RED MINNOW ISLAND

For generations the natives had farmed rice and tended small gardens. At one point, their number was over five hundred, but by the late eighties there were probably only around several dozen of them left. They no longer live there now, but somewhere else. The island, as they knew it, no longer exists. But they can see it from where they are. It looks very beautiful, very modern. 赤鱲角村 TSEK LAP KOK TSYUN There had been people living on Chek Lap Kok almost continuously since the Neolithic period. The ancestors of the current natives repopulated the island after the great Ching Dynasty Clearance (遷界令), which for several years (1661 - 1669) emptied the coastal areas to deny pirates and rebels any assistance. In the late twentieth century the entire place was leveled, and connected to an even smaller islet (欖洲) by land reclamation. Then a gigantic transit hub was built. A village was created for the exiles near Tung Chung Wan (東涌灣), on the northern side of Lantau Island (爛頭), facing the new Hong Kong International Airport (香港國際機場). It's barely a few miles away from where they came from. [欖洲 (lam chau: 'olives isle') was less than half a kilometer long, just to the west of Chek Lap Kok. 爛頭 (lan tau: 'raggedy head') is properly named 大嶼山 (taai yiu saan: 'big islet mountain'). 東涌灣 (tung chung wan: 'eastern stream bay') was a just fishing settlement once, but is now a rapidly developing new town with high-rise apartment buildings, connected to Hong Kong and Kowloon by the MTR system as well as the expressway over the Tsing Ma Bridge (青馬大橋).] In contrast to both Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau, Lantau Island is relatively green, even verdant. There are forested areas and wooded hillsides. The two smaller islands were mostly rock, and apart from farming, the locals quarried the granite that was used to build Hong Kong. Things have improved for the villagers since the move - they're connected to the outside world better than before, travel to the city is easier, and there is greater security. The ground that they were once the only people to tread upon is now traversed by thousands daily, and the entire world knows where Chek Lap Kok once was. That could be comforting. A source of some pride, perhaps. Their 'island of red minnows' is famous. But occasionally they must look across the water at the airport, and try to figure out where their homes once stood, thinking "that's where my parents lived...... I was born over there, our house was at that end...... there's the path I walked every day...... " ========================================================================== NOTE: Readers may contact me directly: LETTER BOX. All correspondence will be kept in confidence. ==========================================================================