Three Stories from Old Hong Kong

June 17, 2009

It was a surprising revelation by my brother-in-law during the commemoration Mass for my mother-in-law on 26 May 2009. My brother-in-law broke down telling these stories. But these stories revealed a hidden side of Mommy’s life.

All the stories are set in the late 50s in rural Hong Kong, mostly in the Tai Po area where Mommy used to live. They lived in a real house in a village, mostly doing farming.

First, it had been such a tough thing for Mommy to live like that. Mommy came from an original Hong Kong family. She was educated in a good school and educated in good manners, which she kept and passed on to her children later. Things changed when she met my father-in-law, who was virtually illiterate and had fled from the Mainland during the communist takeover in 1949. She fell in love. Her family opposed it. She stubbornly stuck to her love. Her family virtually disowned her. She decided to join her lover. She moved from affluent Hong Kong to tough and backward rural Tai Po in the New Territories. She then lived a tough life, raising kids there.

Story One

During those days, many people went to work in the city. There was no transportation from Tai Po in those days. Often, both parents went to work in the city, leaving behind their children under the care of paid guardians. But often, the guardians neglected these children. Thus, there was a situation with a lot of abandoned children. Mommy noticed this one child, close to the age of her own children (Bosco and Anita). This boy had a sad face, was dirty, and was starving. She took the boy home, gave him a shower and cleaned him up while she was giving a shower to her own children, and fed the boy and took care of him. She just treated this unknown boy as her own child.

Story Two

Those days, there were a lot of illegal immigrants arriving from the Mainland to Hong Kong territories. These people braved long, tough journeys on foot to arrive in Hong Kong. Then there was this unwritten rule that those illegal immigrants who could make it to Hong Kong would be allowed to stay in Hong Kong. But getting to Hong Kong was a tough thing to do. They had to go through hills from Tai Po on tough trails to arrive in the city. One day, Mommy saw a group of people hiding in the village. They were worried that villagers would find out and report them to the police, and if the police found them there, they would be deported. They were then shocked by what Mommy did. She invited all of them to her home, cooked a meal and fed them, and gave them the little money and food she had and sent them on the journey to the city.

Story Three

Dog who scratched the sofa...