Contribution

1970年代在屋邨居住，可以說是中獎。樓下的公園，有滑梯、氹氹轉及鞦韆，簡簡單單的設施，心裡也滿足。1989年，搬離屋邨。現在，想起兒時屋邨的生活，勾起不少的回憶。 鄰舍互相幫助，他們外出，把年幼的孩子交托給媽媽，我也幫忙照顧。不諳英文的長者，哥哥替他們翻譯，也替他們的兒女補習；遇著鄰居生日，大家分享食物；有人結婚，也會闔府統請。 假日，年長的打麻雀聯誼，年幼的在公園裏遊戲，十分熱鬧；當時我家還未有電視機，會往對面鄰居的家看電視。 夏天晚上，天氣炎熱，大家都打開木門，在鐵閘前放著帆布牀或舖蓆睡覺。偶有搶劫事件，屋邨組織巡邏隊，讓晚歸的人士，安全地回家。

馬頭圍村是九龍城區現存最古老的公共屋邨，也是我很熟悉和充滿回憶的地方。這屋邨雖然只有五座十四層高的樓宇，卻勝在四平八正，五座樓各以不同的花卉，如玫瑰、水仙、洋葵等命名。 大舅父一家住在芙蓉樓，小時候我們經常隨父母到他家裏玩。我們三姐妹最愛跟表姊一起玩可換衫的紙板公仔；表哥則教大家唸一些經他改編的趣怪唐詩。如遇着其他親戚到訪，小小的單位變得更熱鬧。麻雀耍樂是大人們的聯誼方式，我們一眾表兄弟姊妹，則移師到騎樓，小朋友的玩意不外乎下棋（波子棋或飛行棋）、玩大富翁及畫鬼腳。有時候更會將活動範圍延伸到單位外的長長走廊，與一眾老表玩「紅綠燈」等集體遊戲。大舅母在廚房一邊跟媽媽聊天，一邊煮飯，炮製佳餚，長輩們都在大枱吃飯，我們則在細枱用餐，大家都吃得津津有味。 小小的單位，擠滿一屋人，溫馨而熱鬧，在屋外也可聽到單位內傳出的談笑聲，還有打麻雀夾雜電視機的聲浪，回想起來不禁叫人懷緬不已。

As a child, I lived in Oi Man Estate in Ho Man Tin. What I remember most are the skywell and long corridors, which connected countless families. Every household had its own gate and front door. People tended to leave the door open and the gate closed and put on a homemade curtain. This way,…

Lok Sin Tong Primary School was previously known as “Lok Sin Tong Free School” before the 1970s. Being one of the most reputable schools in Kowloon City, it received an overwhelming number of applications that exceeded its actual admission offers for several times every year. During 1957-1963, I attended the morning session from Primary One…

These photos were taken in 1983. It was the time when the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong handover received a great deal of fanfare that triggered a new wave of emigration. I still remember the day bidding farewell to a secondary schoolmate and her family who decided to migrate to America in the…

I was born in a subdivided unit inside an old tong lau building at 52 Nga Tsin Long Road. The building was demolished and rebuilt over 30 years ago. There were 50 people living in 9 units in the heyday. What a crowded house! Despite occasional conflicts, neighbours were helpful looking after each other most…

I used to live in Tung Tau Estate. It was just a 10-minute walk from the airport, where separation and reunion often took place. My first visit to the airport was with my mum in 1974, picking up my uncle who flew from Tehran to Hong Kong after competing in the 7th Asian Games. I…

I lived in Lok Wah Estate where our window overlooked Kai Tak Airport. I enjoyed watching the planes landing and taking off every sunset, considering the view a symbol of Hong Kong. My first visit to the airport was in 1986, when my uncle who had migrated to Germany came to visit us. Since long…

I was not a resident of Kowloon City, but I remember deeply about the airport. When I was young, I lived in an apartment overlooking Kai Tak Airport. I enjoyed plane spotting from the window during the morning and sunset on holidays. One morning in August 1988, while I was spotting as usual, a plane…

Airport is a place full of emotional moments. Happy reunions and heart-breaking departures can happen at the same time. It is quite a cliche happy-ending scene in films and dramas when the main actress is about to enter the restricted area, the main actor arrives at the last minute asking her to stay. Flying for…

Before the airport relocation, To Kwa Wan was where the key flight path passed through. I always played with paper planes and enjoyed plane spotting in close distance with my friends on the rooftop. The aircrafts flew so low that we joked we could stop and tow them off with a rising bamboo laundry pole….

When talking about rooftops, I have endless stories to tell. When I was a child, I lived on the top floor, just below the rooftop, in a “tong lau” building in To Kwa Wan. The rooftop was shared by four interconnected buildings, so you can imagine how spacey it was! During the daytime, the rooftop…

Kowloon City is a very special place. I studied in a secondary school there and some classmates were from Kowloon Walled City. Driven by curiosity, we often asked them to guide us for adventures. In fact, there was nothing special inside, except the poor sanitation. Drug addicts were spotted from time to time, but if…

I had been living on Third Street in Kowloon Walled City since I was born. In my childhood, I spent much time exploring the place and witnessed many interesting stories. Marble shooting was very popular among the kids in the open spaces downstairs. Sometimes the tricky young adults came to take our marbles away by…

I believed I was the last generation of residents who lived in Kowloon Walled City. I was 4 or 5 and I still remembered the green wall next to my bed where my mum always stuck my favourite paintings on it. Now, when I am looking at the picture, I don’t think it is good…

The Argyle Street camp for Vietnamese refugees commenced in 1979, managed by Hong Kong Police and the Civil Aid Service. In close proximity to the residential area, the camp sat next to Lomond Road and Argyle Street on one side, St. Teresa’s Hospital and Kowloon Hospital on the other side. Back then I was working…

I have never lived in Kowloon City, but my mom took me there at times when I was young. As I remember, the old-fashioned shopping mall in the district was crudely decorated. The wall and floor tiles were either in brownish or orange hue. Lined with tiny shops, the interior was very gloomy. As shop…

Back in the 80s, my parents liked to take us to Hung Hom Square during holidays. The entire top floor was occupied by New Star Restaurant, in which the gigantic water wheel installation was the symbol. Dim sum trolleys bustled around and there used to be a specific room for customers to dial the telephone. …

In my childhood, our family lived in a tenement building on Hung Fok Street in To Kwa Wan. As a haven for leisure, the rooftops of adjacent tenement buildings were connected and shared. Such architectural design broke the borderline set by concrete walls and staircases, and helped maintain a close bond among neighbours. After school,…

In a recent visit to 13 Streets, I was amazed by the dramatic changes in its environment, especially the improvement on hygiene and cleanliness. The streets are named after auspicious animals and I once lived in two of them. Living in 8-storey Chinese tenement houses that had no elevator, it was never a problem for…