Retired primary school teacher Chan Yuk-lin is a ninth-generation
indigenous resident of the Chan clan in Shui Hau Village, and the eldest
sister of the village head, Chan Yuk-kei, also known as Kei Gor. Growing
up in Shui Hau, she helped her family with farming from a young age. In
her free time, she played with her siblings and relatives using whatever
materials were at hand. Life in the village was carefree. After completing
primary school, Chan moved to Tsuen Wan with a relative to continue
her studies and work. Although she has been away from Shui Hau for
many years, she remains grateful to her family for their care, and she has
likewise devoted herself to looking after them.
I was born at home in 1956, not in a hospital. I was delivered by my great-aunt. I’m the eldest
daughter, with two younger brothers and three younger sisters. My youngest brother is now
the village head of Shui Hau.1
Life back then was pretty carefree. When I didn’t have school or didn’t have to work on the farm, I would play in the village with my younger siblings and relatives. Near the Village Store,2 there is a stream. It used to be very clean with fish and prawns. My younger brothers and sisters would go down and swim in it. I didn’t know how to swim, so I didn’t go. We often went to the beach to dig for clams and dry the clam meat in the sun. It was fun! We also played cooking games on the fields — we’d build a stone stove, gather twigs to start a fire, and use old pots or tin cans to cook mud and pretend it was real food.
I remember a younger cousin of mine who liked wrapping a towel around her head and pretending to be a fa dan in the Cantonese opera. She would stand on the bed singing The Flower Princess. It was hilarious! In those days, we didn’t have a TV, so we listened to Cantonese opera on the radio together with granddad and grandma. Sometimes there were opera performances for appeasing gods in Tai Long Wan, Tai O and Cheung Chau, and we’d go watch them. We even saw Yam Pak.3
Apart from rice, our family also grew spring onions, pineapples, tomatoes, lotus roots, water caltrops, Chinese arrow-heads and water chestnuts. Granddad knew what to plant where. The fields near the road were drier, so they were for rice; the ones close to the water sources were wetter, so they were good for growing lotus roots, Chinese arrow-heads and water chestnuts. Pineapples were planted on the hillside. When we sat by the edge of the fields, we could smell ripe tomatoes, and near the lotus root fields, there was the scent of lotus flowers.
I grew up farming with my grandparents and parents. One Chinese New Year, we were all dressed up when we suddenly heard that the price of spring onion had gone up. So the whole family changed clothes and rushed to the fields to harvest spring onions. I also know how to grow rice. I would help plow and turn the soil. The ox in the front would pull the plow and I held it from behind, letting the ox loosen the soil row by row. By then, the soil was still dry, so we had to irrigate it. When the soil softened, we raked it to loosen it further. I’d grip the top of the rake and the ox would pull it along. When the soil was loosened up, it was ready for transplanting. The rice seedlings were first grown in a nursery plot. I’d use a seedling shovel to dig them out with the roots and clumps of soil attached. Then I’d separate them into small bunches before transplanting them back into the field.
I am really scared of leeches. Their bites are painful! But any field with water has leeches — lotus ponds, rice paddies… there’s no way to avoid them. So I kept telling myself I had to study hard to get out of farm work.
I went to Shui Hau School.4The school supervisor Fung Yau-shing was my great-uncle. There were three teachers: Sung Chu-king5 taught English, Mr Poon taught Chinese, and the principal Mr Wong taught maths. Mr. Wong lived right next door to us. After school, I could just pop over to ask him questions. Free tutoring! My grades were pretty good. I was never at the bottom of the class. Later, I went to Tsuen Wan for secondary school. I was lucky enough to go to Lam Woo (SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School). But some villagers told my parents there was no need to let a daughter study so much. Thankfully my parents didn’t listen to them but were very supportive. Dad set aside $5,000 in his HSBC account. He said that would definitely be enough for my education. That gave me a peace of mind. This was back in the 1970s, when factory workers could hardly earn $5,000 in a whole year.
Life back then was pretty carefree. When I didn’t have school or didn’t have to work on the farm, I would play in the village with my younger siblings and relatives. Near the Village Store,2 there is a stream. It used to be very clean with fish and prawns. My younger brothers and sisters would go down and swim in it. I didn’t know how to swim, so I didn’t go. We often went to the beach to dig for clams and dry the clam meat in the sun. It was fun! We also played cooking games on the fields — we’d build a stone stove, gather twigs to start a fire, and use old pots or tin cans to cook mud and pretend it was real food.
I remember a younger cousin of mine who liked wrapping a towel around her head and pretending to be a fa dan in the Cantonese opera. She would stand on the bed singing The Flower Princess. It was hilarious! In those days, we didn’t have a TV, so we listened to Cantonese opera on the radio together with granddad and grandma. Sometimes there were opera performances for appeasing gods in Tai Long Wan, Tai O and Cheung Chau, and we’d go watch them. We even saw Yam Pak.3
Apart from rice, our family also grew spring onions, pineapples, tomatoes, lotus roots, water caltrops, Chinese arrow-heads and water chestnuts. Granddad knew what to plant where. The fields near the road were drier, so they were for rice; the ones close to the water sources were wetter, so they were good for growing lotus roots, Chinese arrow-heads and water chestnuts. Pineapples were planted on the hillside. When we sat by the edge of the fields, we could smell ripe tomatoes, and near the lotus root fields, there was the scent of lotus flowers.
I grew up farming with my grandparents and parents. One Chinese New Year, we were all dressed up when we suddenly heard that the price of spring onion had gone up. So the whole family changed clothes and rushed to the fields to harvest spring onions. I also know how to grow rice. I would help plow and turn the soil. The ox in the front would pull the plow and I held it from behind, letting the ox loosen the soil row by row. By then, the soil was still dry, so we had to irrigate it. When the soil softened, we raked it to loosen it further. I’d grip the top of the rake and the ox would pull it along. When the soil was loosened up, it was ready for transplanting. The rice seedlings were first grown in a nursery plot. I’d use a seedling shovel to dig them out with the roots and clumps of soil attached. Then I’d separate them into small bunches before transplanting them back into the field.
I am really scared of leeches. Their bites are painful! But any field with water has leeches — lotus ponds, rice paddies… there’s no way to avoid them. So I kept telling myself I had to study hard to get out of farm work.
I went to Shui Hau School.4The school supervisor Fung Yau-shing was my great-uncle. There were three teachers: Sung Chu-king5 taught English, Mr Poon taught Chinese, and the principal Mr Wong taught maths. Mr. Wong lived right next door to us. After school, I could just pop over to ask him questions. Free tutoring! My grades were pretty good. I was never at the bottom of the class. Later, I went to Tsuen Wan for secondary school. I was lucky enough to go to Lam Woo (SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School). But some villagers told my parents there was no need to let a daughter study so much. Thankfully my parents didn’t listen to them but were very supportive. Dad set aside $5,000 in his HSBC account. He said that would definitely be enough for my education. That gave me a peace of mind. This was back in the 1970s, when factory workers could hardly earn $5,000 in a whole year.
As the government started building a reservoir in Shek Pik, my great-uncle and great-aunt,
together with my uncle and aunt, moved to Shek Pik New Village in Tsuen Wan. They always
took good care of me, and since my secondary school was
in Tsuen Wan, I moved to live with them. During the long
holidays, I’d go back to Shui Hau. First I had to take a ferry
from Tsuen Wan via Tsing Yi to Central, then another ferry
via Peng Chau to Mui Wo, and finally a Lantau bus to Shui
Hau. The whole trip took more than two hours. It was such
a long journey. Sometimes I’d get hungry and buy a bowl
of noodles on the ferry. Back then, my family was still
farming, so I’d help out. Every time the summer vacation
ended, I cried because I didn’t want to leave my family.
After finishing secondary school, I became a teacher. My younger siblings also began studying or working. We rented a room from relatives. We were still in Tsuen Wan and lived on Ho Pui Street, Yeung Uk Road, and Ham Tin Street at different times. I first taught at All Saints’ Primary School, a rooftop school in Tai Wo Hau. After teaching for two years, I was eligible to apply for the In-service Course of Training for Teachers (ICTT). I then switched to Assembly of God Hong Kong & Macau District Kowloon Bay School. I taught and studied at the same time and graduated two years later. In 1980, I got a teaching post at Tai O Public School through a referral, so I moved back to Shui Hau to live with my family.
During that time, my family happened to be building a new house. Dad worked in construction, so he led his children and relatives to build it together. If I didn’t need to go to the city for my teaching courses, I’d head to the construction site to help push wheelbarrows and bend bars. One of my uncles joked that I had “chalk in hand by day, steel bars by night”!
In 1982, I got a teaching job at N.T. Assemblies of God Church Wai Kwan Primary School, so I moved back to Tsuen Wan. Two years later, I bought an apartment in Luk Yeung Sun Chuen and have lived there since. My home has always been lively. My two younger sisters lived with me until they got married and moved out. The eldest of my younger brothers and his wife had also lived here. After one of my sister-in-laws gave birth to a daughter, she did her postpartum confinement at my place! Later, I got married myself and had my son.
After finishing secondary school, I became a teacher. My younger siblings also began studying or working. We rented a room from relatives. We were still in Tsuen Wan and lived on Ho Pui Street, Yeung Uk Road, and Ham Tin Street at different times. I first taught at All Saints’ Primary School, a rooftop school in Tai Wo Hau. After teaching for two years, I was eligible to apply for the In-service Course of Training for Teachers (ICTT). I then switched to Assembly of God Hong Kong & Macau District Kowloon Bay School. I taught and studied at the same time and graduated two years later. In 1980, I got a teaching post at Tai O Public School through a referral, so I moved back to Shui Hau to live with my family.
During that time, my family happened to be building a new house. Dad worked in construction, so he led his children and relatives to build it together. If I didn’t need to go to the city for my teaching courses, I’d head to the construction site to help push wheelbarrows and bend bars. One of my uncles joked that I had “chalk in hand by day, steel bars by night”!
In 1982, I got a teaching job at N.T. Assemblies of God Church Wai Kwan Primary School, so I moved back to Tsuen Wan. Two years later, I bought an apartment in Luk Yeung Sun Chuen and have lived there since. My home has always been lively. My two younger sisters lived with me until they got married and moved out. The eldest of my younger brothers and his wife had also lived here. After one of my sister-in-laws gave birth to a daughter, she did her postpartum confinement at my place! Later, I got married myself and had my son.
After my father-in-law and my father passed away, I brought my mother-in-law and my mother
to live with me. They hit it off immediately and often had dim sum and went shopping
together, like a pair of twins. Our neighbours even thought they were sisters. At that time, my
son was in kindergarten. Sometimes the helper took him to the dim sum restaurant to see
his two grannies after school. If I got off work early, I’d also join them for dim sum. I’m really
grateful to my grandparents, my parents, and my grand-aunt, grand-uncle, uncle and aunt.
They raised me, took care of me, supported my education and gave me a place to stay. They are
like angels in my life, giving me so much warmth and shaping me into the person I am today.