongs were accustomed to worshipping the Day and worshipping the ancestors. But when CY Kong was small, he was not keen to offer incense sticks in Ma Temple. He just enjoyed clapping picture cards there.

The Jiao Festival in 1966 was mainly organized by several seniors. The teenagers did not interfere with them but simply did sundry duties. At that time many teenagers initiated to help out after seeing the seniors’ busy work, but still some villagers just looked on with folded arms. CY Kong offered help in maintaining order in the vegetarian banquet, but he kept his cool and was not very devoted. All he was thinking was that everyone lived in the same village and he prayed for villagers’ well-being and health. CY Kong vaguely remembered that an incense oil offering was required per head at the Jiao Festival that year, for example, every male villager had to offer 5 or 10 dollars. The requirement was passed on among the villagers. CY Kong’s mother did the incense oil offering on behalf of the Kongs. Other family members could also donate as they pleased in their own names, depending on their financial power. A similar way of fundraising was also adopted when the villagers installed public water taps.

The year 2006 celebrated both Tin Hau Festival and the Jiao Festival, by which time both CY Kong and Ng Chi Wing had retired. Ng Chi Wing asked CY Kong over the phone to attend Tin Hau Festival, so CY Kong went back to the village to offer incense sticks and incense oil and enjoy some roasted pork. In September that year, Ng Chi Wing suddenly gave him a call, informing him to attend a meeting at Chi Tak Public School in the village the next day to discuss the 2006 Jiao Festival. With just three months’ time, the preparation was pressed for time. Ng Chi Wing invited CY Kong and Ng Siu Kei to take office of the treasurer for maximum transparency and fairness in the accounts. CY Kong considered himself still clear minded at a time shortly after his retirement, and also took the preparation work more challenging than the sundry duty done before. What’s more, Chi Wing was his friend of a lifetime. In view of these, he agreed to be the treasurer.

That year the villagers did not reserve a public fund for the Jiao Festival. The money could only be raised from the villagers and the neighbourhood. CY Kong found budgeting hard as it was not certain whether such incomes as incense oil offerings would meet the expenses. CY Kong, Ng Chi Wing and his sister’s husband were about to use their own money to make advances for the deficit. Fortunately someone who was determined to make things work sponsored the event and they need not pay for the deficit themselves. CY Kong had once asked himself if it was appropriate for him, a villager with an outsider’s surname, to look after the books. Having worked in the Police Force for many years, CY Kong knew the importance of clear accounts. In order to protect the organizers themselves, he and Ng Siu Kei systemized the accounts management. All the receipts came with a copy for future checking, which gained people’s trust. Since 2007 until now (Editor’s note: 2012), the accounts for Tin Hau  Festival had been handled in the newly established practice.

When moving out of the village, CY Kong remained cool and did not bear too much attachment. At that time he was still young. All that he was thinking was simply to improve his life. And his childhood buddies had parted with one another for a living and could not gather together often. So, his feeling in those times differed from that of today. After moving out, he visited his mother in the village every month, and went to the Village Office to chat with his old friends and play mahjong that did not involve gambling. CY Kong’s younger siblings moved out one by one as they got married. Only his mother and one of his younger sisters remained. In 1986, the property owner sold his house. The sub-landlord demanded that they move out. Afterwards a lawyer and the police came to claim the house. CY Kong’s mother moved out reluctantly, and stayed with his eldest brother in Tuen Mun. In the old days, the lease of the house was always handled by CY Kong’s father. The landlord never issued a rent receipt.

In the period from his mother’s moving out until the 1990s, CY Kong had visited the village less often. Only after his retirement had he got more time for making visits to the village. His mother got accustomed to the village life. Moving out from an old house which she had lived in for several decades at such an old age surely had depressed and weakened her as she found it hard to adapt to the new environment. CY Kong lamented that if her mother did not have to move out, she could have lived longer. In the old days opposite the Kongs’ house, there used to be two fruit stalls (Editor’s note: the traffic lights at the junction of Tung Kwong Road and Tung Lung Road) built with tents and planks. The stall owners lived inside the stalls with their families. One of the stalls was run by a Chiu Chow couple who had a son and a daughter. CY Kong’s mother was well acquainted with the lady owner. Other neighbours whom she knew well included Third Uncle and Big Aunt, who lived next door, and Mrs Tong, who lived at the lane. However, her mother was never fond of, or good at, socializing. The Kongs bore no kinship with Third Uncle or Big Aunt. Third Uncle and Big Aunt were just a form of address. CY Kong’s older sister was acquainted with some teenage girls with outsiders’ surnames. They occasionally visited the Kongs to chat with CY Kong’s older sister or to knit mittens.

Life was rough for the Kongs in the old days. Village women such as CY Kong’s mother used to collect materials from factories for making plastic flowers and knitting mittens to help make ends meet. A dozen mittens would earn them about 30 or 40 cents. In two or three days the factory staff would collect the finished products and deliver them to the family-run factories. CY Kong already helped out at an age of 11 or 12. He was responsible for knitting the the thumb. In those years, social welfares were not good, and the village women relied on their own efforts by doing physically demanding jobs such as dumping stools in tenement blocks at night, dumping hogwash at Chinese restaurants and hammering gravels on quarries. Making plastic flowers and knitting mittens were comparatively better jobs. In the mid-1970s, as the living conditions improved, noxious jobs gradually grew unpopular among Nga Tsin Wai villagers.

Having lived in Nga Tsin Wai for over 20 years, CY Kong said straight out that he missed the old days there. After his moving, whenever he went back to the village, all kinds of thoughts and feelings emerged in him. For reason he could not tell he liked to stand outside his old house and recall his growth in that old house, his departed mother and his childhood. Every time he used to sigh. The flashbacks of the childhood included going to school, tossing coins, clapping picture cards in Ma Temple and others. To him, the most unforgettable place was the open ground outside the Gate House, where Dried Seed Uncle ran his snacks stall and the kids gathered around the stall for chit chatting. When Dried Seed Uncle passed away, CY Kong and other teenagers helped out with his funeral, a manifestation of tremendous human sympathy. CY Kong started tossing coins on the open ground when he studied Form 1. The winner took his opponents’ coins, which was a form of betting. CY Kong was in the opinion that one’s attachment to the village depends on who works for the village. Ng Chi Wing was his childhood playmate, so, due to their friendship, CY Kong loved to help Ng Chi Wing with the village affairs.

To CY Kong, Nga Tsin Wai was 60% his home town. He had never been back to his home Haifeng. When he visited his friends and relatives in the village after his moving out, he was warmly received by Third Uncle, Third Aunt and others. When he was a kid, he was given the other name Yu Kwan. When playing football, everybody called him Yu Lo. When he revisited the village, the seniors cordially called him Yu Lo. In those days, he sometimes went to the Village Office for some chats or mahjong. But now, the noises in the village were long gone, and the surroundings were no longer the same. CY Kong’s siblings moved out of Nga Tsin Wai years ago. They were less devoted to and interested in the village affairs for they had no friends of a life time such as Ng Chi Wing and Ng Siu Kei.