80
CHAN WING HOI
were a fishing family who moved in from Naam Tau. The Chan family started the village.
The jung-lei (chairman)* Mr. Wong Man Gwong, a 59-year-old former seaman, provided more information on local history. It was his great-great-grandfather who first came here. The original population consisted of about 60 fishing households. The Hoklo and Chiu Chau newcomers were already there when he was small. The present site of the golf club was occupied by paddy fields. One village, known as Seung Wai, was relocated to present Shek O to make way for the golf club. Mr. Wong pointed out the place when we passed it in a procession in the festival, which was just outside the golf club enclosure. Traces of walls could still be seen, and Mr. Wong remembered going back there to worship the Daai Wong Ye Earth God when he was small. At the time the golf club was built the foreigners were powerful and met with little resistance when they took away the land from the villages.
A 39-year-old Mr. Lam, an indigenous villager, told me about the occupations of the original Shek O people. At the beginning, the inhabitants made their living in vegetable gardening and fishing. In more recent times the men worked as seamen. Very few people travelled to the West to work in restaurants, and such emigration started only in the last ten years or so. Most people of his own generation worked in the city. Many of the retired seamen came back and worked as waiters at the Shek O Country Club. He was a seaman himself, a radio officer.
A 56-year-old Mr. Lau, the owner of the restaurant where I had a vegetarian dinner, provided additional information about the changes that had taken place in local life. The indigenous people fished with stake-nets (jang-paang). He believed that the golf club was built in the 1930s. It was already there when he was born. But some of the facilities, at least the swimming pool, were still being built when he was small. He remembered that at the age of 7, he was scolded when he jumped on a pile of sand that was prepared for the construction of the swimming pool. Most of the Chinese newcomers at Shek O arrived after the Japanese Occupation. They were Hoklo fishermen who came in their boats. It took only one night to reach Shek O from Hoi Luk Fung when the wind was in...
80
CHAN WING HOI
were a fishing family who moved in from Naam Tau. The Chan family started the village.
The jung-lei (chairman)* Mr. Wong Man Gwong, a 59-year-old former seaman, provided more information on local history. It was his great-great-grandfather who first came here. The original population consisted of about 60 fishing households. The Hoklo and Chiu Chau new-comers were already there when he was small. The present site of the golf club was occupied by paddy fields. One village, known as Seung Wai, was relocated to present Shek O to make way for the golf club. Mr. Wong pointed out the place when we passed it in a procession in the festival, which was just outside the golf club enclosure. Traces of walls could still be seen, and Mr. Wong remembered going back there to worship the Daai Wong Ye Earth God when he was small. At the time the golf club was built the foreigners were powerful and met with little resis- tance when they took away the land from the villages.
A 39-year-old Mr. Lam, an indigenous villager, told me about the occupations of the original Shek O people. At the beginning, the inhabitants made their living in vegetable gardening and fish- ing. In more recent times the men worked as seamen. Very few people travelled to the West to work in restaurants, and such emigration started only in the last ten years or so. Most people of his own generation worked in the city. Many of the retired seamen came back and worked as waiters at the Shek O Country Club. He was a seaman himself, a radio officer.
A 56-year-old Mr. Lau, the owner of the restaurant where I had a vegetarian dinner, provided additional information about the changes that had taken place in local life. The indigenous people fished with stake-nets (jang-paang). He believed that the golf club was built in the 1930s. It was already there when he was born. But some of the facilities, at least the swimming pool, were still being built when he was small. He remembered that at the age of 7, he was scolded when he jumped on a pile of sand that was prepared for the construction of the swimming pool. Most of the Chinese newcomers at Shek O arrived after the Japanese Occupation. They were Hoklo fishermen who came in their boats. It took only one night to reach Shek O from Hoi Luk Fung when the wind was in
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