Mink Chan Fung-ming is a 10th-generation indigenous resident of the
Chan clan in Shui Hau Village. Born and raised in Shui Hau, she moved
to the city after finishing secondary school to pursue further studies and
work. A former social worker and a registered horticultural therapist,
she returned to live in Shui Hau Village in 2017. Since then, she has been
documenting the unique aspects of her hometown in various ways,
including photographing its landscapes and transcribing traditional
mountain songs. Passionate about farming and beekeeping, she often
shares the produce she grows with fellow villagers.
After finishing secondary school, I moved to the city to live and work. I’ve been working as a
registered social worker in a rehabilitation home for over 10 — maybe 20 — years. I had always
hoped to retire and move back to Shui Hau Village before I turned 45. I felt I had already spent
so many years helping others but I rarely had time to care for my own family. Dad (Chan Sau)
was often in and out of hospital during his later years. I took care of him and often chatted
with him until he passed away in 2015. At the time, mum (Chi Tai)1 was in relatively good
health, and I had more free time, so I decided to learn something new, which was horticultural
therapy.
In Shui Hau, I have a place that’s perfect for gardening. When I was a child, I helped my parents grow vegetables. Horticultural therapy is actually closely related to social work. By connecting with nature, people can improve their quality of life and their physical and mental well-being. After becoming a registered horticultural therapist, I sometimes lead horticultural therapy groups at social service centres and care homes. Some participants are people recovering from mental health issues and live in halfway houses. They often feel worried and anxious. I give them fresh flowers to touch and smell, and tell them I grew the flowers myself. Then I brew some floral tea for them to taste. This helps build trust between us.
In late 2017, I moved back to Shui Hau. Most of the time, I keep my mum company or work in the fields growing vegetables. This has finally made my retirement dream come true. I’m a midlifer back to her home village!
In Shui Hau, I have a place that’s perfect for gardening. When I was a child, I helped my parents grow vegetables. Horticultural therapy is actually closely related to social work. By connecting with nature, people can improve their quality of life and their physical and mental well-being. After becoming a registered horticultural therapist, I sometimes lead horticultural therapy groups at social service centres and care homes. Some participants are people recovering from mental health issues and live in halfway houses. They often feel worried and anxious. I give them fresh flowers to touch and smell, and tell them I grew the flowers myself. Then I brew some floral tea for them to taste. This helps build trust between us.
In late 2017, I moved back to Shui Hau. Most of the time, I keep my mum company or work in the fields growing vegetables. This has finally made my retirement dream come true. I’m a midlifer back to her home village!
My family has a fruit orchard in Wan Lung, which is about a 10-minute walk east of Shui Hau
Village. All the fruit trees inside the orchard were planted by my father. They’ve been growing
there for 40 to 50 years. After I moved back to Shui Hau, I cleaned up the orchard with a friend.
We pruned the trees, loosened the soil and added compost to improve its quality and make
space for planting. In 2018, we stumbled upon a beehive hidden under a pile of tools covered
with canvas. The bees had even built several honeycombs.2
I believe the bees like this place because there’s an abundant supply of nectar. In summer, they can collect nectar from the lychee trees in the orchard, and from flowering plants like shepherd’s needles and lantana that grow along the roadside and among bushes. In winter, the bees can gather nectar from the ivy trees in the hills behind the village. We had already bought the tools to learn how to raise bees. That chance encounter came at just the right time. We moved the bees into a hive and started our beekeeping journey.
I’ve liked bees ever since I was a kid. I used to go out with my elder brothers and sisters to catch bees with dad. When dad shouted: “Spray the smoke!”, we’d pass him an incense stick. When the bees were about to fly away, he’d shout: “Throw the sand!” and we’d toss some at the swarm. It was great fun! But how exactly to catch the bees? I never tried really. Dad’s way of beekeeping was very natural. He didn’t study the techniques or anything. He made beehives himself by creating a wooden frame and then stretching some wires inside the frame. The bees would build their wax combs, which were hexagonal honeycomb cells for storing honey. He then created a groove on the side of the hive for the bees to come and go. We had several beehives in different parts of our house — one near the front door on the ground floor, and two on both sides of the balcony upstairs. Dad wouldn’t disturb the bees anymore after he caught a queen bee and put her in the hive.
Summer was tough for the bees because heavy rain would wash away the pollen and petals. When there wasn’t enough nectar, the bees would leave the hive. Dad would let them go. When he found a new swarm outside, he’d catch them and put them in one of the hives again.
I have a lot of beekeeping techniques. For example, I use different beehive entrance designs depending on the weather. I also buy wax foundations. On the hexagonal base, the bees can build honeycombs without having to create the wax from scratch. In summer, we feed the bees a syrup made with pollen, honey and sugar. We place the syrup on top of wooden frames. The bees line up in rows to eat it. It’s really cute to watch.
As for catching bees, I’m now very sensitive to the sound they make. A swarm of bees flying in the air produces a buzzing sound. It’s louder than a regular hum and you can hear it from 10 to 20 feet away. The best swarms to catch usually have more than 3,000 to 4,000 bees. When we see a swarm, we splash water or sand at it, and the bees will hide on nearby trees. Once I used my bare hands to part the cluster and find the queen bee. I put her in a small box and hung the box in a bee bag. When I guided some bees in, other bees naturally followed. It was fun! The bees were in “escape” mode. Unless you hurt them, they won’t attack you.
After two years of beekeeping, we started harvesting honey. At that time, it so happened that the Land Education Foundation just launched the project “Mui Wo Farm to Table Agricultural Community”. They invited us to sell honey in a farmer’s market in Mui Wo. So we founded a brand called “Lantaobee”. This name refers to the little bees on Lantau and also implies our dedication. We want to highlight our efforts, so that more people will know about our product and get to taste it. Our first harvest gave us about 30 jars of honey (about 240g per jar), and they sold out in just two days!
I believe the bees like this place because there’s an abundant supply of nectar. In summer, they can collect nectar from the lychee trees in the orchard, and from flowering plants like shepherd’s needles and lantana that grow along the roadside and among bushes. In winter, the bees can gather nectar from the ivy trees in the hills behind the village. We had already bought the tools to learn how to raise bees. That chance encounter came at just the right time. We moved the bees into a hive and started our beekeeping journey.
I’ve liked bees ever since I was a kid. I used to go out with my elder brothers and sisters to catch bees with dad. When dad shouted: “Spray the smoke!”, we’d pass him an incense stick. When the bees were about to fly away, he’d shout: “Throw the sand!” and we’d toss some at the swarm. It was great fun! But how exactly to catch the bees? I never tried really. Dad’s way of beekeeping was very natural. He didn’t study the techniques or anything. He made beehives himself by creating a wooden frame and then stretching some wires inside the frame. The bees would build their wax combs, which were hexagonal honeycomb cells for storing honey. He then created a groove on the side of the hive for the bees to come and go. We had several beehives in different parts of our house — one near the front door on the ground floor, and two on both sides of the balcony upstairs. Dad wouldn’t disturb the bees anymore after he caught a queen bee and put her in the hive.
Summer was tough for the bees because heavy rain would wash away the pollen and petals. When there wasn’t enough nectar, the bees would leave the hive. Dad would let them go. When he found a new swarm outside, he’d catch them and put them in one of the hives again.
I have a lot of beekeeping techniques. For example, I use different beehive entrance designs depending on the weather. I also buy wax foundations. On the hexagonal base, the bees can build honeycombs without having to create the wax from scratch. In summer, we feed the bees a syrup made with pollen, honey and sugar. We place the syrup on top of wooden frames. The bees line up in rows to eat it. It’s really cute to watch.
As for catching bees, I’m now very sensitive to the sound they make. A swarm of bees flying in the air produces a buzzing sound. It’s louder than a regular hum and you can hear it from 10 to 20 feet away. The best swarms to catch usually have more than 3,000 to 4,000 bees. When we see a swarm, we splash water or sand at it, and the bees will hide on nearby trees. Once I used my bare hands to part the cluster and find the queen bee. I put her in a small box and hung the box in a bee bag. When I guided some bees in, other bees naturally followed. It was fun! The bees were in “escape” mode. Unless you hurt them, they won’t attack you.
After two years of beekeeping, we started harvesting honey. At that time, it so happened that the Land Education Foundation just launched the project “Mui Wo Farm to Table Agricultural Community”. They invited us to sell honey in a farmer’s market in Mui Wo. So we founded a brand called “Lantaobee”. This name refers to the little bees on Lantau and also implies our dedication. We want to highlight our efforts, so that more people will know about our product and get to taste it. Our first harvest gave us about 30 jars of honey (about 240g per jar), and they sold out in just two days!
The way my dad kept bees and my mum grew vegetables and rice comes from years of
experience. They might not know the technical stuff. For example, beekeepers tend to harvest
mature honey, which is called “capped honey”.3 But dad didn’t know that. Sometimes he would harvest immature honey, so the honey continued to ferment and gas built up at room
temperature. One time I got a jar of honey that was still fermenting. I thought it had gone bad
and couldn’t be eaten. But later when I went on holiday in Europe, I tried mead4 and realised
fermenting honey is actually drinkable. When I returned to Hong Kong, I mixed soda with
mead. It was amazing!
These days, I use my parents’ traditional farming methods, such as burning plant ash.5 I also learn new techniques online. For example, when seaweed washes up on the beach at Shui Hau Wan in spring, I collect them and soak them to make liquid fertiliser. When the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society launched a recultivation initiative in Shui Hau Village in 2023, I gathered rice husks to make carbonised rice husks. In winter, I use them as fertiliser for growing vegetables. I find that vegetables grown this way taste especially good!
My retirement life is more colourful than I imagined. At the farmers’ market in Mui Wo, I got to know a talented cook from Tai O who uses my agricultural products to make tasty things like Mexican marigold snowflake crisp and candied wampee pastry. Here in Shui Hau, there are mudflats and farmland. I know the community well and can find joy everywhere. I can go to the mudflats and spend two to three hours digging for chi hau (Asiatic hard clams). Sometimes I go with my elder sister. It’s our time to have a nice chat. Other times, I go alone. That’s when I can let off some stress and clear my mind. Clam-digging feels very “zen” and meditative. I’ve come to realise that you can only clear your thoughts when you focus on one thing.
These days, I use my parents’ traditional farming methods, such as burning plant ash.5 I also learn new techniques online. For example, when seaweed washes up on the beach at Shui Hau Wan in spring, I collect them and soak them to make liquid fertiliser. When the Hong Kong Bird Watching Society launched a recultivation initiative in Shui Hau Village in 2023, I gathered rice husks to make carbonised rice husks. In winter, I use them as fertiliser for growing vegetables. I find that vegetables grown this way taste especially good!
My retirement life is more colourful than I imagined. At the farmers’ market in Mui Wo, I got to know a talented cook from Tai O who uses my agricultural products to make tasty things like Mexican marigold snowflake crisp and candied wampee pastry. Here in Shui Hau, there are mudflats and farmland. I know the community well and can find joy everywhere. I can go to the mudflats and spend two to three hours digging for chi hau (Asiatic hard clams). Sometimes I go with my elder sister. It’s our time to have a nice chat. Other times, I go alone. That’s when I can let off some stress and clear my mind. Clam-digging feels very “zen” and meditative. I’ve come to realise that you can only clear your thoughts when you focus on one thing.
In recent years, I’ve felt that the cultural traditions of Shui Hau have been fading. For example,
few people today follow the tradition of making zaap chi during the Pa Tin Gei ceremony on the
19th day of the first lunar month. I never saw preserving Shui Hau’s history as something I had
to do in life. When I recorded my mum singing rhymes, I simply wanted the younger generation
in my family to know that their grandma was great at singing. But when Urban Diary came to
Shui Hau in 2017 to shoot the documentary Rhymes of Shui Hau and hold public screenings, I
realised just how unique and valuable Shui Hau rhymes are. Many people outside the village are
now interested in learning more. More and more, I ask myself: “If I don’t do it, who will?”
After the School of Architecture at CUHK restored our grain store, I helped organise several workshops to promote farming culture and traditional crafts. We hoped to encourage more people to learn about Shui Hau’s history and heritage. When I make zaap chi during the Pa Tin Gei ceremony, or cha guo during Ching Ming Festival, I always make a few extra portions to share with the elderly in the village. Will there be anyone in Shui Hau Village to continue these traditions in the future? That’s beyond my control. But at least I’m making an effort while I still can.
After the School of Architecture at CUHK restored our grain store, I helped organise several workshops to promote farming culture and traditional crafts. We hoped to encourage more people to learn about Shui Hau’s history and heritage. When I make zaap chi during the Pa Tin Gei ceremony, or cha guo during Ching Ming Festival, I always make a few extra portions to share with the elderly in the village. Will there be anyone in Shui Hau Village to continue these traditions in the future? That’s beyond my control. But at least I’m making an effort while I still can.