Wan Cheung

Biography

Wan Cheung was born in Po Toi Island in 1931. His grandfather and father were indigenous islanders who made their living by collecting seaweed from the sea. His grandmother and mother were both villagers who lived near Kowloon City. Because of his maternal relatives, Wan Cheung began living in Nga Tsin Wai village in 1945. Before the war, he had studied at the village’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall, but had to stop his schooling after the fall of Hong Kong in 1941. After the war’s end in 1945, he took a maintenance job at the air force airport and then transferred to the Transport Department as a vehicle tester in the early 1970s. Shortly before he retired in the mid-1980s, Wan Cheung became a director of Nga Tsin Wai Village Committee, taking an active role in village affairs. His achievements during this time included organising the 1985 Tin Hau Temple restoration and the 1986 Jiao Festival. In the 1990s, Wan Cheung negotiated with the Land Development Corporation (“LDC”) regarding Nga Tsin Wai’s acquisition as representative of shop owners and residents. In the early 2000s he moved out of the walled village and relocated to a public housing unit because his owner had taken back the property which he had formerly rented. Having lived in Nga Tsin Wai for most of his life, he had a deep affection for the village, regarding it as his spiritual home.