NOTES AND QUERIES
LOCAL REACTIONS TO THE DISTURBANCE OF
'FUNG SHUI ON TSINGYI ISLAND, HONG KONG, MARCH 1978 — DECEMBER 1980*
155
The Chung Mei and Lo Uk villagers moved to their new houses in April/May 1979. Preparations were then made for a start to the engineering works and excavations in the sensitive hill area.
We then discovered that the opposition to interference with this area came also from the four old villages located round the lagoon. These face directly (in some cases indirectly) on to the fung shui hill. They had requested and been granted payments for periodic tun fu (**) ceremonies at the same time as the villages of Chung Mei and Lo Uk. Also, in connection with their temporary removal to public housing pending completion of their new resite villages in three to four years' time, a temporary resiting for ancestral halls for all these villages had been agreed and was being effected. Notwithstanding these considerations, village objections continued to be received.
It was becoming clear that though work might start on excavations, it was likely to cause incidents and to lead to interference with the contractors and further delay: in turn incurring claims from the companies engaged in the work. We were virtually back in the same situation that had led to the 1974 decision to resite Chung Mei and Lo Uk. Thus, when it was learned that the new public housing blocks into which the villagers were to be temporarily cleared would not be available for another year owing to heavy commitments to house large numbers of people from ongoing clearances for major public works in other parts of the Town and District, we decided to face facts. It was agreed to leave the Four Villages on their old sites until mid-1980 when new public housing blocks would be available, and not to start excavations till then.
Fortunately this decision was also made necessary on other grounds. Owing to financial stringency, tightened controls and the need to continue financing for engineering and building works already in progress, it was not possible to commence the Tsing Yi contracts scheduled for 1979-80. However, all the necessary arrangements were made, including the detailed planning for the villagers'
*This is a sequel to the note at pp. 213-216 of the 1979 issue of the Journal. It details the difficulties faced by the District Office Tsuen Wan in arranging for development works to proceed smoothly.