ABSS-AB-HK-1997, 1998 Tsim Sha Tsui East, Hong Back in the
60’s, this area was a British army compound nicknamed Tai-Pow-Mike
(Big Sack of Rice). We used to sneak in for fishing and did other
juvenile pranks, such as riding the bicycle into the harbor. |
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 At the shore of South Sea, Tanhai, Shantou, Guangdong,
PRC, 1995. When I was growing up in Hong Kong, it seemed like all
my associations with China were with water
I remember there was a family friend we called Uncle Sit,
occasionally he would go back to China to visit his relatives.Like many Chinese in Hong Kong with relatives in China, they
would bring suitcases (or rather, large canvas bags) of clothing and
other commodities for their relatives when they return to China.
I remembered once seeing Uncle Sit cut open a bar of soap, and
there was a watch with stainless steel metal bend hidden in it.
He told me he planned to sell the watch in China, but he could
not find a buyer.I guess,
besides subsidizing his relatives with clothing and other necessities;
he was trying to do some business during the trip. In Cantonese, we call
this type of merchandises ‘Water Goods"We also have heard many stories about people ‘swam' from
China to Hong Kong to pursuit brighter future; some became residents of
Hong Kong, many had perished in sea.
During the ‘Cultural Revolution'in the 60’s, I was always
haunted by graphic images on newspaper of bondage corpses found at Hong
Kong water and shores. These were corpses of apparent victims of the
Cultural Revolution.They
were dumped into the South Sea in China and gradually made their ways
into the Hong Kong harbor.
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