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be for them, despite all the official denials. But it had been filled up with outsiders as soon as it was finished. Just in the past couple of weeks, he told me, there had been whispers of resettlement for a number of families in a temporary housing area some miles away. The part of the harbour that contained the club-houseboat and most of the leaky old living-boats would then be filled in and reclaimed as land for further housing. Those of the Shui-sheung-yan who were still fishing would have a long way to travel to their boats on which they were employed. (The richer fishermen had mostly established already their own private, more convenient shore bases.) 41
Despite the fact that it would mean the virtual end of their club, and despite frequent reports in the press of other boat people dissatisfied with the temporary housing areas, members of the association appeared resigned to moving, to feel it was necessary. Boat people from Aberdeen resettled in Shatin had complained that their family life was breaking down because their menfolk were either unemployed, or spending all their time travelling back to work in the Aberdeen fishmarket. They also complained that the Shatin schools had higher standards than those in Aberdeen (including, presumably, the F.M.O. schools) and that their children were falling behind or dropping out. 42 This can in a way be read as an expression of confidence in the F.M.O. schools. There are, however, no F.M.O. schools in Castle Peak; there are no data on how well children there have adapted to the ordinary schools there. Whatever the problems, at Castle Peak for the poorer boat-people, rehousing was still the priority.
As in the case of the struggle for re-housing at Yaumatei, that at Castle Peak was given continuity by an outside force. With SoCO both ideology and finance are supplied from Western trusts and churches; at Castle Peak it is the concern of the Chinese authorities. The Hong Kong Government for its part, appear to regard the Trojan horse of liberal capitalism as rather more dangerously subversive and left-wing than that of communism.
The Fishermen's Recreation Clubs
The Fishermen's Recreation Clubs of Chai Wan and Stanley were founded by a lighthouse-keeper, now retired, Charles Thirlwall, M.B.E., who has been concerned with helping the Shui-sheung-yan since the 1930s. The clubs are, as they say, recreation clubs. The Chai Wan club room is three rooms knocked together in the basement of a resettlement estate block of flats, its walls covered with photographs of smiling
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be for them, despite all the official denials. But it had been filled up with outsiders as soon as it was finished. Just in the past couple of weeks, he told me, there had been whispers of resettlement for a number of families in a temporary housing area some miles away. The part of the harbour that contained the club-houseboat and most of the leaky old living-boats would then be filled in and reclaimed as land for further housing. Those of the Shui-sheung-yan who were still fishing would have a long way to travel to their boats on which they were employed. (The richer fishermen had mostly established already their own private, more convenient shore bases.) 41
Despite the fact that it would mean the virtual end of their club, and despite frequent reports in the press of other boat people dissatisfied with the temporary housing areas, members of the association appeared resigned to moving, to feel it was necessary. Boat people from Aberdeen resettled in Shatin had complained that their family life was breaking down because their menfolk were either unemployed, or spending all their time travelling back to work in the Aberdeen fishmarket. They also complained that the Shatin schools had higher standards than those in Aberdeen (including, presumably, the F.M.O. schools) and that their children were falling behind or dropping out. 42 This can in a way be read as an expression of confidence in the F.M.O. schools. There are, however, no F.M.O. schools in Castle Peak; there are no data on how well children there have adapted to the ordinary schools there. Whatever the problems, at Castle Peak for the poorer boat-people, rehousing was still the priority.
As in the case of the struggle for re-housing at Yaumatei, that at Castle Peak was given continuity by an otside force. With SoCO both ideology and finance are supplied from Western trusts and churches; at Castle Peak it is the concern of the Chinese authorities. The Hong Kong Government for its part, appear to regard the Trojan horse of liberal capitalism as rather more dangerously subversive and left-wing than that of communism.
The Fishermen's Recreation Clubs
The Fishermen's Recreation Clubs of Chai Wan and Stanley were founded by a lighthouse-keeper, now retired, Charles Thirlwall, M.B.E., who has been concerned with helping the Shui-sheung-yan since the 1930s. The clubs are, as they say, recreation clubs. The Chai Wan club room is three rooms knocked together in the basement of a resettlement estate block of flats, its walls covered with photographs of smiling
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