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My days in Fanling
My wife and I will be going back to Hong Kong in January 2014. One of my priorities would be to revisit Fanling where I spent 2 years of my life as a shoe shine boy in 1949 when I was only nine years old.
One could say that I am one, of many, casualties of WW11 when the west meets the east and after the war both parents failed to meet up again. I went from one foster family to another until I was placed in an orphanage in Shaukiwan HK by my last foster parents. I left/escaped from the orphanage with another boy and together we made our way to Fanling where we and a handful of other homeless children managed to survive by shoe shining for the British Army soldiers from the nearby camps. There were good days and, of course, there were bad days but at least I was freed from the not so kind foster parents. I chartered my own destination from here on, until I went back to my biological Irish father when I was 12 years old. Again I was made to feel 'not welcomed' by my step mother.
The Luen Wo market building was our home. In the evenings we would climb up to the roof of the building, from the stalls, and that was where we all slept in the summer months. During the winter months we slept underneath the market counters. My blanket was just a rice sack. Winter nights can be extremely cruel.
This was my experience in Fanling but I am looking forward to the day/s when I can revisit Fanling again, especially the market place where I once called home.
halfgweilo
Last edited by halfgweilo; Dec 4, 2013 at 12:51 AM.
Reason: spelling error
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