JAMES HAYES
type based on the Tai Shek Kwu temple, the kaifongs usually deliberated in a temple.
The Yau Ma Ti Kaifong was closely linked with the Tin Hau Temple. This temple was apparently removed from another site in 1876-7743 and it is almost certain that the Kaifong took the lead in its removal and reconstruction. They also took the opportunity to construct a school building to one side of the temple about the same time. These building projects were considerable undertakings and as such were highly creditable to the Kaifong members. Some years later (1888) the Kaifong presented the temple with a large cast iron bell which bears their name. Finally in 1894, the growing wealth of the Yau Ma Ti community enabled the Kaifong to build a separate community office or kung sor (2) on the other side of the temple building. The commemorative tablet recording this event comments:
"Yau Ma Ti district has undergone many changes and it can hardly be said that it still remains as it used to be.
Consequently there was a need for larger premises in which to handle the affairs of a growing population. As the organisers put it:
"Persons who desire that right and wrong can be clearly discerned must help to set up a community office".
The tablet concludes:
The organisers and donors confidently expect to see the new office uphold justice and righteousness".
This temple, school and community office still exist today. They stand on Public Square Street, Kowloon, in substantially the same form as when they were erected in the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the leaders of the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong, to whose enterprise and community spirit they are a fitting memorial.
Fortunately we have a good example who spans the two localities considered in this article, the one a group of villages and the other a township. This man, WONG Lan-sang (£), 1878-1935, came from one of the villages. His father was a small farmer whose ancestors had come previously to Mong Kok village from the Wai Yeung region of Kwang Tung. The son is a good
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JAMES HAYES
type based on the Tai Shek Kwu temple, the kaifongs usually deliberated in a temple.
The Yau Ma Ti Kaifong was closely linked with the Tin Hau Temple. This temple was apparently removed from another site in 1876-7743 and it is almost certain that the Kaifong took the lead in its removal and reconstruction. They also took the opportunity to construct a school building to one side of the temple about the same time. These building projects were con- siderable undertakings and as such were highly creditable to the Kaifong members. Some years later (1888) the Kaifong presented the temple with a large cast iron bell which bears their name. Finally in 1894, the growing wealth of the Yau Ma Ti community enabled the Kaifong to build a separate community office or kung sor (2) on the other side of the temple building. The commemorative tablet recording this event comments:
44
+1
"Yau Ma Ti district has undergone many changes and it can hardly be said that it still remains as it used to be.
Consequently there was a need for larger premises in which to handle the affairs of a growing population. As the organisers put it:
"Persons who desire that right and wrong can be clearly
discerned must help to set up a community office ".
The tablet concludes:
The organisers and donors confidently expect to see the new office uphold justice and righteousness".
This temple, school and community office still exist today. They stand on Public Square Street, Kowloon, in substantially the same form as when they were erected in the last quarter of the nineteenth century by the leaders of the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong, to whose enterprise and community spirit they are a fitting memorial.
For-
What sort of people took the lead in kaifong work? tunately we have a good example who spans the two localities considered in this article, the one a group of villages and the other a township. This man, WONG Lan-sang (£), 1878-1935, came from one of the villages. His father was a small farmer whose ancestors had come previously to Mong Kok village from the Wai Yeung region of Kwang Tung. The son is a good
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