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later (1965 or 1966), the two brothers decided to work their boats separately, using the new method. The twenty years between 1950 and 1970 saw a number of other changes in the crews of the Shek family's boats as family members died, married or were born, and hired men came and went. Even the boats themselves were different in 1970, two new ones having been built in 1952 and 1965-66 respectively (the old ones being sold off second-hand each time). Nevertheless, a strong sense of continuity existed in the group, and the family was still undivided in 1970.
The seven brothers Chung exemplified another type (or stage) of family collaboration. Their father, who had moved ashore sometime in the early 'forties, taking his youngest son with him to help run the village shop he had bought, died shortly before the end of the Japanese occupation. Six brothers remained at sea, five of them masters of purse-seiners on which they lived with their wives and children. The sixth left home, took a job on an ocean-going steamer, and kept his two wives and children ashore in a cubicle in a Shaukiwan tenement house. In 1952 he returned to Kau Sai, and although I was told that he had anticipated his share of the family property and that there was therefore no binding obligation upon the other brothers to take him in, he was in fact installed with one wife and a child in the second of the pair of purse-seiners controlled by Chung Fuk Hap, the third eldest brother. Here he acted as "master", but received a hired man's wages and not an owner's half share in the profits. The other four brothers paired up in twos, Chung Fuk Hei with Chung Fuk Woh, Chung Fuk Yih with Chung Fuk Tung. For several years, the 7 brothers continued to operate a fishing business that was based upon general joint ownership of the boats and gear and the shop. The regular proceeds of each pair's fishing operations were normally shared only between the two members of that pair and not among all the brothers, but each knew that he could rely upon the others (and their shopkeeper brother) for assistance with any necessary large-scale expenditure, extra labour, small loans, etc.
Already by 1953, the four elder brothers had married sons with children living and working with them on their junks: by 1960 all were in this situation. But by 1960, too, a number of increasingly