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My Father
My father was born on 30 October 1878, in Cha In Village, Nam Long, See Dai Doo, Heong Shan District in Kwangtung Province. He was generally known by his 'milk name', Ping Yip #4. His marriage name was Poo Kau and his adult name was Ying Tung. He was the third son and youngest of six children born to grandfather by his first wife. When Grandfather married again, his second wife reportedly favoured her own son, Ping Lim, who was five years younger than Father.
After the family business failed, and Father's two older brothers moved to California, Grandfather went to Hawaii and sent for his wife and Ping Lim, leaving Father in the village. Feelings of deprivation and poverty during this period left a lasting imprint on Father's attitude towards life. He worked hard, conserved what he earned, nurtured a great ambition, and in time, he appreciated and loved his own children. Meanwhile, as a child in the village, his days were devoted to the study of the Classics in the ancestral hall under the strict tutelage of a teacher, Li Chich-hsiang, who had been hired from outside the village to instruct 20 to 30 boys. Father recalled how he was made to kneel on sand or was hit on the head with a piece of wood when he did not learn his lessons well. This kind of discipline did not enhance his self-esteem and he expressed a wish that he be either very brilliant or so stupid that he would not know enough to be concerned by his mediocrity.
In 1892 at the age of 14, Father sailed for Hawaii, in the company of First Paternal Aunt Yim. They landed first in San Francisco where they transferred to a whaling vessel for Honolulu. Father probably attended public school before entering the Christian Boarding School for Oriental Boys, later known as Mills Institute, which was then located at Chaplain Lane, off Nuuanu Avenue, near the original site of Love's Bakery. This school was founded in 1892 and was administered by Rev. Francis W. Damon and his wife Mary, both of whom had come from missionary families and both of whom had command of fluent Cantonese. Father studied hard and became one of Rev. Damon's favourite students. These early years must have been a pleasant period, for later
* See Registration Record. Chinese Consulate, 1911.