198
NOTES AND QUERIES
ROPE-MAKING AND DYEING/
CALENDERING ON AP LEI CHAU, HONG KONG
Editor's note. The following Note describes a visit to Ap Lei Chau in March, 1971 with several members of the Ap Lei Chau Kaifong, namely Messrs. Tam Wah, Tam Keng-fat and Yue Yiu-wah.
We first visited the shop, Kwong Po Wah (**), at 141 Main Street where Mr. Yue's father, Yue Kou, aged 73 and born on Ap Lei Chau, was waiting for us. Pre-war, Mr. Yue had operated a dyeing manufactory whilst his elder brother, Yue Yip, had operated a rope manufactory.
Mr. Yue explained to us how the glazing or calendering part of the dyeing was carried out. The only visible sign of this activity was a large cut-granite slab. (See Fig. 1).* This had been the top part of the equipment. It had been obtained from Kowloon City, where there were many dyers and had been brought by boat and then carried by four coolies to his shop. The lower part, now destroyed, consisted of a wooden block of lai chee wood and a wooden roller of the same wood. (See Fig 1). The cloth, measuring two or three (up to 30 feet) in length and 2.4 ft in breadth was wound round the roller. A man stood with a foot on each end of the granite block and, holding on to a specially made wooden frame with his hands, moved it over the roller.
Mr. Yue had not learned this trade from his father but from a partner whom he had financed. They did not buy cloth to sell retail but operated whenever persons brought white cloth to them for dyeing. At that time it was customary to dye dark blue or black. This was a part-time activity, and Mr. Yue supplemented it by rearing pigs and chickens and cultivating fruit trees.
His elder brother, Yue Yip, had been a rope-maker at a long level platform behind and above the shop, Kwong Po Wah. This space, known as Ta Lam Lo (T), is now occupied by squatter huts. The area was long and wide enough to provide a working space 300 feet by 15 feet. One-sixth of it had a thatch made of palm leaves (). This was to provide cover for storage of materials and completed goods.
Rope-making was of two kinds: using mit lam (*) for the trawling ropes of trawlers and wong ma lam (*) in com-
* On p. 197.
† Ap Lei Chau with Aberdeen has always been a home base for a fishing fleet.
198
NOTES AND QUERIES
ROPE-MAKING AND DYEING/
CALENDERING ON AP LEI CHAU, HONG KONG
Editor's note. The following Note describes a visit to Ap Lei Chau in March, 1971 with several members of the Ap Lei Chau Kaifong, namely Messrs. Tam Wah, Tam Keng-fat and Yue Yiu-wah.
We first visited the shop, Kwong Po Wah (**), at 141 Main Street where Mr. Yue's father, Yue Kou, aged 73 and born on Ap Lei Chau, was waiting for us. Pre-war, Mr. Yue had operated a dyeing manufactory whilst his elder brother, Yue Yip, had operated a rope manufactory.
Mr. Yue explained to us how the glazing or calendering part of the dyeing was carried out. The only visible sign of this activity was a large cut-granite slab. (See Fig. 1).* This had been the top part of the equipment. It had been obtained from Kowloon City, where there were many dyers and had been brought by boat and then carried by four coolies to his shop. The lower part, now destroyed, consisted of a wooden block of lai chee wood and a wooden roller of the same wood. (See Fig 1). The cloth, measuring two or three (up to 30 feet) in length and 2.4 R in breadth was wound round the roller. A man stood with a foot on each end of the granite block and, holding on to a specially made wooden frame with his hands, moved it over the roller.
Mr. Yue had not learned this trade from his father but from a partner whom he had financed. They did not buy cloth to sell retail but operated whenever persons brought white cloth to them for dyeing. At that time it was customary to dye dark blue or black. This was a part-time activity, and Mr. Yue supplemented it by rearing pigs and chickens and cultivating fruit trees.
His elder brother, Yue Yip, had been a rope-maker at a long level platform behind and above the shop, Kwong Po Wah. This space, known as Ta Lam Lo (T), is now occupied by squatter huts. The area was long and wide enough to provide a working space 300 feet by 15 feet. One-sixth of it had a thatch made of palm leaves (). This was to provide cover for storage of materials and completed goods.
Rope-making was of two kinds: using mit lam (*) for the trawling ropes of trawlers and wong ma lam (*) in com-
* On p. 197.
† Ap Lei Chau with Aberdeen has always been a home base for a fishing fleet.
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