Saturday's scheduled illegal gathering in Yuen Long lasted far into the evening, and involved over two hundred thousand people. Remarkably, they didn't burn the town down. As most readers will know, this was in response to the attack on home bound people last Sunday by rural types and goons, connected to clan villages in Yuen Long and encouraged by certain local politicians.
There was much tear gas. Baton charges by the police. Pushback by protesters. Flung heavy objects. Sponge grenades.
Ten thousand were expected, well over a quarter of a million showed up.
Seventeen people were injured.
A police van was trashed.
Some merchants closed for the day, others kept their doors open, because as a number of them indicated, shutting shop would increase the fear and serve no purpose. All in all, from accounts I've read, it was a remarkably Hong Kong performance all round, with police clubbing people as they felt necessary, protesters hitting police with anything at hand in defense, missiles flung at long lines of cops, volunteer first-aiders tending to the wounded, and bottles of water handed around. Determination on all sides along with gallantry, courage, and sheer rock-hard stubbornness.
“When you act cowardly, then you will lose for the rest of your life.”
------University student Elise Cheung
And, of course, some of the locals were in a violent mood. One person was slashed with a knife, the perpetrator overpowered by witnesses. But it must be mentioned that the march included many Yuen Long residents protesting last week's pro-mainland thug attack in their community, and determined to show on which side they stand.
香港人，加油; 平安去，平安返。
'Bravo, Hong Kongers; go safely, come back safely.'
By early afternoon, MTR trains from Hung Hom to Yuen Long were packed with protesters, which situation continued, essentially, to midnight. Students, young adults, lawmakers, regular citizens, and university functionaries in civilian capacity, as well as volunteer medical and safety personnel. Many black clad individuals with staves and umbrellas. Hard hats and face masks. More than three thousand HK police officers were deployed to maintain public order at the protest site, a herculean task given the numbers.
Note that two of the clan villages toward which protesters planned to surge are quite close to the MTR station in Yuen Long; Nam Pin Wai (南邊圍, right next to the station, and Sai Pin Wai (西邊圍), somewhat further along. A third clan village, Ying Lung Wai (英龍圍), is barely a stone's throw away. All three are in Yuen Long Old Town (元朗舊墟 'yuen lung gau heui'), which under normal circumstances is well worth visiting, though presently it has a reputation for being controlled by triads and Beijing sympathizers (collectively: 東頭約 'tung tau yuek'; "the East Head Alliance"). And note that this might merely be an urbanite calumny against salt of the earth ruralists.
Early on, the police secured the entrances to Nam Pin Wai, where the greatest triad presence was seen last Sunday.
Yoho Mall and the main road (元朗大馬路 'yuen long taai maa lou'), scenes of much of the demonstration, are one the other side of the tracks from the villages. But by late afternoon, teatime, hundreds of protesters with iron poles and home-made shields faced off against police guarding Nam Ping Wai, accusing the force of protecting organized criminals within. Tear gas was fired a number of times. The confrontation continued, with more crowd control methods, and sometimes considerably less effective actual control, throughout the evening.
警告催淚煙
'Police warn of imminent tear gas.'
For the next several hours, Long Yip Street (朗業街), Eastward from Long Ping (朗屏) to the north of the MTR line, was the scene of numerous charges and counter charges, teargas, pepperspray, sponge grenades, rubber bullets, umbrellas as both shields and striking devices, and projectiles.
Inside the MTR Station (元朗站), protesters fought the police with improvised barricades, and fire extinguishers.
The day's events had started shortly after three p.m., and largely ended just before eleven o'clock, when the remaining protesters returned home.
Gauleiter Carrie Lam was, of course, not in attendance.
One of the primary reasons for this protest was the clear perception of police and gangster collusion (警黑勾結) at last week's violence. And that, for many of the participants, was a good reason to show up in greater number than many other recent protests in Hong Kong recently.
FRIDAY VERSUS SATURDAY
There is of course a time difference between here and Hong Kong. Three thirty in the afternoon, when the ruckus got well underway, was just past twelve midnight in San Francisco. Eleven at night, when it can be said to have ended, was 2 PM.
Fifteen hours.
SOURCES: SCMP, Washington Post, Reuters, BBC, FB, private messages, blogs.
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Showing posts with label Yuen Long 元朗. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yuen Long 元朗. Show all posts
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Friday, July 26, 2019
A SENSE OF PERMANENT OWNERSHIP
Over the past week, the reports about Cantonese villagers in Yuen Long attacking people with iron bars and wooden staves (baseball bats) at the MTR station have excited some attention, but scant informed comment, in the international press. Largely because the outside world thinks it's just an interesting manifestation of political discord somewhere exotic, but does not have much deep interest in details. But also because the concept of "walled villages" is far from foreign heads.
Walled villages (圍 'wai') in HK are an interesting phenomenon.
Here's an article from the South China Morning Post precisely about those zones in Hong Kong's more rural hinterland.
新界之圍
Yuen Long violence exposes the turf mentality of Hong Kong’s walled villages
To the villagers, the Yuen Long attack could have been understood as self-defence – against the anti-extradition and increasingly anti-Beijing protests that have spread from the city centre to the outlying areas of Hong Kong
Isabella Ng
Published: 4:00pm, 26 Jul, 2019
The brutal assault in and around Yuen Long station on the West Rail Line by a mob of men, most of them from walled villages and some with triad backgrounds, has exposed more than a schism between the anti-extradition black shirts and pro-police white shirts. More importantly, the attack on Sunday night shows a deep, long-standing division in Hong Kong between urbanites and villagers – especially the older indigenous people – in terms of their sense of belonging and ownership of place, and of governance.
For the longest time, Yuen Long was a rural area inhabited only by the indigenous Cantonese and Hakkas. Although the district has been urbanised in recent years, acquired more modern landmarks like Yoho Mall and opened up to outsiders (urbanites and even expatriates), the indigenous people maintain a turf mentality that hasn’t changed much since the 19th century, when the British took control of the New Territories but encountered strong resistance from the villagers.
Some of the indigenous clans trace their roots in the New Territories as far back as the Song dynasty. The clans ran their villages like fiefdoms and to this day, the villagers hold fast to this sense of responsibility for managing their territory, in stark contrast to how urbanites usually rely on the public authorities.
You see this in the way the villagers organise themselves, into village councils and other associations. And this is the mentality that led to some indigenous people taking matters into their own hands and beating up train passengers in Yuen Long.
To these villagers, the assault was an act of self-governance and self-defence – against the troublemaking outsiders in their midst, against the anti-extradition and increasingly anti-China protests that have spread from the city centre to the outlying areas of Hong Kong. Historically, the walled villages could not be entered without permission. Traditionally, the villagers are known to be pro-China and pro-establishment, except if and when the small-house policy created to compensate the clans is in jeopardy.
The Yuen Long incident was not simply a gang attack. According to reports, it involved more than one gang and more than one village (including those in the rural sub-districts of Ping Shan, Pat Heung and Ha Tsuen). To these assailants, their action was more a defence of perhaps their core value: “This is my home, don’t trespass.”
These rod-wielding men’s assault on alleged troublemakers and perceived intruders from downtown suggests the villagers still feel a sense of ownership of every inch of soil in Yuen Long, even though the rural-urban divide in Hong Kong is blurring. This is their home and no one is to trespass, never mind that the very land under their feet now belongs to a property developer or has become a transport depot teeming with innocent people.
The police’s handling of the incident – some police stations shut their doors, officers arrived late and failed to take prompt action against the assailants – was not simply a matter of insufficient manpower, despite the police chief’s suggestion. It was also an example of the New Territories’ feudal legacy: the police have a history of sidestepping direct confrontation with the indigenous people.
Of course, the younger generation of villagers might think quite differently from the older generation; video footage of the attack suggests the assailants were mainly middle-aged.
Undeniably, times are changing. Although the villagers were known to be chauvinistic in the old days, they have become friendlier and more hospitable in recent years, as more village houses are sold or rented out to urbanites and expatriates.
But if the older villagers’ entrenched idea of fiefdom is unchanged, it might affect livelihoods in a Yuen Long that is becoming increasingly commercialised and accessible by public transport. After all, if outsiders do not feel welcomed, who would patronise the shops and restaurants that rely on such business to survive? The villagers’ turf mentality, if unbroken, would seriously affect urbanites’ perception of Yuen Long as a safe and welcoming space.
The violent attack on Sunday night should be taken as a chance to re-examine not only the governance of Hong Kong, but also the rural-urban dynamics that could be vital to Hong Kong’s future development.
Isabella Ng is assistant professor and associate head of the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong. She is also the author of the newly published book, Hong Kong Rural Women Under Chinese Rule: Gender Politics, Reunification and Globalisation in Post-colonial Hong Kong
SOURCE: Yuen Long violence - Isabella Ng - SCMP
This article will be relevant to anyone interested in Chinese enclaves in South East Asia and to a certain extent in North America, as the insular "our turf" mentality occurs in all Southern Chinese communities.
And understandably so.
Urbanites and Northerners, in one sense, are merely a foreign overlay.
If you are Cantonese, then speaking Mandarin is a clever trick.
When only Mandarin, um, you've failed at life.
And native born "English onlies", are, of course, never really people, except to their parents, who often find them inexplicably flawed.
Note: This article posted here in its entirety because I find it useful and insightful, and intend to re-read it several times along with further reading elsewhere. If I did not do so, I probably couldn't find it again.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Walled villages (圍 'wai') in HK are an interesting phenomenon.
Here's an article from the South China Morning Post precisely about those zones in Hong Kong's more rural hinterland.
新界之圍
Yuen Long violence exposes the turf mentality of Hong Kong’s walled villages
To the villagers, the Yuen Long attack could have been understood as self-defence – against the anti-extradition and increasingly anti-Beijing protests that have spread from the city centre to the outlying areas of Hong Kong
Isabella Ng
Published: 4:00pm, 26 Jul, 2019
The brutal assault in and around Yuen Long station on the West Rail Line by a mob of men, most of them from walled villages and some with triad backgrounds, has exposed more than a schism between the anti-extradition black shirts and pro-police white shirts. More importantly, the attack on Sunday night shows a deep, long-standing division in Hong Kong between urbanites and villagers – especially the older indigenous people – in terms of their sense of belonging and ownership of place, and of governance.
For the longest time, Yuen Long was a rural area inhabited only by the indigenous Cantonese and Hakkas. Although the district has been urbanised in recent years, acquired more modern landmarks like Yoho Mall and opened up to outsiders (urbanites and even expatriates), the indigenous people maintain a turf mentality that hasn’t changed much since the 19th century, when the British took control of the New Territories but encountered strong resistance from the villagers.
Some of the indigenous clans trace their roots in the New Territories as far back as the Song dynasty. The clans ran their villages like fiefdoms and to this day, the villagers hold fast to this sense of responsibility for managing their territory, in stark contrast to how urbanites usually rely on the public authorities.
You see this in the way the villagers organise themselves, into village councils and other associations. And this is the mentality that led to some indigenous people taking matters into their own hands and beating up train passengers in Yuen Long.
To these villagers, the assault was an act of self-governance and self-defence – against the troublemaking outsiders in their midst, against the anti-extradition and increasingly anti-China protests that have spread from the city centre to the outlying areas of Hong Kong. Historically, the walled villages could not be entered without permission. Traditionally, the villagers are known to be pro-China and pro-establishment, except if and when the small-house policy created to compensate the clans is in jeopardy.
The Yuen Long incident was not simply a gang attack. According to reports, it involved more than one gang and more than one village (including those in the rural sub-districts of Ping Shan, Pat Heung and Ha Tsuen). To these assailants, their action was more a defence of perhaps their core value: “This is my home, don’t trespass.”
These rod-wielding men’s assault on alleged troublemakers and perceived intruders from downtown suggests the villagers still feel a sense of ownership of every inch of soil in Yuen Long, even though the rural-urban divide in Hong Kong is blurring. This is their home and no one is to trespass, never mind that the very land under their feet now belongs to a property developer or has become a transport depot teeming with innocent people.
The police’s handling of the incident – some police stations shut their doors, officers arrived late and failed to take prompt action against the assailants – was not simply a matter of insufficient manpower, despite the police chief’s suggestion. It was also an example of the New Territories’ feudal legacy: the police have a history of sidestepping direct confrontation with the indigenous people.
Of course, the younger generation of villagers might think quite differently from the older generation; video footage of the attack suggests the assailants were mainly middle-aged.
Undeniably, times are changing. Although the villagers were known to be chauvinistic in the old days, they have become friendlier and more hospitable in recent years, as more village houses are sold or rented out to urbanites and expatriates.
But if the older villagers’ entrenched idea of fiefdom is unchanged, it might affect livelihoods in a Yuen Long that is becoming increasingly commercialised and accessible by public transport. After all, if outsiders do not feel welcomed, who would patronise the shops and restaurants that rely on such business to survive? The villagers’ turf mentality, if unbroken, would seriously affect urbanites’ perception of Yuen Long as a safe and welcoming space.
The violent attack on Sunday night should be taken as a chance to re-examine not only the governance of Hong Kong, but also the rural-urban dynamics that could be vital to Hong Kong’s future development.
Isabella Ng is assistant professor and associate head of the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong. She is also the author of the newly published book, Hong Kong Rural Women Under Chinese Rule: Gender Politics, Reunification and Globalisation in Post-colonial Hong Kong
SOURCE: Yuen Long violence - Isabella Ng - SCMP
This article will be relevant to anyone interested in Chinese enclaves in South East Asia and to a certain extent in North America, as the insular "our turf" mentality occurs in all Southern Chinese communities.
And understandably so.
Urbanites and Northerners, in one sense, are merely a foreign overlay.
If you are Cantonese, then speaking Mandarin is a clever trick.
When only Mandarin, um, you've failed at life.
And native born "English onlies", are, of course, never really people, except to their parents, who often find them inexplicably flawed.
Note: This article posted here in its entirety because I find it useful and insightful, and intend to re-read it several times along with further reading elsewhere. If I did not do so, I probably couldn't find it again.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Thursday, July 25, 2019
HOW TO ALWAYS GET ALONG WITH THE LOCALS
A few countries have issued travel warnings for their citizens visiting Hong Kong, due to the frequent unrest and occasional riot.
Which is quite ridiculous.
CITE: "After the Yuen Long clashes, Japan and South Korea’s consulates in Hong Kong have issued travel warnings or alerts on Tuesday, with the former warning of indiscriminate attacks in various communities in the New Territories. Other countries, including the United States and Britain, had previously issued such warnings."
End cite.
CITE: "The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has for some time been advising its citizens to maintain a “high degree of caution” in Hong Kong and Macau, kept the same level of advice."
End cite.
SOURCE: foreign decisions to upgrade city’s security status - SCMP.
Okay then, here's my warning: White people, don't act so beastly drunk and obnoxious, especially away from Lan Kwai Fong. Even I would kick you aside violently if you fall down puking drunk. Putrid dumb asses.
Yellowish people: You'd be surprised how alive the war still is.
Don't get drunk.
And, for everybody, a word of advice that holds worldwide: avoid areas where demonstrations occur. That's not what "tourism" is supposed to be about.
As in all cases everywhere on this planet, do not act like the typical mainlander on a buying spree while abroad. It's uncouth.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Which is quite ridiculous.
CITE: "After the Yuen Long clashes, Japan and South Korea’s consulates in Hong Kong have issued travel warnings or alerts on Tuesday, with the former warning of indiscriminate attacks in various communities in the New Territories. Other countries, including the United States and Britain, had previously issued such warnings."
End cite.
CITE: "The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which has for some time been advising its citizens to maintain a “high degree of caution” in Hong Kong and Macau, kept the same level of advice."
End cite.
SOURCE: foreign decisions to upgrade city’s security status - SCMP.
Okay then, here's my warning: White people, don't act so beastly drunk and obnoxious, especially away from Lan Kwai Fong. Even I would kick you aside violently if you fall down puking drunk. Putrid dumb asses.
Yellowish people: You'd be surprised how alive the war still is.
Don't get drunk.
And, for everybody, a word of advice that holds worldwide: avoid areas where demonstrations occur. That's not what "tourism" is supposed to be about.
As in all cases everywhere on this planet, do not act like the typical mainlander on a buying spree while abroad. It's uncouth.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
MORE ABOUT YUEN LONG, DAMMIT!
Background, for those new to the internet: Two days ago protesters and regular people returning home late at night were set upon by well over a hundred white-shirted goons with sticks and iron bars, resulting in forty five people including a pregnant woman needing emergency medical attention.
This happened in Yuen Long (元朗), New Territories(新界). Local village leaders and politicians appear to have been in the know, and it looks like the white-shirted goons may have been connected to Nam Pin Wai (南邊圍), one of the local walled clan villages.
Since then, plans have been made to take the protest actions directly to Yuen Long. There have also been on line calls to trash graves and clan properties in revenge.
End background.
Cite:
"A list of targets, including the graves of the parents of rural leader and pro-government lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu and ancestral halls in rural communities, had been circulating online since Sunday."
End cite.
SOURCE: South China Morning Post article.
Okay, y'all have lost your frigin' minds, haven't you? I can think of NO better way to alienate your fellow Hong Kongers than by causing a civil war. Which, make no mistake, this would do.
Destroying government property is one thing. And maybe probably justified when you can't get anything through the thick skulls of Legco members (香港立法會會員) and the police.
Everything should tell you that destroying local graves and clan halls, however, is monumentally wrong.
The last time it was sticks, kicks, and iron bars.
Next time, cleavers.
And, proactively, the covering up or damaging of public security cameras beforehand.
That's something you taught them.
I have some sympathy for your cause, but I cannot see you winning this one, or even making ANY valid points. And if you damage graves and clan halls, the rural population will forsake and physically attack you, eventually you will have no place to hide, your brutalized bodies will end up being tossed into sea, you'll be ratted out, and those of you who leave Hong Kong shall have no place to go.
The overseas Chinese community will make no sacrifices on your behalf.
And I know your English is not good enough to blend in.
Whatever you do in Yuen Long, it had better be “peaceful, rational and non-violent”.
ADDENDUM
Interestingly relevant terminology:
官黑勾結 ('gun haak gau git'):Official and Triad collusion
官警黑合作 ('gun ging haak hap jok'): Official, Police, and Triad cooperation
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
This happened in Yuen Long (元朗), New Territories(新界). Local village leaders and politicians appear to have been in the know, and it looks like the white-shirted goons may have been connected to Nam Pin Wai (南邊圍), one of the local walled clan villages.
Since then, plans have been made to take the protest actions directly to Yuen Long. There have also been on line calls to trash graves and clan properties in revenge.
End background.
Cite:
"A list of targets, including the graves of the parents of rural leader and pro-government lawmaker Junius Ho Kwan-yiu and ancestral halls in rural communities, had been circulating online since Sunday."
End cite.
SOURCE: South China Morning Post article.
Okay, y'all have lost your frigin' minds, haven't you? I can think of NO better way to alienate your fellow Hong Kongers than by causing a civil war. Which, make no mistake, this would do.
Destroying government property is one thing. And maybe probably justified when you can't get anything through the thick skulls of Legco members (香港立法會會員) and the police.
Everything should tell you that destroying local graves and clan halls, however, is monumentally wrong.
The last time it was sticks, kicks, and iron bars.
Next time, cleavers.
And, proactively, the covering up or damaging of public security cameras beforehand.
That's something you taught them.
I have some sympathy for your cause, but I cannot see you winning this one, or even making ANY valid points. And if you damage graves and clan halls, the rural population will forsake and physically attack you, eventually you will have no place to hide, your brutalized bodies will end up being tossed into sea, you'll be ratted out, and those of you who leave Hong Kong shall have no place to go.
The overseas Chinese community will make no sacrifices on your behalf.
And I know your English is not good enough to blend in.
Whatever you do in Yuen Long, it had better be “peaceful, rational and non-violent”.
ADDENDUM
Interestingly relevant terminology:
官黑勾結 ('gun haak gau git'):Official and Triad collusion
官警黑合作 ('gun ging haak hap jok'): Official, Police, and Triad cooperation
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
AVOID WALLED VILLAGES
From an article in the South China Morning Post: "Shortly before midnight, more than 200 people confronted the white-clad men at the entrance of nearby Nam Pin Wai village. Police reinforcements were then sent to the village to investigate. "
SOURCE: How marauding gang struck fear into Yuen Long, leaving pregnant woman and dozens of protesters injured, and Hong Kong police defending their response.
南邊圍
Nam Pin Wai
Unlike most of my readers, whom I presume to be calm phlegmatic types inclined to wait for all investigations and evidence eventually to allow a sober assessment, my emotional inclination at this point is to advocate burning Nam Pin Wai village down to the ground and salt the earth. Seeing as all evidence indicates that the walled village harboured the sons of bitches.
CITE: "Victims seen begging mob for mercy in harrowing video footage at MTR station"
CITE: "In a shockingly violent rampage of unprecedented lawlessness, a mob of men in white T-shirts stormed into the Yuen Long MTR station, indiscriminately attacking people with sticks and iron rods."
CITE: "the assailants beat up anyone they came across, including passengers on trains, passers-by and even journalists at the scene."
CITE: "Some were waving Chinese national flags and placards reading, “Defend Yuen Long, defend our homeland.”"
CITE: "Police later said more than 100 men were involved in the attack and a second one at midnight, including members of the notorious 14K and Wo Shing Wo triad gangs."
CITE: "Word of the imminent trouble on Sunday had spread earlier through Apple’s airdrop file transfer service and social media, warning protesters not to get off at Yuen Long station amid reports that a crowd of suspicious men had gathered near Fung Yau Street East."
CITE: "A message had been circulated the day before among closed circles, calling on Yuen Long residents not to wear black, the preferred colour of the protest movement. Villagers in the district also said they were reminded by their rural leaders not to venture out on Sunday if they could."
CITE: "“I saw a woman lying on the ground and some white-shirted people around her with their faces covered. Some of them were brandishing sticks and metal rods, some of them were not. She was the one later referred to as the injured pregnant woman online. Her condition was stable but she did not know the whereabouts of her husband, who was chased after and beaten.”"
CITE: "A team of 100 riot police officers went to Nam Pin Wai village, where most of the men in white shirts had gathered, at around 1am. But no arrests were made."
It's not unusual for an entire Clan Village to be complicit in criminal activity, there have been several such cases on the well-organized mainland, in hinterland Guangdong and Fujian.
Seeing as the police did not aprehend anybody until substantially later, and given that two local politicians may have had some prior knowledge of events before they transpired -- Arthur Shek (石鏡泉), and Junius Ho (何君堯) -- in addition to the "rural leaders" mentioned above, questions need to be asked. Pointedly.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
SOURCE: How marauding gang struck fear into Yuen Long, leaving pregnant woman and dozens of protesters injured, and Hong Kong police defending their response.
南邊圍
Nam Pin Wai
Unlike most of my readers, whom I presume to be calm phlegmatic types inclined to wait for all investigations and evidence eventually to allow a sober assessment, my emotional inclination at this point is to advocate burning Nam Pin Wai village down to the ground and salt the earth. Seeing as all evidence indicates that the walled village harboured the sons of bitches.
CITE: "Victims seen begging mob for mercy in harrowing video footage at MTR station"
CITE: "In a shockingly violent rampage of unprecedented lawlessness, a mob of men in white T-shirts stormed into the Yuen Long MTR station, indiscriminately attacking people with sticks and iron rods."
CITE: "the assailants beat up anyone they came across, including passengers on trains, passers-by and even journalists at the scene."
CITE: "Some were waving Chinese national flags and placards reading, “Defend Yuen Long, defend our homeland.”"
CITE: "Police later said more than 100 men were involved in the attack and a second one at midnight, including members of the notorious 14K and Wo Shing Wo triad gangs."
CITE: "Word of the imminent trouble on Sunday had spread earlier through Apple’s airdrop file transfer service and social media, warning protesters not to get off at Yuen Long station amid reports that a crowd of suspicious men had gathered near Fung Yau Street East."
CITE: "A message had been circulated the day before among closed circles, calling on Yuen Long residents not to wear black, the preferred colour of the protest movement. Villagers in the district also said they were reminded by their rural leaders not to venture out on Sunday if they could."
CITE: "“I saw a woman lying on the ground and some white-shirted people around her with their faces covered. Some of them were brandishing sticks and metal rods, some of them were not. She was the one later referred to as the injured pregnant woman online. Her condition was stable but she did not know the whereabouts of her husband, who was chased after and beaten.”"
CITE: "A team of 100 riot police officers went to Nam Pin Wai village, where most of the men in white shirts had gathered, at around 1am. But no arrests were made."
Entrance to Nam Pin Wai -- Wikipedia - Yuen Long Kau Hui
Chong Fat - Own work 南邊圍門樓
It's not unusual for an entire Clan Village to be complicit in criminal activity, there have been several such cases on the well-organized mainland, in hinterland Guangdong and Fujian.
Seeing as the police did not aprehend anybody until substantially later, and given that two local politicians may have had some prior knowledge of events before they transpired -- Arthur Shek (石鏡泉), and Junius Ho (何君堯) -- in addition to the "rural leaders" mentioned above, questions need to be asked. Pointedly.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Monday, July 22, 2019
JUNIUS
One person of interest, who should probably be kept from ever leaving Hong Kong, is Junius Ho Kwan-yiu, a legislator who appears to have exceedingly comfortable relations with the triad gangsters in his district, and has at times advocated violence and murder.
何君堯
But he is, like many politicians, an upstanding fellow. Educated, a lawyer, and involved with youth, charities, and local affairs. What you would call an exemplary citizen who has nevertheless not forsaken his roots or ignored his community.
More than 45 people were hospitalized on Sunday night after his supporters trashed transit stations and brutally attacked people with iron bars.
Which, everyone surely agrees, is valid political speech.
UPDATE as of Tuesday 23, 2019, 11:50 AM: Junius Ho's parents graves have been vandalized. This is absolutely not cricket. It can in no way be justified, and is something despots and gangsters would do. Despicable!
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
何君堯
But he is, like many politicians, an upstanding fellow. Educated, a lawyer, and involved with youth, charities, and local affairs. What you would call an exemplary citizen who has nevertheless not forsaken his roots or ignored his community.
More than 45 people were hospitalized on Sunday night after his supporters trashed transit stations and brutally attacked people with iron bars.
Which, everyone surely agrees, is valid political speech.
UPDATE as of Tuesday 23, 2019, 11:50 AM: Junius Ho's parents graves have been vandalized. This is absolutely not cricket. It can in no way be justified, and is something despots and gangsters would do. Despicable!
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
YUEN LONG: A WORD TO BE HISSED
Yesterday Carrie Lam, gauleiter of the Special Administrative Region, showed herself a keen student of history, by her use of anonymous goons to attack protesters. And it's likely that the Triads she hired to prove a greater need for law and order and a firmer hand will find themselves screwed.
Probably the next step is bodies floating in the harbour.
As well as too much plausible deniability to be believed.
元朗
It is likely that next weekend, the village of Yuen Long where the gang attack took place, may be a scene of confrontation. By that time the authorities will have made considerable progress in not making any attempt whatsoever in tracking down the white tee-shirted criminals, and sales of iron bars will have gone through the roof.
And, if the white tee-shirt crowd pull off another brutal assault on protesters, there will be prosperity all around. And that is what it's really all about.
Poon choi (盤菜) and thugs.
Trickle-down.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Probably the next step is bodies floating in the harbour.
As well as too much plausible deniability to be believed.
元朗
It is likely that next weekend, the village of Yuen Long where the gang attack took place, may be a scene of confrontation. By that time the authorities will have made considerable progress in not making any attempt whatsoever in tracking down the white tee-shirted criminals, and sales of iron bars will have gone through the roof.
And, if the white tee-shirt crowd pull off another brutal assault on protesters, there will be prosperity all around. And that is what it's really all about.
Poon choi (盤菜) and thugs.
Trickle-down.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Sunday, April 10, 2011
WIFE CAKE - PILGRIMAGE TO YUEN LONG
There are TWO reasons to go to Yuen Long (元朗) in the New Territories. One of them is poon choi (盤菜), the other one is wife cake.
Yes, you can get both of those things elsewhere, but Yuen Long is the source.
盤菜
Poon choi (basin dish: 盤菜 or 盆菜) is a compound of various ingredients pre-cooked separately, then carefully layered in a basin and reheated together for a short while, so that each ingredient may share some of its flavour and aroma with its neighbors.
The more expensive foods (roast duck and roast pork) are higher on the pile, and their juices will run down through the layers imparting savouriness to the more mundane items, making the braised lobak chunks on the very bottom avidly sought after.
A good poon choi is a feast, a bad poon choi resembles the leftovers that sergeant Yamada was heating up on a hotplate at his desk in the television series Barney Miller.
Poon choi is native to the New Territories (新界), available at some restaurants in the rest of Hong Kong, and not made anywhere else in China.
老婆餅
Wife cake (lo poh beng: 老婆餅) is a Chinese pastry consisting of candied winter melon paste surrounded by layers of contrasting dough – an oil dough around the filling, a water dough on the outside. Both dough layers are rolled together for uniformity, then folded around the filling.
Then an egg wash, and two slits to prevent it puffing up in the oven.
The completed product is baked for about twenty minutes to crisp it, resulting in a confection which is crumbly and delicious when fresh, soft and slightly chewy the next day.
Either way, divine with hot milk-tea.
[The term 老婆 (lo poh) is typically Cantonese, and almost the same in meaning as the hippie-era term 'old lady'. Lo is old, poh is a related female. My old lady = 我嘅老婆 (ngoh-ge lo-poh = my better half.]
What makes the product specifically a 'lo poh beng' is the different dough layers, which separate from each other and render it flaky.
Some bakeries fold the two layers over and roll them out a number of times to create a millefeuille effect.
The home cook is probably better off not trying this, though.
[Caution to the kosher and halal segment of my readers: traditionally, animal shortening (clarified lard) is used in Cantonese bakeries, as it really does yield a better, tastier result. Nowadays some manufacturers use vegetable oils. Butter can also be used. A few companies (including the one mentioned below) use palm oil. Coconut is a small part of the filling. And note that peanuts are a common presence in the kitchen of any Cantonese pastry shop.]
The most famous wife cakes are made by Wing Wah (榮華) in Yuen Long.
榮華餅家 AND 大榮華酒樓
Wing Wah in Yuen Long is well known for wife cakes, though they also make many other things, and run a very fine restaurant on the second and third floor of their building.
Their attention to detail, and the quality of their foods, make the half-century old company a destination.
Address: Number 4-6 On Ning Road, Yuen Long
If you're taking MTR to Yuen Long, get off at Tai Tong Road (大棠路), go down to Green Mountain Road (青山公路) and walk towards Kuk Ting Street (谷亭街), turn right.
Ignore Sing Lee Beef Balls and the Seven Eleven just up from the corner, there's another Seven Eleven scarcely one short block away on Shui Che Kwun (水車館街). Cross Shui Che Kwun. A few yards further on, go left up Sai Tai Street (西堤街). Cross Tai Fung (泰豐街), and keep going on Sai Tai. You should be able to see a red three-storey building at the end of the street by now.
Sai Tai Street curves leftwards and turns into On Ning Road (安寧路), and right on the bend, on the right hand side in that bright red building, is the restaurant.
Taai Wing Wah Jau Lau: 大榮華酒樓.
Note that, predictably, a Seven Eleven occupies one of the ground floor spaces of that building.
Seven Eleven truly is everywhere.
That's VERY suspicious. Hmmmmm!
YAM CHA (DRINK TEA: 飲茶)
The entrance to the restaurant is between the news stand and the gift-shop, where you can purchase their famous lo poh beng, mooncakes (in season), and preserved meat products.
If it's still morning, you should have dim sum (點心) here. The steamed egg custard cake (nai wong ma-lai gao: 奶黃馬拉糕) is one of their best dishes, but you may want to concentrate on the more savoury items. Taro cake (woo gok: 芋角), fried glutinous rice cake with pork (haahm sui gok: 咸水角). Very nicely prepared Phoenix claws (chicken feet; fung jao: 鳳爪). Diverse rice flour sheet noodles (cheung fan: 腸粉), plus Chicken buns (gai bao: 雞飽) and Charsiu buns (叉燒包). Steamed shrimp pockets (ha gau: 蝦餃). Pork stuffed into a wheat dough cup (siu mai: 燒賣). And more.
It's all quite delicious. Aren't you glad you came?
Of course Tai Wing Wah Restaurant also does poon choi, which is more suited to later in the day, especially if you're in a group of ten or twelve people. It gets quite crowded, and often there is a line out the door.
There are other places to get poon choi, however, and they are all proud of their versions of the dish.
Taai Foon Hei (大歡喜飯店 'great welcoming happiness rice-shop') at 76 Kau Yuk Road (教育路) is also very good.
Unsurprisingly, they aren't too far from a Seven Eleven.
Look for the green sign that sticks out over the street, stating 大歡喜盆菜.
Peng San Poon Choi (屏山盆菜) is also famous.
They too are in or near Yuen Long, but I do not know exactly where.
There is NO poon choi in San Francisco. You will have to do without.
But we do have lo poh beng.
Every bakery makes those.
And milk tea we also have.
FLAKY YUMMY GOODNESS
One of the best places is on Jackson Street (昃臣街) between Grant (都板街) and Kearny (乾尼街). They're diagonally opposite the old Great Star Theater. Easy to find.
Nowhere near a Seven Eleven.
YUMMY BAKERY & CAFÉ
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-989-8388
They are justifiably proud of their lo poh beng. They will pack six of them in a special box for you.
In addition to lo poh beng, they also produce a number of other products: breads, non-Chinese pastries, birthday cakes and wedding cakes, and the usual sweet soft biscuits exchanged between families upon the engagement of a young couple.
I heartily recommend them.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
Yes, you can get both of those things elsewhere, but Yuen Long is the source.
盤菜
Poon choi (basin dish: 盤菜 or 盆菜) is a compound of various ingredients pre-cooked separately, then carefully layered in a basin and reheated together for a short while, so that each ingredient may share some of its flavour and aroma with its neighbors.
The more expensive foods (roast duck and roast pork) are higher on the pile, and their juices will run down through the layers imparting savouriness to the more mundane items, making the braised lobak chunks on the very bottom avidly sought after.
A good poon choi is a feast, a bad poon choi resembles the leftovers that sergeant Yamada was heating up on a hotplate at his desk in the television series Barney Miller.
Poon choi is native to the New Territories (新界), available at some restaurants in the rest of Hong Kong, and not made anywhere else in China.
老婆餅
Wife cake (lo poh beng: 老婆餅) is a Chinese pastry consisting of candied winter melon paste surrounded by layers of contrasting dough – an oil dough around the filling, a water dough on the outside. Both dough layers are rolled together for uniformity, then folded around the filling.
Then an egg wash, and two slits to prevent it puffing up in the oven.
The completed product is baked for about twenty minutes to crisp it, resulting in a confection which is crumbly and delicious when fresh, soft and slightly chewy the next day.
Either way, divine with hot milk-tea.
[The term 老婆 (lo poh) is typically Cantonese, and almost the same in meaning as the hippie-era term 'old lady'. Lo is old, poh is a related female. My old lady = 我嘅老婆 (ngoh-ge lo-poh = my better half.]
What makes the product specifically a 'lo poh beng' is the different dough layers, which separate from each other and render it flaky.
Some bakeries fold the two layers over and roll them out a number of times to create a millefeuille effect.
The home cook is probably better off not trying this, though.
[Caution to the kosher and halal segment of my readers: traditionally, animal shortening (clarified lard) is used in Cantonese bakeries, as it really does yield a better, tastier result. Nowadays some manufacturers use vegetable oils. Butter can also be used. A few companies (including the one mentioned below) use palm oil. Coconut is a small part of the filling. And note that peanuts are a common presence in the kitchen of any Cantonese pastry shop.]
The most famous wife cakes are made by Wing Wah (榮華) in Yuen Long.
榮華餅家 AND 大榮華酒樓
Wing Wah in Yuen Long is well known for wife cakes, though they also make many other things, and run a very fine restaurant on the second and third floor of their building.
Their attention to detail, and the quality of their foods, make the half-century old company a destination.
Address: Number 4-6 On Ning Road, Yuen Long
If you're taking MTR to Yuen Long, get off at Tai Tong Road (大棠路), go down to Green Mountain Road (青山公路) and walk towards Kuk Ting Street (谷亭街), turn right.
Ignore Sing Lee Beef Balls and the Seven Eleven just up from the corner, there's another Seven Eleven scarcely one short block away on Shui Che Kwun (水車館街). Cross Shui Che Kwun. A few yards further on, go left up Sai Tai Street (西堤街). Cross Tai Fung (泰豐街), and keep going on Sai Tai. You should be able to see a red three-storey building at the end of the street by now.
Sai Tai Street curves leftwards and turns into On Ning Road (安寧路), and right on the bend, on the right hand side in that bright red building, is the restaurant.
Taai Wing Wah Jau Lau: 大榮華酒樓.
Note that, predictably, a Seven Eleven occupies one of the ground floor spaces of that building.
Seven Eleven truly is everywhere.
That's VERY suspicious. Hmmmmm!
YAM CHA (DRINK TEA: 飲茶)
The entrance to the restaurant is between the news stand and the gift-shop, where you can purchase their famous lo poh beng, mooncakes (in season), and preserved meat products.
If it's still morning, you should have dim sum (點心) here. The steamed egg custard cake (nai wong ma-lai gao: 奶黃馬拉糕) is one of their best dishes, but you may want to concentrate on the more savoury items. Taro cake (woo gok: 芋角), fried glutinous rice cake with pork (haahm sui gok: 咸水角). Very nicely prepared Phoenix claws (chicken feet; fung jao: 鳳爪). Diverse rice flour sheet noodles (cheung fan: 腸粉), plus Chicken buns (gai bao: 雞飽) and Charsiu buns (叉燒包). Steamed shrimp pockets (ha gau: 蝦餃). Pork stuffed into a wheat dough cup (siu mai: 燒賣). And more.
It's all quite delicious. Aren't you glad you came?
Of course Tai Wing Wah Restaurant also does poon choi, which is more suited to later in the day, especially if you're in a group of ten or twelve people. It gets quite crowded, and often there is a line out the door.
There are other places to get poon choi, however, and they are all proud of their versions of the dish.
Taai Foon Hei (大歡喜飯店 'great welcoming happiness rice-shop') at 76 Kau Yuk Road (教育路) is also very good.
Unsurprisingly, they aren't too far from a Seven Eleven.
Look for the green sign that sticks out over the street, stating 大歡喜盆菜.
Peng San Poon Choi (屏山盆菜) is also famous.
They too are in or near Yuen Long, but I do not know exactly where.
There is NO poon choi in San Francisco. You will have to do without.
But we do have lo poh beng.
Every bakery makes those.
And milk tea we also have.
FLAKY YUMMY GOODNESS
One of the best places is on Jackson Street (昃臣街) between Grant (都板街) and Kearny (乾尼街). They're diagonally opposite the old Great Star Theater. Easy to find.
Nowhere near a Seven Eleven.
YUMMY BAKERY & CAFÉ
607 Jackson Street
San Francisco, CA 94133.
415-989-8388
They are justifiably proud of their lo poh beng. They will pack six of them in a special box for you.
In addition to lo poh beng, they also produce a number of other products: breads, non-Chinese pastries, birthday cakes and wedding cakes, and the usual sweet soft biscuits exchanged between families upon the engagement of a young couple.
I heartily recommend them.
==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================
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