Activists hope the story of Ng Akew will help save the 19th century tenement housing remains from plans to redevelop the site as public open space
HARMINDER.SINGH@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Saturday, 21 May, 2016, 12:01pm
Central and Western Concern Group convenor Katty Law stands by the ruined tenement buildings. Photos: Nora Tam
The ruins of a tenement house in Central at the centre of a heritage row has been revealed as the home of the leader of Hong Kong’s “protected women”.
The city’s “protected women” were in relationships with foreign men who usually provided them with financial support. They were therefore considered to be under the “protection” of these men and issued certificates of proof of their status.
Research conducted by the Central and Western Concern Group has found that one of a row of tenement houses sandwiched between Cochrane Street and Gutzlaff Street belonged to Ng Akew, a Chinese Tanka woman who was considered the leader and spokeswoman for “protected women” in the mid-1800s.
The details have been uncovered as part of a campaign by the group to have the heritage value of the stone ruins, visible from the Mid-Levels escalator just before Wellington Street, recognised by the Antiquities Advisory Board.
In March, the Antiquities and Monuments Office made a presentation to the board about the ruins, ultimately concluding that the site did not have heritage value so the site did not receive a historical grading.
A grading of one would give the government site, currently slated for redevelopment as public open space, some protection from demolition.
The Central and Western Concern Group wants the ruins to be preserved.
Local concern groups have conducted their own research of the site in a bid to protect it, and believe the site has a rich history which would justify a historical grading.
Concern group convenor Katty Law Ngar-ning said they wanted the Antiquities and Monuments Office to reappraise the area.
“We found much more information about this site than the actual appraisal. [The board] were given a very crude presentation [by the Antiquities and Monuments Office],” Law said.
The group believes there were “irregularities” in the assessment by the office, including “insufficient, untruthful and distorted information”.
Law believes the ruins date back to 1879, following the Great Fire of Hong Kong in 1878. Today, only portions of the old common back and dividing walls remain of what were 10 tenement houses.
“The most interesting feature is that they are back-to-back tenement houses, which only existed during a certain time period in Hong Kong – before the bubonic plague,” Law said.
Following the bubonic plague in 1894, the colonial government enacted the 1903 Public Health and Buildings Ordinance, prohibiting the construction of such back-to-back housing and requiring a catchment lane behind houses.
Each tenement house was about 900 sq ft. They were then subdivided in to smaller units – not unlike subdivided flats today.
“But more interesting is that we found out the ownership of the site, [belonging] to some very important people from the past,” Law said.
A close-up shot of one of the tenement buildings in Central.
According to land transaction records, the site was first auctioned in 1844. After a few ownership changes, the lot facing Gutzlaff Street was sold to Douglas Lapraik in 1847, a Scottish owner of a steamship company and the owner of Douglas Castle – today’s University Hall in Pok Fu Lam. Douglas Street in Central is named after the colonial businessman. He bought the remaining half of the lot – facing Cochrane Street – the following year.
In 1847, Lapraik sold the Gutzlaff Street lot to American captain James B. Endicott who then gave the plot of land to Ng in 1852 in the form of a trust and overseen by Lapraik and another merchant, William Scott.
Akew, who had been bought by Endicott in 1842, was given this land just prior to Endicott’s marriage to a Western woman, as a form of financial security for her and two of five children she had with Endicott, who remained with her. The other three children went with Endicott back to the United States.
Ng invested in property – a rarity for Chinese women at the time – and became the leader of a group of protected women, also living within the area, according to historian Tim Ko Tim-keung.
Ng was also known as Hung Mo Kew, which is also the nickname of Gutzlaff Street.
Historians believe Ng continued to live there until her death. The trust was dissolved in 1914 and the lot was returned to the Endicott family and later sold to the Hotung family – an influential Hong Kong business and philanthropic family.
“By tracing the history of this site, we actually learned a lot about the area,” Law said.
However, modern residents of Hong Kong associate the street with “Western prostitutes”, according to Law, since the area was known to be frequented by such women in the late 19th century, and hung mo, or “red hair”, was a nickname given to Europeans at the time.
“The meaning has changed, without us understanding why. The origin of this street has been lost,” Law said.
Former Civic Party legislator Tanya Chan joined the effort in trying to preserve the remains after learning about the history of the site, particularly the story of Ng. She believes Ng’s story will help gain public interest.
“All the very technical and academic reasons have been explained to the public, We need to use some other way to arouse their interest and attention,” she said.
Along with other activists, Chan will take part in an amateur performance on Cochrane Street on Sunday, playing the part of Ng, as another way to bring attention to the site.
Chan and Law presented their recent findings to the Central and Western District Council on Thursday, and hope the council will join them in protecting the site.
“It’s important to preserve the relics because it is through these physical remains that we can visualise and understand history,” Law said.
It’s important to preserve the relics because it is through these physical remains that we can visualise and understand history
CONCERN GROUP CONVENOR KATTY LAW
A spokeswoman for the Antiquities and Monuments Office said that because the Central and Western Concern Group had provided information that “might possibly be new information”, the Antiquities Advisory Board asked the office to “study the [new] information”, which will be reported to [the] Antiquities Advisory Board when the research is completed”.
The site is currently slated for redevelopment by the Urban Renewal Authority as public open space, but it has not yet been given to the authority.
A spokeswoman for the authority said that because the ruins were not given a grading by the Antiquities Advisory Board, “the URA will salvage as many of the stones and bricks that are in good condition as possible and incorporate them into the future public open space of the project”.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1948611/hong-kong-conservationists-unearth-lost-history
