Many people who have visited Kowloon City might have encountered Thai and South Asian on the streets, but do you know that Kowloon City was once a settlement for people from Fujian, too?
It turns out that the present-day Fuk Lo Tsun Road was formerly known as “Fuk Lo Village,” inhabited mostly by immigrants from Fujian and Hoi Luk Fung around the early 1920s. “Fuk Lo” refers not only to Fujian people but also to those from Hoi Luk Fung. Originally, Hoi Luk Fung people were called “Hoklo,” but the word “crane” in Fuk Lo dialect sounds like “Fuk,” and since most Hoi Luk Fung people’s ancestors migrated from Fujian, they were collectively referred to as “Fuk Lo.” The Fuk Lo dialect they spoke contains Hoi Luk Fung culture and can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, making it culturally significant. It has been included in Hong Kong’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
However, Fuk Lo Village couldn’t escape redevelopment in Kowloon City’s urban planning during the 1930s. To commemorate this historical memory, after the demolition of Fuk Lo Village, the area was named “Fuk Lo Tsun Road.”
