NOTES AND QUERIES
191
The caretaker, Mr. Liu Wai-tong deserves special mention. Born in the caretaker's quarter, he is the third generation of his family to fill this post, as he says his father and grandfather before him held it also.
Old Tai Hang
Not much to look at, but the object is to see the old houses. Tai Hang was one of the old villages of Hong Kong Island. There are about 15-20 houses of the former village still standing, mostly in one row with a few others scattered among new buildings, and all built more or less to the same pattern.* They are situated in New Village Street (*†††) although an old resident tells me that this is a misnomer because they represent the old village known as Tai Hang Lo Wai (★★) which has always stood on this spot. The population of Tai Hang at the 1911 Census was already 1,574 persons. Formerly situated not far from the shore, reclamation began there in the 1880s by which time the area was already known as Causeway Bay - and ended with the development of reclaimed land for Victoria Park in the early post-war period.
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The village was a multi-clan one settled by the Hakka families of Wong (*), Cheung (3), Lee (†), Chu (*) and Ip (#). The first three are said to be the oldest families. A Wong now aged 45 is in the fourth generation which means that these families probably arrived in the area about the time that the British took over Hong Kong in 1841. Old residents say that besides some farming and fishing, the inhabitants kept some of the first dairy farms on the Island, long before the Dairy Farm started in 1886, and also engaged in laundry work. The name of the main street of present day Tai Hang, Wun Sha Street (r), which means 'washing cloth', refers to this early line of business.
One of the most interesting aspects of Tai Hang is its fantastic sports record. For unknown reasons, the old Tai Hang families produced a great many star soccer players before the war. I have been told that on five occasions at the pre-war Far East games the China Football Team were the winners, and that 90% of the team came from Tai Hang: again, that nine out of the
*See plates 23-24,