Sex: | Male |
Birthyear: | 1946 |
Age at Interview: | 66 |
Education: | Upper Secondary |
Occupation: | Meter Reader, CLP |
Theme: | Community, Social Life |
Ma Sui Wai’s father came to Hong Kong from the Mainland illegally. His mother also came to Hong Kong in 1945. Ma Sui Wai was born in their Sung Wong Toi home in 1946. After he was born, his father tried to look for a new home. He could not afford to rent a flat in Nga Tsin Wai, so he built a wooden hut on Pei Pin Street, which was adjacent to Nga Tsin Wai, with the consent of the Nga Tsin Wai village headman. At the time, on the right of Nga Tsin Wai was Nam Pin Street. Some brick houses were built on Nam Pin Street, but most houses were wooden huts. Ma Sui Wai remembered that a dozen houses were built on Pei Pin Street when he was 8 to 10 years old. His neighbours were mainly Haifeng natives who moved there from Sung Wong Toi along with them. Both his parents were Haifeng natives, they spoke Haifeng dialect. Ma Sui Wai talked with people outside the family in Cantonese, and talked with his mother in the Haifeng dialect. Usually, his mother only spoke Haifeng dialect because she was shy and felt uncomfortable talking in Cantonese. Besides, all her neighbours were Haifeng natives.
Title | A Haifeng immigrants, Ma Sui Wai's family built a house on the village outskirts with the Village Headman’s approval |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Social Life |
Duration | 2m39s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-001 |
Ma Sui Wai's family built their houses in Pei Pin Street. Their 400- to 500-sq-ft home on had a square layout. There were three bedrooms and one living room where friends and relatives would sleep on the floor during their short stay in their home. There was also a kitchen and a pit toilet. A public pit toilet built of wood was also provided by the government on the open space between the houses. The hut was mainly built of wood planks and iron sheets. It was terrible on windy days when the hut swayed. Besides, there was the problem of flooding. Ma Sui Wai remembered that when it was announced on the radio that the typhoon signal would soon reach No. 8 or higher, his father and relatives would dangle several pieces of granite stones from the roof with ropes to prevent the roof from being blown away. One some occasions, however, the roof was partly destroyed inevitably.
Title | Pei Pin Street’s squatters often suffered in the wind and rain |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 2m48s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-002 |
It was common that residents on Pei Pin Street partitioned part of their house into a grocery store and earned money by selling snacks. Some made a living by pasting match boxes or sewing gloves at home. When Ma Sui Wai was a child, he had helped his mother with these tasks. When his wife was a child, she and her sisters earned money by fetching water from the public standpipe outside Nga Tsin Wai for the people who lived a long way from the standpipe and had difficulties in fetching water. They made daily delivery of water to their homes. They earned around $10 every month. In the past, water supply was inconvenient. Occasionally, water was supplied once every 4 days. Sometimes, the bad-tempered Haifeng natives who lived on Pei Pin Street would quarrel with the Nga Tsin Wai villagers over water fetching, but the Pei Pin Street residents had to concede because the standpipe was within the area of Nga Tsin Wai Village. Electricity supply was difficult too. Very few households succeeded to get individual supply of water and electricity. They had no television set too. The radio of the grocery store at the entrance of the village provided precious entertainment to the residents. At night, Ma Sui Wai and other villagers would go to the store and listen to the Midnight Ghost Stories.
Title | Life was hard for Ma Sui Wai during his Pei Pin Street childhood |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 2m46s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-003 |
When Ma Sui Wai was a student, he used to visit Nga Tsin Wai and had entertainment with the villagers. He did the same after he started to work after graduation. The choices of entertainment were few in the 1960s, most people would gather in the village after dinner for a chat. After Kong Chi Yin started to work, he would treat Ma Sui Wai and several friends, who were still students, to a movie in the Ritz Theatre in Mong Kok. A villager who worked as an usher in the Ritz Theatre would get them the cheapest tickets (30 or 40 cents) for the morning session. Ma Sui Wai remembered that there were the Loong Shing Theatre and International Theatre when he was a child. In the past when people lived in poverty, children who wanted to watch a movie’s only chance was to beg a kind-looking middle-aged woman at the theatre entrance to take them inside. Ma Sui Wai made good friends with the Nga Tsin Wai villagers because they were classmates and shared common hobbies, so it was the Nga Tsin Wai villagers but not the children who lived on Pei Pin Street that he always met.
Title | Ma Sui Wai made firm friends among his fellow village youngsters early on in life |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 2m17s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-004 |
Ma Sui Wai's wife was the younger sister of current village headman. The trio were intimate childhood friends who were also schoolmates of Lok Sin Tong Primary School. They went to school together. Ma brought $0.1 or $0.15 with him for breakfast. Since his wife's father, Ng Fat Chai, was the chancellor of Chi Tak Public School, the brother and sister were a bit better-off. They had $0.1 to $0.2 for breakfast. At that time a bowl of bean milk and a strip of deep-fried dought were both sold as $0.05. When they bought bean milks, they added sugar ruthlessly. The hawker lady stopped them to do so desperately to avoid further loss. When Ma recalled this small episode, he still finds it amazing.
Title | Ma Sui Wai found a perfect match with a childhood sweetheart who was the daughter of a Village Representative |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 1m7s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-005 |
After living on Pei Pin Street for years, Ma Sui Wai’s family was resettled to Block 5 of the Tung Tau Resettlement Estate under the government’s demolition policy. (Editor’s note: Block 5 of the Tung Tau Resettlement Estate was completed in 1959.) The family had lived there for about 30 years. Ma Sui Wai’s father originally worked as a luggage porter at the airport. When they moved to Pei Pin Street, he made a living by selling candies and snacks in the living room besides leasing the mahjong sets. Later on, he was given a street shop in the resettlement area for continual operation of the grocery store and two flats at the monthly rent of $10. Ma Sui Wai continued to live with his parents after he was married.
Title | When Pei Pin Street’s squatter houses were demolished, Ma Sui Wai was relocated to a seven-storey building |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 1m56s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-006 |
When Ma Sui Wai was young, he did not participate in the preparation of the activities in celebration of the Jiao Festival. It was not until 2006 that he started to take part in the preparation along with two close childhood friends, namely Kong Chi Yin and Ng Chi Wing the then village headman. They also took part in organizing the annual activities for celebration of the Birthday of Tin Hau. They worked in a transparent manner and each one of them undertook different tasks. For example, Kong Chi Yin kept the accounts, and Ma Sui Wai hosted the activities. They also joined other helpers in all kinds of tasks, including travelling to Shenzhen for purchase of inexpensive souvenirs. When Ma Sui Wai helped prepare for the Jiao Festival in 2006, he still had a job. Therefore, he made use of the lunch time to do some preparatory work, such as buying lanterns. Due to the shortage of funds, Ma Sui Wai and other villagers donated money. They did not do this for fame and gain, but to serve Tin Hau.
Title | Ma Sui Wai endeavoured to participate in village affairs when asked by childhood friends |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 3m6s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-007 |
When non-indigenous people attend village affaris, Ma Sui Wai believed sometimes it is not a thankless job. Their efforts may be responded with derision sometimes. However, they always tell themselves that they work for Tin Hau. As Tin Hau is the goddess who protects Nga Tsin Wai, so they actually work for the Nga Tsin Wai Village. This thought gives them a peace conscience so they can handle things peacefully. With a strong emotional tie with the village, Ma Sui Wai always visits it after removal. He visits the village with his wife every week because his wife’s younger brother still lives in the village. They also visit other villagers for a happy gathering
Title | The mindset of non-indigenous villagers about participating in preparations for Tin Hau Birthday’s celebration |
Date | 09/07/2012 |
Subject | Community |
Duration | 2m25s |
Language | Cantonese |
Material Type | Audio |
Collection | Oral History Archives |
Repository | Hong Kong Memory Project |
Note to Copyright | Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project |
Accession No. | LKF-MSW-HLT-008 |