As my father passed away at the age of nearly 90, his life is a microcosm of Hong Kong's past century, and to remember him, I would like to share his experiences with you.
Born in Wanchai, Hong Kong in the 1930s, Dad spent most of his happy childhood swimming in streams and catching fish, or walking down the street with his playmates. The Japanese military occupation of Hong Kong began in December 1941 and the fall of Hong Kong lasted for "three years and eight months". Dad recalled the hardships of soaring prices and food shortages in Hong Kong at the time, but what gnawed at him most was the arrogance of the Japanese army, which abused civilians and prisoners of war. He recalled that as a young boy, he witnessed the Japanese army beating civilians many times, because they did not salute them by raising their hands as required by the army, and people were afraid of the Japanese army when they saw them from afar. Whenever he recalled the Japanese soldiers beating or killing civilians at will, he was very agitated and could not hide his hatred for the Japanese army. On one occasion, an officer on horseback passed by his house and got off his horse to play with his puppy, which scared him so much that he could not move his legs.
As the situation in Hong Kong worsened, my grandfather decided to flee to his hometown in Daya Bay, east of Shenzhen, for a while. Dad said that the family walked from Hong Kong to Daya Bay on foot for several days and nights. On the way, they saw a large number of fugitives die on the road and were intercepted several times by bandits, who looted them of all their valuable possessions. Grandpa put the heavy, dirty keys in his father's cotton jacket, but he didn't know that the keys were gold bars with black paint. Fortunately, the thieves were not as smart as my grandfather and did not think to search my father, who was still a child, this was the only way to save what was left of the family's assets.
Selling one’s son may seem unthinkable now, but in those difficult times it was the only way to survive in the midst of war and famine. My uncle, who was a few years younger than my father, was sold during the Japanese occupation in exchange for food to save the family, so you can imagine how serious the food shortage was. It was during this period that my grandmother died of a bacterial infection caused by eating rotten fruit. Later, my father said that my uncle had married a local in the United States and that he had returned from New York to visit him in Hong Kong in the late 1960s, then my father lost contact with my uncle as he became ill and may no longer be alive.
After three years and eight months, the Japanese surrendered on 15 August 1945 and the British government retook Hong Kong, so Dad's family moved back to Hong Kong. To help make ends meet, my father and his uncle went to the quarry to earn a meagre salary. He said that the first time he went out for pay, he used the money he earned to buy a catty of roast pork, which he and his uncle ate as they walked, and this was his happiest time.
In the late 1940s, during The Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, a large number of Shanghai entrepreneurs evacuated their families to Hong Kong and opened many textile yarn factories there. Dad's first regular job was operating machines in a yarn factory, and he said that he was paid over HK$400, compared to $200 for other jobs. There were many people queuing up for interviews and they had to be sponsored and had to pay a month's wages as security. By modern standards, it was difficult to accept that working in a factory required so many additional requirements. At that time, the political situation in China was unstable, and hundreds of thousands of Chinese fled to Hong Kong, and the population of Hong Kong had increased dramatically from 500,000 in 1945 to 2 million in 1950. With so many people competing for one job, it was no easier to find a job in Hong Kong in the 1950s than it is today, and it was even more difficult to secure a job with higher wages than normal. Dad was able to secure a relatively stable job, and despite the hardships of life, he was able to stand on his own feet.
In the 1960s and 1970s, when the Hong Kong economy took off, Dad switched to selling street food from a trolley stall, then from a small stall to supplying meals to factories, and later on to running his own Hong Kong-style cafe. He recalls a time when corruption was rampant in Hong Kong and if one did not know how to offer "favours" (i.e. bribes) to public officials, one could not function and live properly. For example, police officers would regularly come to the shop to "patrol" and collect bribes, fathers had to put banknotes under their milk tea plates, firemen would not come to put out fires without receiving money, and nurses had to be paid cash to give birth in hospitals! Fortunately, the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 1974 fundamentally changed this corrupt culture and bribery was no longer practised in the 1980s.
I was born in the late 70's and my family was under increasing financial pressure. In order to earn more money to support the six of us, my father changed his job to working as a cook on a container ship, working away from home for 9 to 10 months a year and only coming home for one to two months a year. The most impressive thing was the food he brought home: he would bring me airline meals every time he came home, and I had already tasted dessert cakes from different airlines and he brought chocolates from different countries. Apart from the food, Dad also shared his experiences of different countries and people. He taught me that the world is a big place and I aspire to travel to different countries by plane like him. I have long since given up sweets, but my love of dark chocolates is also a bond with my dad, and now it is a nostalgia.
In the late 1990s, Dad reached retirement age and we had been working as adults one after another, but he did not retire and worked as a security guard until he was 70 years old. My father's life began in the midst of Hong Kong's hardships, and he has seen Hong Kong's metamorphosis and take-off through the hardships. He was a hardworking, diligent and frugal man who was our role model and our supporter.
