Wan Cheung

Wan Cheung moved into Nga Tsin Wai from Po Toi Island as a result of intermarriage amongst older generations of his family. Before the war, Wan Cheung lived together with his maternal grandmother and his mother’s youngest sister in Lai Chi Yuen for about two years. As Wan Cheung’s younger siblings were still too young for school, they stayed on in Po Toi Island. After the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941, Wan Cheung returned to Po Toi Island with his mother and her youngest sister. During the Japanese occupation, Wan Cheung’s maternal grandmother’s house at Lai Chi Yuen was demolished and the authorities paid her some compensation. As Wan Cheung’s maternal aunt had married into Nga Tsin Wai at that time and lived in 2nd Lane, his maternal grandmother bought a house in 1st Lane (behind the Village Office) to be near her. After peace was restored, Wan Cheung resided in this house with his maternal uncle and his wife, living in the cockloft for around two or three years. Wan Cheung’s maternal uncle was a sailor before the war and landed in London around the same time as the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941, only returning home when peace was restored.

In the past, Nga Tsin Wai was a water village which was surrounded by a fish pond and had a stone bridge at its entrance. Older people claimed that when they were young the site of a stone bridge used to be occupied by a drawbridge. The Village Office of the past was simply a blockhouse whose area covered just half of its size today. This blockhouse could only be accessed from downstairs via a ladder. Inside it was empty and dark, with just one window for illumination. In those years, there was a blockhouse in each of the four corners of the village. In the pre-war times, there was a “Chui Lok Club” which was located where the present mini-bus station for Tung Tau Estate now stands (Editor’s note: at the junction of Tung Kwong Road and Tung Lung Road). A very large single-storey stone building with a surrounding wall, the Club was a popular hangout with villagers. As women had a fairly lowly status before the war, only men were allowed inside. Before the war, the area beyond the nearby sewer (Editor’s note: Kai Tak Nullah) was a beach, and the location of Hong Kong’s former airport and its neighbouring petrol station was originally a pier, typhoon shelter and police station. Back then, the market was held in Sha Po Village. People of the generation before Wan Cheung’s generally grew grains in fields spread out across Wong Tai Sin and near to Kai Tak Airport. In those days, every household had a pestle for grinding rice grains. Rather than settle for jobs on farms, a lot of men back then emigrated to the UK to make their living abroad references from friends and family members.

Wan Cheung’s best friend in Nga Tsin Wai was called Ng Shui Chuen who was of similar age and had grown up together with him. Ng Shui Chuen lived in 2nd Lane which was very close to Wan Cheung’s home. During the 1940s, Ng Shui Chuen went to study in Tai Po Tsai where his mother’s childhood home was located. He later started work as an apprentice in a dockyard in Admiralty. Ng Shui Chuen became a policeman after the dockyard was closed down. On every 15th day of the 8th lunar month, his eldest brother would undergo “Pok Sheng Ngau Chai” and apparently become possessed by spirits! On those particular nights, this brother would involuntarily shake his body when he heard the sound of the gong. Ng Shui Chuen’s mother simply told her older son to take a cold bath! Such preventative measures were useless, he simply took off his clothes and burned incense on his naked body without feeling any apparent pain. The man was also known for stacking more than 10 chairs and performing a stunt called “Lion climbing on the balcony”. Ng Shui Chuen’s brother had never learned kung fu and was no different from a regular villager on 364 days of the year. But on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, he would become the only person in Nga Tsin Wai who was possessed!

Wan Cheung had always been an enthusiastic participant in village affairs such as the reconstruction of Tin Hau Temple. Other activities in which he took part included various clean-up and drainage operations and the installation of fire hoses and street lights. As a result, he had earned the trust of – and had a very good relationship with – his fellow villagers. Indeed, so high was the regard in which he was held that, although he had a different family name to others in the village, he wound up being elected as Deputy Treasurer for the reconstruction of Tin Hau Temple in 1985. Wan Cheung was also the main force in the reconstruction preparatory matters and the Tin Hau Festival celebration that year. Villagers were very enthusiastic about donating money to rebuild Tin Hau Temple, finally raising about HK$1,000,000. A vegetarian banquet boasting more than 100 tables was held to mark the completion of the reconstruction.

Nga Tsin Wai held a Jiao Festival in 1986 at a time when Wan Cheung was suffering from cystitis. At first, he did not intend to act as the main organiser, but the village elders said if he did not do so, the event would be a flop as it would not be organised properly. Wan Cheung was delighted that Tin Hau Temple had just been rebuilt and he hoped that the Jiao Festival would be held in a suitably grand manner befitting the temple’s refurbishment. He finally served as the event’s Director and Treasurer, taking advantage of special discharges during his hospital stay to attend meetings. Later, there was a serious fire in the home of Wan Cheung’s neighbour. The flames did not spread to Wan Cheung’s own home. Villagers said that this was because he was so enthusiastic about contributing to the celebration of the Birthday of Tin Hau and the Jiao Festival the Goddess of the Sea was looking over him.

When asked to summarise his experience of organising village affairs, Wang Cheung disapproved of inviting Government departments to assist in village affairs. His aim was to ensure the village stayed free of Government control. When Tin Hau Temple was rebuilt (Editor’s note: in 1985), someone proposed joining the Chinese Temples Committee. But Wan Cheung disagreed, pointing out that as non-members, they could not be ordered to submit any audit reports and thus enjoyed a more flexible finance. When the Government installed benches in the Wind and Rain Pavilion, Wan Cheung recommended that the bench feet were not to be made of concrete so as to avoid the area’s falling into the hands of the Urban Council. One year, the ancestral hall’s tile roof was covered by tree branches and villagers were keen to seek help from the Government’s Housing or Lands departments. Wan Cheung sighed that to go down such a route would be unwise as the consequences of the ancestral hall eventually coming under Government control had not been taken into consideration. Some villagers also suggested asking the Government to send workers into the village for cleaning. Wan Cheung pointed out that as the villagers did not pay rates, they were not entitled to make such a request.

In the 1990s the LDC initiated an acquisition of Nga Tsin Wai. Wan Cheung went to Great Eagle Centre to negotiate with the LDC on behalf of the residents and local shop owners. As a retired civil servant who had already been allocated a public housing unit of his own, he himself could not enjoy any rehousing. That said, he was happy to act in the interests of his fellow villagers and merchants and insisted that rehousing should be arranged before demolition. Most owners in the village were in favour of this proposal, but the LDC refused to arrange public housing, only agreeing to provide residents with its own units. Wan Cheung thought that as these dwellings were not government buildings, the residents would have nowhere to go should the LDC ever cease operations. He stressed that public housing resettlement was a primary condition before negotiations could proceed any further. The two sides could not reach a consensus and the discussions were a failure.

Wan Cheung ran a grocery store at the front of the ground floor of his Nga Tsin Wai home after retirement. The house he lived in was subsequently acquired and although he operated a shop on its ground floor, the compensation he received was much the same as that paid to other residents. The property developer only gave him a little extra compensation for the unauthorised structure. Wan Cheung’s children did not want him to work too hard and he took their advice about closing down the shop after he received his compensation. Wan Cheung got along well with his fellow villagers and when the LDC began its acquisition, he was elected to represent the village shopkeepers in negotiations.

Villagers often gathered in Wan Cheung’s shop, sometimes waiting outside to go in long before he had opened in the morning! They even stayed chatting until he closed up at midnight. When Wan Cheung first moved into the public housing estate, the residents there used to always close their doors, so he was not accustomed to the formal ambience after the laid-back friendliness of the village. In the early period after he moved out of Nga Tsin Wai, Wan Cheung often returned to chat and have tea with his friends but did not really participate in village affairs aside from attending the celebrations.

Wan Cheung thought that during their daily interactions, villagers generally did not care about the difference between indigenous inhabitants and those with different family names. That said, whenever there was a conflict of interest, many problems would still arise due to such divisions of identity. When he served as Treasurer of the Jiao Festival Preparatory Committee in 1986, another villager who had moved out of the village many years before said he was shocked to learn Wan Cheung had been made Treasurer. He asked other villagers how a man with a different family name could hold such post. After some villagers explained to him the extent of Wan Cheung’s contribution to village affairs, he let the matter drop. Although Wan Cheung sometimes had to face harsh words, he still worked hard for the village because he had lived there for so long.

Having studied at Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall before the war, the only time he left the village was when he went to Po Toi Island during the Japanese occupation. Although his ancestral grave was in Po Toi Island, Wan Cheung had deep feelings for Nga Tsin Wai as he considered it to be his spiritual home. Today, no one would dare to say that he was not a Nga Tsin Wai native through and through! Members of the younger generation like Kong Chi Yin also respect him very much. Wan Cheung stresses that there were always good guys and bad guys in the village regardless of what their family names happened to be. Whether his relationship with such fellow villagers was good or bad had nothing to do with their family names.

Wan Cheung returned to Po Toi Island during the Japanese occupation. The day after the war ended, Wan Cheung’s mother took him and his brothers and sisters back to Nga Tsin Wai. Tragically, his mother also died soon after at home and her remains were placed in the living room. The day of her funeral happened to be the day of the Jiao ritual and the villagers would not allow Wan Cheung and his siblings to hold a commemorative procession. Wan Cheung’s elder sister therefore sought help from Yau Man Kwong, “Cho Kwun” (or the person-in-charge) of Sit Ying Club (Editor’s Note: It mab be the Sit Ying Sports Association.) With Yau Man Kwong’s help, a funeral for Wan Cheung’s mother’s remains was finally permitted to be held in the wrecked house next to their home. Though there was not much in the way of ceremony at that time, the Government did host a “clean up” operation after the event. Sit Ying Club was located at Lung Kong Road in Kowloon City. Like Ng Wai Chi and Zeng Sheng, Yau Man Kwong was also a member of the Hong Kong guerrillas East River Column. The trio was nicknamed the “Three Musketeers”. Yau Man Kwong’s funeral was a very grand affair, with the funeral procession stretching from Prince Edward Road all the way back to Clear Water Bay Road. Flags at police stations across Hong Kong were also flown at half mast in his honour.

Many indigenous inhabitants led a tough life during the Japanese occupation of 1941 to 1945 and were forced to sell their houses very cheaply in exchange for a few catties of rice in a struggle to survive. By the 1950s, not many indigenous inhabitants were left in Nga Tsin Wai. As a result, most houses were leased out to outsiders, many of them employees at the airport. Moving into Nga Tsin Wai made commuting to nearby work convenient. Some of these non-indigenous residents were mainland refugees. Among them were six or seven Shanghainese families who had lived in the village for many years. Law and order in Nga Tsin Wai was good in those days, with a night watch patrol sounding the hour from every evening until dawn. This night watch system still existed as late as the 1980s! Residents recall one very funny story that happened on an evening when there was no night watchman on duty. Ng Hung On’s uncle had fallen asleep outside the door of his home while his eyes were still wide open. A thief who saw him while burglarising someone’s home was scared out of his mind! Hiding and shivering under Ng Hung On’s uncle’s bed, the thief woke him up and was beaten for his trouble.