Ng Chiu Pang

Ng Chiu Pang’s grandparents lived in Nga Tsin Wai Village where his family owned farmlands and ancestral houses. The farmlands were resumed by the Government so it could expand facilities at Kai Tak Airport. Ng Chiu Pang’s grandfather was a seafarer whose wife bought houses with any money remitted home. Ng Chiu Pang’s father was the eldest son of his grandfather and had a few older sisters and three younger brothers. His father and his second uncle were the offspring of his grandfather’s first wife whereas his third and fourth uncles were the sons of his grandfather’s tin fong (second wife of a widower) spouse. Ng Chiu Pang had only met two aunts, of whom his second aunt was closest to his family. His second aunt married in order to move to Siu Lek Yuen Village, Shatin, in the early years while the other aunt married in Sandakan and came back to Hong Kong occasionally to visit relatives.

Ng Chiu Pang’s father had a blunt personality but was loved dearly by his elder sisters when he was small. In those days, the villagers of Nga Tsin Wai did not have much regard for education and seldom attended schools outside the village. Ng Chiu Pang’s father was different in that he had a strong urge to learn and graduated from first La Salle College and then a college of teaching training in succession. His father eventually became a teacher and also served as the principal of Shau Kei Wan Government Secondary School and Ellis Kadoorie School. Ng Chiu Pang’s father attached great importance to his children’s schooling and took a close interest in their educational attainments. All of Ng Chiu Pang’s six siblings eventually went on to complete their university education as a result. But his third and fourth uncles received little education, neither did their children.

Ng Chiu Pang’s parents met each other when studying at a college of education. At first, his father lived in Nga Tsin Wai and his mother only moved to live in the village after their marriage. Ng Chiu Pang’s mother was brought up in a big family and her brother had worked as a manager with Hang Seng Bank. Ng Chiu Pang heard the story of his parents’ marriage from his second aunt. Early on, it seemed that Ng Chiu Pang’s maternal grandmother opposed her daughter’s marriage because her husband was only a teacher from a relatively poor family. Ng Chiu Pang’s eventual mother also possessed a humble personality and did not want to talk about the problem of adapting to living in the walled village after marriage. Ng Chiu Pang’s second aunt felt that it would be very difficult for his mother to marry and adjust to life in the walled village.

Ng Chiu Pang thinks that most modern people would view the living environment in a walled village as being pretty terrible. Although villagers tended to be nostalgic and have fond memories of their home village, they moved out as soon as they had made enough money to improve their way of life. Ng Chiu Pang had not lived in Nga Tsin Wai or studied at the village’s old-style private school (the forerunner of Chi Tak Public School) and emigrated to Canada recently. When asked why he had not lived in the walled village, Ng Chiu Pang explains that it is not because he looked down upon Nga Tsin Wai or Chi Tak Public School. It was simply the fact that he knew he would have to leave Nga Tsin Wai if he were to achieve a better life for himself and his family and a better growth environment and more educational opportunities for his kids.

Ng Chiu Pang was born in Hong Kong in 1954 and lived in No. 88 Fuk Lo Tsun Road, Kowloon City. His grandmother used the US dollars her seafarer husband remitted home to buy up village houses in Nga Tsin Wai and farmland outside the village. In 1954, the Government resumed these farm lands in order to expand Kai Tak Airport. After getting the family’s compensation from the Government, Ng Chiu Pang’s father teamed up with Lee Jok Foo, a good friend in Nga Tsin Wai, to build a house at No. 88 Fuk Lo Tsun Road where their two families could share. Fuk Lo Tsun Road was close to Ng Tsin Wai and it is only around a 5-minute walk. Ng Chiu Pang’s family’s life improved a lot after they moved into their new home as they not only had sitting, dining and bed rooms but also a toilet. After Ng Chiu Pang’s father was appointed a Government school principal he enjoyed the status of a senior civil servant and was eligible to purchase a residence via the Civil Servants’ Co-operative Society. The whole family then moved to live in Briar Avenue, Happy Valley where Ng Chiu Pang’s father lived until he passed away.

Ng Chiu Ping’s father attached great importance on education and Ng Chiu Pang still believes himself to have been a very lucky beneficiary of the older man’s beliefs. Having completed his primary schooling at Maryknoll Fathers’ School in Tai Hang Road, Ng Chiu Pang subsequently went on to finish Form 3 at St. Joseph’s College in Garden Road. He then journeyed to New York to join his eldest brother who had emigrated to the US. While there, he attended high school. Being an especially gifted student, he was allowed to jump three grades and go straight to Year 12 (equivalent to the Upper Sixth form in Hong Kong). A year later, he sat for the SAT and passed with flying colours, achieving the highest scores in physics in New York State. Having been offered places by several universities, Ng Chiu Pang finally opted for the University of Kansas. To this day, he believes that it was fated that he went to Kansas where he met several collegemates from Hong Kong. One of this group later went on to become the executive director of Li & Fung Limited. At first, Ng Chiu Pang studied commercial subjects and liberal studies. When he later learnt that Hong Kong would build its underground railway and that the Kowloon Canton Railway (KCRC) was to be electrified, he immediately switched to civil engineering. In 1978, Ng Chiu Pang returned to Hong Kong and worked as an engineer for a construction company which was mainly responsible for the works of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and KCRC. The company’s major projects included the laying of concrete track pillows to raise train speeds. Before long, Ng Chiu Pang was promoted to become a manager and then a director. After returning to Hong Kong, he lived with his father in Happy Valley and only moved out when his income had become more stable and he could afford to buy a home of his own.

Before leaving for the US to further his studies, Ng Chiu Pang regularly went back to Nga Tsin Wai with his father for festivals such as Chinese New Year and Jiao Festival. Nga Tsin Wai Village had already begun to look more modern when Ng Chiu Pang was small and no longer had its surrounding wall and moat. Ng Chiu Pang was most impressed by the vegetarian code of the Jiao Festival and its then three-day and night fast. As a regular meat eating carnivore, Ng Chiu Pang became weak and dizzy on the third day of fasting. Though his family had houses in Ng Tsin Wai, the families of Ng Chiu Pang’s third and fourth uncles had moved into the homes so there was no spare space for his own family to stay. As a result, everyone had to go to Nga Tsin Wai and back to Happy Valley every day during the Jiao Festival.

Returning to the village to pay visits during Chinese New Year was essential and Ng Chiu Pang and his siblings would put on new clothes whenever they returned home with their father. The elder man would first go to Tin Hau Temple to burn incense. Ng Chiu Pang and other kids of his age only knew that this was how grown-ups worshipped the gods since the elders did not tell them the real meaning behind such traditions. Next, his father visited Ng Chiu Pang’s grandmother. (Ng Chiu Pang’s third and fourth uncle’s birth mother). In those days, the old lady lived with her two sons in 3rd Lane. Ng Chiu Pang played and had fun with his third and fourth uncles’ children every time he went back to the village for Chinese New Year. While there, he also met clansmen from other branches of this family who he didn’t know all that well. After that, Ng Chiu Pang’s father joined his uncles and brothers in going to the ancestral hall to participate in the Chinese New Year group gathering. Ng Chiu Pang remembers that group gatherings in those days were always very busy. Many clansmen still lived in Ng Tsin Wai back then. During Chinese New Year, adults set off fire crackers, not for fun but atmosphere.

When Ng Chiu Pang and the other kids returned to the village, they followed their father very closely without having to be told to do so. Once his younger brother, Chiu Ying, did not follow the group and played elsewhere on his own. It was only discovered that the boy had gone missing after everybody had returned home. Today, Ng Chiu Pang laments that kids back then were viewed as having no value. To have another kid meant only an extra mouth to feed and an additional back to clothe. When Ng Chiu Pang and his siblings returned to the village and joined the adults in their activities, they were “expected to be seen but not heard”. When Ng Chiu Pang decided to further his studies overseas, his parents only paid for his air ticket and he had to find his own money to pay his tuition costs. How unlike kids nowadays who rely upon their parents to put money aside for their education! After Ng Chiu Pang started his own family, he lit the traditional lantern to celebrate the birth of his son and later took the boy back to the ancestral hall to burn incense as an offering during subsequent Chinese New Year visits.

Ng Chiu Pang regularly went to visit ancestors’ graves for a few consecutive days during Chung Yeung Festival. He went to worship Ng Ting Fung Tso in Tze Wan Shan on the eighth day and Ng Shing Tat Tso at Nga Tsin Wai’s Ng Clan Ancestral Hall on the ninth day of the lunar month. The 10th and 11th days were taken up by visits to Ng Yat Un Tso in Un Chau Kok and Ng Fung Ko Tso in Ho Chung respectively. Ng Chiu Pang’s grandparents were buried in the hills in Pai Sha Wan which are not far away from Ho Chung. As a result, Ng Chiu Pang sometimes visited both the graves of Ng Fung Ko Tso and his grandparents on the 11th day of the lunar month.

All the Ng clansmen at Nga Tsin Wai gathered in the ancestral hall on the ninth day of the lunar month to worship their ancestors. As there was no need to go to the hills to pay tribute to Ng Shing Tat Tso, worshippers might sometimes borrow a playground at Chi Tak Public School adjacent to the ancestral hall to accommodate large crowds. The biggest ancestral graveyard was in Yun Chau Kok and the scale of worship here was by far the largest with most people attending in the fullest etiquettes. Visitors to Ng Yat Un Tso would be fed by a whole roasted pig that had to be carried uphill. The neighbouring villagers and kids would follow the Ng clansmen and “battle on the hilltop” in the hope of getting a share of the tasty meat! A roasted pig would also be prepared for worshippers at other hilltops, but would be chopped into pieces before being carried up in boxes.

Ng Chiu Pang thinks that the practice of distributing money and roasted pork during grave sweeping festivals was a way to attract clansmen to walk uphill. The pork would be distributed according to family units, with every family present getting a slice of roasted meat. Such generosity was exciting for everyone as the pork was worth more than the money distributed. In those days, only male clansmen would be entitled to receive a share of the distributed money. As a result, when he was small, Ng Chiu Pang tended to return home one or two dollars richer while his mother and sisters went back empty handed.

Ordinary clansmen would get one portion of payment while the master of the worshippers would get a bonus. The amount of these portions would depend on that year’s rental income for the ancestral trust. In the most recent grave sweeping for example, each portion was around HK100 or so. Newborn boys and elderly villagers would get extra shares. “Newborn boys” were male toddlers aged two to three who made it uphill on their own for the first time without having to be held in their parents’ arms. When clansmen brought a pig’s head uphill, it meant that newborn boys were following them to conduct grave sweeping. Each eligible boy’s parents would get three lots of payment on their son’s behalf. The older the qualified person, the bigger the share of the money they would get. For example, one villager called Ng Wing Tong who had just celebrated his 90th birthday got eight lots of money which Ng Chiu Pang accepted on his behalf. The master of worship at the hillside graveyard would ask the assembled worshippers whether there were any newborn boys or qualified elderly people present that he had not been advised of. Generally, the names of all eligible clansmen of Ng Yat Un Tso were included in the book for ancestral worship and grave sweeping.

In recent years, the number of people going uphill to sweep graves has become fewer and fewer and the tradition is nowhere near as popular as in days gone by. These days, clansmen going uphill do not do so for money. Ng Chiu Pang thinks that customs should change constantly. As September is part of the Territory’s typhoon season, village rules state that should there be very windy or rainy storms on grave sweeping day, clansmen can worship at the ancestral hall and send two representatives uphill for salutation only. During one grave sweeping day a couple of years back, Ng Chiu Pang and his siblings gathered for the grave sweeping as usual. Ng Chiu Pang’s sisters said as a joke that female offspring should also be given the right to be given a portion of the money! This not entirely serious suggestion was rejected by the male clansmen who said that females had no say in such matters. Ng Chiu Pang is a bit more modern in his outlook and believes that equality between the sexes is inevitable and people should not stick to old rules without being open to the possibility of changing with the times.

After the birth of Ng Chiu Pang’s son, he lit a lantern at the ancestral hall during the Chinese New Year period when many clansmen returned to home to pay their respects to their ancestors. Ng Chiu Pang thinks that the lantern lighting ceremony was not that special as the details had been arranged by Kam Mui (editor’s note: Kam Mui was a Nga Tsin Wai villager who worked as a maid for the Ng Wai Chi family). As a result, while the baby’s father and grandfather would light the lantern neither the baby nor any elders would be present to see it. Lantern lighting was simply a way of announcing the birth. As most clansmen were busy making their living they were often only able to return to the village at times like Chinese New Year. When they saw a lantern in the ancestral hall, the returning clansmen would know someone had had a baby and ask “who has had a child?”

Ng Chiu Pang’s family had four properties in Nga Tsin Wai. Three of them were connecting ancestral houses in 3rd Lane while the remaining one was a shop in Nan Pin Street. While Ng Chiu Pang’s father was the estate owner of the ancestral houses, he moved away from the village early on because of his improved income. The older man had no desire to leave the houses standing empty and invited Ng Chiu Pang’s third and fourth uncles’ families to move in. Ng Chiu Pang’s father passed away in 1996 and at that time, Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (CKH) sent lawyer Wong Chi Hang to try and buy houses from the villagers of Nga Tsin Wai. CKH had contacted Ng Chiu Pang’s father who was totally disinterested in selling his houses to them. After his father passed away, Ng Chiu Pang was appointed the executor of the older man’s estate and was entitled to sell the ancestral houses at anytime and to anyone he wanted once the estate’s probate formalities had been completed.

In around 1997 or 1998, Ng Chiu Pang emigrated to Canada and CKH made a long distance call to him to explore the possibility of purchase. As Ng Chiu Pang proved as unwilling as his father had before him to sell his family’s ancestral houses, negotiations about a possible sale dragged on for several years. As his third and fourth uncles’ families were still living in the village, Ng Chiu Pang also wanted to avoid the embarrassing unpleasantness of having to resettle them if he ever sold the houses. CKH had already acquired about 70% of estate ownership in the village and according to the laws of Hong Kong could legally propose to generally acquire the remainder. Ng Chiu Pang was curious about CKH’s plans and resolved to return to Hong Kong to learn more about the situation.

Ng Chiu Pang thinks today that CKH was only a property developer with just commercial considerations but no specific intentions for the development of Nga Tsin Wai. CKH’s offer prices for each 0.01 acre house and plot either with or without vacant possession were respectively HK$1,800,000 or HK$2,000,000. The offers were open to both indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants. Ng Chiu Pang asked CKH whether it had considered keeping some old structures, but found it difficult because CKH had already drawn up building plans. CKH also thought that if Tin Hau Temple was kept, worshippers would continue to burn incense, creating smoke and smog that would negatively affect its possible future sale of the properties. Seduced by the generous prices CKH were offering, many villagers were quite happy to sell their houses. The fact that the dwellings were ancestral houses became only a secondary consideration. Indeed, so happy were some prospective sellers that even Ng Kau who was serving as that year’s village headman sold his home. Many other villagers could not sell their houses because of legal issues concerning old title deeds in respect of the houses or because their ancestors had failed to complete the property succession formalities. As a result, Ng Chiu Pang’s starting point was not the same as that of other villagers as he was reluctant to sell his properties because they were ancestral houses and a conservation plan had also been in incubation. Eventually then, CKH’s negotiations with Ng Chiu Pang grounded to a halt.

When the URA proposed to acquire houses in Nga Tsin Wai Village, Ng Chiu Pang was still reluctant to sell. His reluctance faced two obstacles. Firstly, the village houses in Nga Tsin Wai were very old and dilapidated. While Ng Chiu Pang had spent money on repairing his own three ancestral homes, their condition was still very poor. At that time, the families of his third and fourth uncles were still living in the houses and constantly faced the threat of wind, rain and termite. Ng Chiu Pang simply did not have sufficient money to permanently repair the ancestral houses. Indeed, so bad was their condition, it was only a matter of time before they collapsed. Secondly, should the sale of the houses and resettlement go ahead, the families of his third and fourth uncles would have to be resettled quickly. Matters were further complicated by the fact that Ng Chiu Pang’s second uncle owned part of the estate of the ancestral houses and the man’s wife was so old and poor that she wanted to sell the houses as soon as possible so she could use the money raised to improve her quality of life. Ng Chiu Pang was sympathetic to his relatives’ needs and initiated negotiations with the URA.

As the property’s owner, Ng Chiu Pang negotiated with the URA alone instructing lawyers, Johnson, Stokes & Master, to arrange for solicitors specialised in the sale and purchase of walled village houses to represent him. Ng Chiu Pang thought that collective bargaining was not viable because the organisation of the village was too fragmented to consolidate individual owners’ negotiation of prices, conditions and deals in one. Ng Chiu Pang’s first meeting with the URA took place during a Wong Tai Sin District Council Meeting. Ng Chiu Pang felt that the URA’s plan was not as extreme as that of CKH since its plan had many conservation considerations. Discussions went reasonably well with the differences between the two parties slowly eliminated after several meetings. Today, Ng Chiu Pang thanks the URA for doing so much to help keep the three treasures of Nga Tsin Wai and his family’s three ancestral houses for future generations. The URA acknowledged the interests of the indigenous inhabitants and was quite happy to compensate them accordingly. Though the URA had a formula for calculating compensation, it was not a Governmental department. As a result, it was able to deal with things flexibly as it was not bound by established government policy.

Chan Yuen Han had proposed a conservation plan to develop the entire Nga Tsin Wai into a themed conservation attraction similar to the Sung Dynasty Village or Disneyland. Key features there would include dragon’s beard candy stalls and acrobatics displays. Ng Chiu Pang was opposed to the conservation park plan because he felt that Nga Tsin Wai had its historic value. He saw the desire to permanently keep the village as it was to be an unworkable illusion. This was because the walled village had already been shattered by demolitions and there was no long-term planning in place for life after conservation. Ng Chiu Pang points out that his grandfather was not a dragon’s beard candy seller or acrobat and would never have agreed to the setting up such trivialities. Worse still, were the conservation park plan to go ahead, the land would revert to the Government with such compensation payable in the same manner as under any resumption of Government ownership. While the Government acknowledged the interests of the indigenous inhabitants, it had to abide by its established policy. As a result, it had to refer all cases in the New Territories and use an established formula to calculate any compensation. Such amounts would inevitably be far lower than those offered by the URA.

Before the sale and purchase agreement between the URA and Ng Chiu Pang’s family was concluded, his third and fourth uncles’ families had successfully applied for public housing and had been rehoused. Only Ng Chiu Pang’s third uncle’s son was still living in one of the ancestral houses. Ng Chiu Pang discussed the man’s case with the URA and the parties all reached a satisfactory plan involving rehousing and the granting of a resettlement subsidy. When discussing demolition and resettlement matters with the URA, residents could choose between receiving cash compensation or being resettled in public housing, depending on their personal wishes. Ng Chiu Pang claims that he was not greedy in his request because he wanted the URA to keep his family’s ancestral houses and not to destroy Nga Tsin Wai.

Ng Chiu Pang does not think that CKH had “played dirty tricks” to mislead those refusing to sell their houses. He agreed to CKH’s demolition of the acquired village houses because their structures had become dangerous. Their instability might easily have led to their collapsing causing injuries to occupants and passersby at almost any time. Such risks were especially pronounced during wind and rain storms. Secondly, if the village houses were to be left vacant for long periods, they would inevitably wind up being taken over by drug addicts or street sleepers. Such squatters would cause serious social order and safety problems that would negatively impact residents who had yet to move out. In a way then, CKH could even be said to be helping the villagers to demolish their houses! Ng Chiu Pang stresses that everyone had to face the reality that after property developers began planning to acquire the houses, villagers seldom spent money on repairing their homes. As a result, the village houses were all becoming dilapidated with many of the structures collapsing during typhoons and causing living conditions to become worse and worse. Ng Chiu Pang now says that had it not been for the fact that his relatives were living in the ancestral homes, he might well have engaged qualified engineering personnel to demolish the dwellings himself! For safety reasons, he does not advocate the idea of simply letting ancestral houses exist or perish without intervention.

Ng Chiu Pang believes that the methods of succeeding to private and common properties in the walled village differ vastly. In the case of private property, the estate owner could make a will to decide who his or her successor would be. As a result, it was not necessary to abide by the walled village’s custom of “passing to the male and not the female” heir. Privately-owned properties could be passed to the owner’s daughter or even to a niece who had a distant relationship. Because a person owned a property outright, he or she did not have to account to others for their decisions. As a result, elders and fellow villagers had no say in the matter of a property’s disposal.

However, if an estate owner failed to make a will, the issue usually had to be resolved according to the relevant laws of Hong Kong. The judgment of an estate dispute case in a Tai Po village in 2000 involving a daughter who had the right to succeed to her father’s estate is very instructive here. Ng Chiu Pang thinks that his father was so liberal-minded that he would want to allow his daughters a share of his estate. He goes on to point out that some Nga Tsin Wai Villagers were not clear about the difference between private and common properties. As a result, the more poorly informed tried to interfere with the issue of succession regarding private properties by raising objections to arrangements made by individual families. As walled villagers, they believed themselves to be exempt from the laws of Hong Kong. For example, male villagers insisted on the tradition of succession by male offspring. In other words, ancestral properties belonging to uncles should only be passed to sons and nephews.

Ng Chiu Pang’s father and Ng Wing Tong were among the Ng clansmen who had received better education and were able to take up public offices outside the village. They were less active in Nga Tsin Wai life. This was not because they did not want to contribute to village affairs. They held different opinions to those of the walled villagers and some of their beliefs were not conformant to the usual practices of the walled village. As a result, they tended to be excluded, and not told or asked for their opinions about things that had occurred. Ng Chiu Pang had received a western education since childhood and strongly identified himself with modern social values such as democracy, equality and the rule of law. In those days, the Qing Laws governed life in walled villages. Aware that the world kept on evolving, Ng Chiu Pang felt that customs should not be conservative and unchanging. Nor did he believe that people should complacently confine themselves to an unwavering acceptance of Qing Laws. While he respected the traditions and the elders of the walled village very much, Ng Chiu Pang had more admiration for clansmen who were always prepared to reason. Specific examples included Ng Sai Ming, Ng Chi Wing and Ng Wai Ki.

Ng Chiu Pang had proposed possible ways to improve democracy and legal awareness to his fellow villagers but encountered great resistance. As a result, he often grew frustrated when his opinions were not given the respect he felt they deserved. Ng Chiu Pang points out now that many villagers claimed themselves to be “walled villagers” who abided by traditional rules and customs, but ignored democratic awareness. In doing so, they created unequal participation in village affairs in that not everyone was entitled to express their wishes and desires. He thinks that the village “managers” served as a bridge who represented the villagers’ opinions to the Government and informed the villagers of any official new regulatory requirements. The managers also urged everyone to attend meetings and discussions. Some villagers thought that a few managers could decide everything. Thinking that such views did not conform with the practices of modern society, Ng Chiu Pang did his best to raise different opinions with his clansmen.

Ng Chiu Pang’s father had been a manager for Ng Fung Ko Tso and represented the branch in managing the estate of Ng Yat Un Tso and Ng Wai Wing Tso. Subsequently, Ng Yat Un Tso and Ng Wai Wing Tso were incorporated into a limited company after a manager embezzled the Tsos’ money. In line with the structure of the company, these “managers” were officially called “directors”. Ng Chiu Pang now serves as a director who represents Ng Fung Ko Tso and he feels that his appointment to the role effectively meant he was “put on the altar”. This was because he did not clearly know how directors were appointed and did not want to claim himself to be a “manager”. He also feels that the manner in which the limited company was operated was democratic and that the directors were effectively only a rubber stamp. Other clansmen could freely attend the two meetings held every year to express their opinions without needing the directors to do so for them. The directors’ main responsibility was to sign off on the minutes and audited accounts.

After Ng Chiu Pang emigrated, he still frequently returned to Nga Tsin Wai to take part in festival celebrations and participate in the affairs of the ancestral trust. He thinks that his intention was similar to that of other villagers who had moved out but still felt that Nga Tsin Wai Village was their home. His return from Vancouver by air was actually not really that much different to someone who came back to the village from another part of Hong Kong! While Ng Chiu Pang was not born and did not grow up in Nga Tsin Wai, he emphasises he had no other choice. Those born in the village might feel differently, but people always wanted to improve their quality of life – including those who had moved out and no longer wanted to return to live in the village. Ng Chiu Pang thinks that those who left wound up missing their homeland more. As a result, his emigration overseas only served to make him more homesick. On the contrary, those who had stayed in the village tended to want to move out. As he also missed his old house in Happy Valley and even the tough overseas student life he endured while starting out, Ng Chiu Pang feels that this is human nature. He believes his special feelings towards Nga Tsin Wai are all the result of fate.

In the old days, Ng Chiu Pang rarely returned to his home village because young people were always forward-looking and only tended to look back at memories fondly as they aged. He knows that when people leave this world, they cannot take away anything physical. Though he now owns a big house, a car and watches, Ng Chiu Pang knows he will sooner or later have – and be – nothing except a memory. To this end, he agrees with Lau Wong Fat and other people’s belief that the village office, Tin Hau Temple and ancestral hall were all cohesive forces in village life. If all of these buildings were to be demolished, no villager would want to return to the village ever again. Ng Chiu Pang hopes to keep these symbols of the walled village for his children and grandchildren to pass down through the generations so they can understand who their ancestors were. Ng Chiu Pang’s son has not yet reached the stage that he will cherish past times and artifacts. He has so many things to keep him busy that he has not yet had time to appreciate the value of his family’s memories. Ng Chiu Pang’s father had told him old stories of Nga Tsin Wai when they lived in the Happy Valley civil servants’ quarters. Most of these stories were about his grievances because he held views different from his clansmen. Today, Ng Chiu Pang shares the same grievances as his father did before him.