Genealogy

I wouldn't say genealogy is a hobby of mine, but my interest has grown over the years. My parents have gone to high school reunions, several of the annual gatherings of alumni from New York City Chinese School, and attended a conference on Chinese in/from the South (my mom is from Arkansas).

I blogged about the time we went for a visit to Tai Shan, my father's ancestral village and other places during my parent's visit in 2006. My dad's ancestral home was built in the diao lou watchtower style that was meant to keep a lookout for bandits. Click to see the rest of the photos

In 2012, the 1940 census data was released free online for a time and I was able to find my maternal grandparents listed along with my oldest aunt and mom. My younger aunt and uncle had not been born yet. 

In this close-up screen shot, it shows rent was $10.00 a month, my grandfather was 30 years old, and had completed 7th grade as his highest level of education. My grandmother was 27, and completed 6th grade. In another part of the form (in another photo I have) it was reported my grandfather was "at work for pay" and worked 72 hours that week. My grandmother "engaged in home housework." My grandfather owned a general store in Brickeys, Arkansas at the time selling various merchandise and foodstuff. 

My mom and family, circa 1945

When I was younger, my mom shared what she knew of her parents immigration to the U.S. via Seattle and stories about growing up in the store. She had only been once to her mother's village in the 1950s and we did not get a chance to go look for it in 2006 when we found my dad's ancestral village.

I recently found a website called Chinese Exclusion Files with a blog started by a volunteer at the National Archives in Seattle and requested a search for information on my maternal grandparents who arrived in the U.S. during the time of the Exclusion Act when it was difficult and time consuming to enter and leave the country due to background checks.

Files were found for both grandparents with more than 50 pages of various documents in each file. There were many pages of transcribed interview/interrogation, reports of investigations and requests from the authorities for confirmation of information.

It was neat to read through it all to glean an idea of their experience when immigrating to compile this information to write a family history to share with descendants of my grandfather. Following are a few screenshots from documents in the files. 

my grandfather from Certificate of ID issued on arrival in 1923

from re-entry permit issued 1930

notarized affidavit for grandma's visa application 1936

my grandmother and aunt on a document from the American Consulate HK granting a visa, 1936

The search for information for my dad's side of the family has been tougher because his grandparents are the ones that immigrated, and their last name, Lee, is an English name as well as Chinese.

Both his parents were both born on the east coast, father in Watertown, NY, and mother in Worcester, MA. As far as I know, they were sent back to China for schooling (from a port unknown) and returned to America to run a laundry business in New York City. I don't know if they married in China or in the U.S.

I did not find 1940 census data online since I didn't have an exact address in Brooklyn, where my dad was born and where they were living at the time. Perhaps I will be able to find it when the 1950 census is released in a few years. Until then, here's a few photos of my paternal grandparents, dad, and my aunt. 

circa 1935 shortly after marriage

1940s

my dad and oldest aunt, early 1940s

my dad, age 10, 1949

Signal Tower

When Maggie was young we often visited a little roadside playground after attending playgroup at the YMCA with friends who lived across the street in the former New World Apartments. It was in the shadow of a hilltop garden where sits a building called Signal Tower. 

It has been many years since I climbed up the steep path to look at Signal Tower, so went again for nostalgia's sake on the way to the post office after lunch with Alex.

steep stairs

banyan tree

The handsome red-brick building dates from the early 1900s and housed a mechanism that dropped a "time-ball" that was hoisted up and dropped at a certain time so that mariners and other people could keep time. 

This little garden on a hill known as Blackhead Point in Tsim Sha Tsui has remained through the (re)development of the surrounding area. Way before all the reclamation of the waterfront, it was a high point with the tower being visible to the boats in Victoria Harbour. 

One can still see a snippet of the harbor from part of the park, but the tower is now dwarfed and hidden by skyscrapers. In fact, the path leading to this peaceful area is next to a refuse collection point and easy to miss. Many walk by on their way to the MTR station.

 

bubble tea on blustery Blackhead Point

The little park Maggie played at is long gone, but another park of the same name was built on the roof of a bus terminus atop the East Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station along with a walkway, viewpoint, benches, and gardens built over Chatham Road South and another bus terminus that leads to a waterfront promenade (walkway) that stretches from Hung Hom Stadium to the Kowloon Star Ferry.

It's called Middle Road Children's Playground and connects to Waterfront Podium Garden. It's a pleasant way to walk to/from Hung Hom station to E TST.

The waterfront apartments my friends lived in are also long gone. They were part of a residential, office, commercial building including a hotel. We used to watch the hourly display that popped out of the wall above the entrance to the mall. It consisted of kitschy figurines "marching" to music-box tunes and enthralled the children. The closest comparison would be the display at Disneyland's It's a Small World. 

The new New World Centre development is nearly finished after being razed and looks completely different. I guess it goes with the times.

Bonus photos of our tsukemen and ramen lunch, Alex on the MTR and out and about in TST after YMCA playgroup circa 1999.

at Mitaseimenjo

see my reflection?

YMCA playgroup Halloween 1998

Twenty-five years

International Christian School is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The school asked for short written tributes for a booklet to be distributed at the celebrations, and that gave me pause to reflect and consider that we have been blessed to be part of this community for a great majority of those years. 

Maggie started ICS in 2001-2002 at the Fisherman's Wharf Laguna Verde (Kindergarten) campus in Hung Hom. She was in Eileen Yuen's K3 class (before the name change to P1). Alex and I would sometimes stay around the area walking through the mall, park or along the waterfront. The Christmas concert performance in the mall was a highlight that year.

Fall Festivals at Bethel campus in Kowloon City were also highlights before the new school was built, but Walkathons were the most fun for our family. I found an old Walkathon tee from 2003 and remembered that it was the first walkathon after a few years' hiatus. The scenic (but hilly) walk was around the University of Science and Technology followed by praise and worship on a field overlooking the sea. The following year was another scenic (but long for little ones) excursion - 5km in Sai Kung Country Park (5km fun-run for the secondary students). Praise and worship was at the covered pavilion where the road forks around the High Island Reservoir followed by the return walk back out to Pak Tam Chung, whew! Subsequent years combined Fall Festival and Walkathon so the walks were shorter, but they were still a wonderful community event.

Alex joined ICS in 2005-2006 as a student in Alison (Tsang) Lo's P1 class, and so began my many memories of the Fotan Jubilee campus, volunteering as a Room Mom, rubbing shoulders with others in the close quarters of our work room, peeking in the Multi-Purpose Room at the students practicing music or at recess, running upstairs to help in the library, downstairs to the lunch room, outside to the next building's Art Room, over to the Royal Ascot playground... Those were the days!

As the years passed, the school started outgrowing its separate campuses. A most memorable moment - after encouragement from Tim Wong and despite my dislike of public speaking - was actually voicing out to the Shatin district council at a Royal Ascot meeting, imploring them to grant us a piece of land to build a school on - one campus to unite Elementary and Secondary.

Amazingly, three parcels were offered with Shek Mun deemed best of the three. There was a Ground-Breaking Ceremony in 2005 before the work began and we were honored to be part of the the Topping Ceremony in March 2007. Maggie was asked to be the student representative and joined other members of the ICS community - teachers, administrators, board members, parents, etc.

I remember the excitement of touring the concrete frame of our New School Building (NSB) as we climbed up the many stairs to the roof. The group of representatives gathered to place the last symbolic shovels of cement and give thanks and praise.

The space seemed immense! While there wasn't much outdoor space, only an open podium area between the Elementary and Secondary wings, there were facilities such as two gymnasiums, two libraries, art rooms, science labs, music rooms, a beautiful chapel, a performing arts theater, and a big swimming pool. (See if you can figure out what places are in the photos below.)

Elementary students bade farewell to Jubilee campus and moved in November 2007. Maggie was starting Semester 2 of 6th grade after commuting by public bus for the first semester (on her own) when the secondary students moved from Bethel campus in January 2008.

It's hard to believe that in a few months we will have been on this campus for ten years and a few months after that, Alex will be part of the ICS graduating class of 2018.

From parent volunteer and joining parent fellowships, serving as a Parent Association Executive Committee member, and now working with the Bridges students (after encouragement and a gentle push from Keith Welch), my family and I have been blessed to be members of the school community and to be a part of the big changes that have happened during our time with ICS. The favor of the Lord has certainly been upon us - best wishes and blessings to ICS for many more successful years!

The Su family,

Paul and Becky
Maggie, Class of 2014
Alex, Class of 2018

 

More photos: NSB album

Tung Ping Chau

I’ve been wanting to take outlying island ferry from Ma Liu Shui Pier near Chinese University for years, and finally got the chance when I accompanied a couple of my students that joined their 7th grade schoolmates on their end of the year field trip to the eastern-most outlying island of HK, crescent-shaped Tung Ping Chau. Although it threatened to rain and there were some whitecaps and swells, it was nice to be on the water through Tolo Channel and to see a different view of Plover Cove and dam, Ma On Shan, then the hills of Sai Kung West and East Country Park with aptly named Sharp Peak in the distance off the starboard side. Shenzen and coastal China were seen on the port side as we traveled toward Mirs Bay and South China Sea.

Our chartered ferry took about an hour and 45 minutes to make the trip, and we were able to spend three hours on the island before the long ride back in order to make the scheduled return time to school. On approach, as we rounded the island to the pier, I noticed a radar tower at a high point on the island. I also noticed the presence of a police boat patrolling during the time we were there. Since the island is only a few km off the China coast, it’s tempting to smugglers and illegal immigrants.

As we walked through paths cut through the dense greenery, we saw a variety of butterflies and heard the loud buzz of cicadas. The path opened up to abandoned buildings, “ghost villages” and rocky shoreline before we reached a Kang Lau Shek, an area known for its twin sea stacks on the wave-cut platform formed by erosion from the wind and waves passing The kids had a great time roaming around, and resting too, as the temperature was quite warm with stifling, high humidity. 

The rocks on this island are sedimentary instead of volcanic as much of HK is and there were lots of informational signs to stop and read along the way. I wish we had more time to walk around the whole island.

After we walked back to the pier area, some students went to wade and play in the water and some to a shaded area in of one of the villages. Luckily a shop was open and students were able to buy/replenish their water. They are usually only weekend ferries, and sometimes the shopkeepers come over only for the weekend to open for the tourists since, like most of HK’s outlying islands, no young people live there full time, having moved away to make a better living in the city.

Besides being part of the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark (renamed in 2015), Tung Ping Chau is part of Plover Cove Country Park, and a Marine Park. All of these designations should make it easy to promote eco-tourism, but instead have made it difficult for the natives to get permits to renovate or maintain the historical buildings or run businesses such as shops or inns. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Hong Kong. 

More reading:

In 2010, not long after (formerly named) HK National Geopark of China was inaugurated, we visited one of the twelve areas called Ma Shi Chau and this past fall, I revisited Long Ke Wan and walked High Island Geo Trail 

Interesting history of Tung Ping Chau (2013)

A (2012) take on ecotourism in HK