130
ARMANDO DA SILVA
5I saw bits of red paper tagged to certain bushes attributed with medicinal properties at Ma Nam Wat, Saikung peninsula on Chinese New Year, January or February 1963. The man who placed the red paper tags explained to me the significance of the tags. I do not know how widespread this custom is. It could be an isolated incident but I personally don't think so and I believe this custom to be widespread, at least in the past.
It was seeing this act of consecration to plants that aroused my curiosity about useful and medicinal plants around and about coastal villages.
6 The Chinese botanical reference book I used for plant identification is Chik Mar Hok Tai Tsz Tin published in Shanghai, 1918. Unfortunately Chinese plant names in that book are of North Chinese reference only, and are not applicable to South China or the Hongkong area. The modern Chinese reference work on "koon yeuk" medicine I consulted is Chung Wa San Yeuk Mat Hok Tai Tsz Tin published in Tientsin, 1934. Again, plant names and treatments described in that book are not applicable to South China and the Hongkong area.
All of the Cantonese terms and characters were supplied to me by shang choi yeuk collectors at Mui Wo, Lantau. These collectors were seen (in 1963) at Mui Wo ferry pier returning to Hongkong with their loads of shang choi yeuk plants. I am sure that even now (1969), you can also with patience encounter shang choi yeuk collectors at Tai O, Taipo or Shatin. At Cheung Chau, in 1963, there were even a few professional seaweed collectors still left! A common seaweed collected there is a Gelidium called shek fa choi (stone flower vegetable). It is the chief jelly ingredient in the preparation of the Cantonese jelly dessert called "pak leung fun", and it is the demand from restaurants in Hongkong and Kowloon that makes seaweed collection profitable for the handful of seaweed collectors left.