Hongkong The Race Course Fire Memorial in So Kon Po History

Hongkong The Race Course Fire Memorial in So Kon Po History

Arek Madiun   11:04 PM   Comment  

The Race Course Fire Memorial was one of those things that I knew was around but had never really had the chance to visit, and then once I had the time it had really been pushed from my mind. It's only since last year when it was finally gazetted s a Government monument that it wriggled back into my mind and noted as a thing to make an effort to see. It's only taken me 10 or so years but I took an opportunity the other day to pop up and see the place with my own eyes.

It's not so convenient to get to because it's up on the hillside behind the Hong Kong Stadium in So Kon Po and this means it is a fair distance from public transport and out of sight and mind for most people. And, as nicely demonstrated by me, even those who know about it need to make a special effort to visit.

The memorial was built in 1922 to remember all those who perished during a catastrophic fire that swept through a temporary mat shed stand at Happy Valley racecourse in February 1918. It's not clear what the official death toll was and various reports put it anywhere between 570 and 600. Given the damage that fire can cause it's likely there are victims that have never been properly identified so I would guess the higher number is perhaps closer to the real figure. There is actually a very detailed description of the tragic events over on Gwulo.com (quite apt because I was visiting this site with David Bellis, Gwulo's ever-inquisitive owner). 

Those bodies that were recovered were placed in a communal grave - the site upon which the HK Stadium now stands. According to the ever useful (but not necessarily accurate) wikipedia, when the building of the original HK Stadium commenced in 1953, the bodies were moved to Aberdeen. However I can't seem to verify this and the details seem a bit vague. Moved to Aberdeen Cemetery? If so where? I will have to make a long needed visit to the place and investigate.

Anyway, those lucky enough to be identified have had their names engraved into two stone tablets that form the memorials centrepiece. The writing in the centre - ?????? - roughly translates as Chinese and foreign men and women victim's memorial. On the left appears to be all the female names and on the right it looks as though the men have been listed along with their Ancestral village names (offering a brief insight into the fact that a woman's ancestry in HK and China didn't matter - funnily enough it still doesn't as many a female indigenous villager will be able to tell you).

Memorial centrepiece

Actually, the bottom word ? (mou) is used to describe both a tomb or a memorial in Chinese, so I guess the distinction in HK isn't as pronounced as in the West.

I can't find any foreign names on the either of the tablets, so either all the victims were Chinese or there are some foreigners in there who adopted (or were given by those responsible for the memorial) Chinese names. However, my knowledge of Chinese names is fairly scratchy so it is possible some of the Chinese readers out there will be able to zoom in on the picture above and spot something that might indicate a foreigner. If you can please let me know.

To reach the site you need to head over to HK Stadium (closest MTR is Causeway Bay) and once at the front of the stadium, walk to the left hand side. The memorial is signposted and the signs say it is closed between 12 and 1pm. We actually arrived at smack on 12 and were a bit worried we were too late (especially as the walk uphill takes up a fair few minutes) but actually everything was open.

Even if it was closed, I fail to see how you can be stopped from entering given the fact that the outer wall is only thigh height (see below).

Hongkong King Yin Lei, Wanchai History

Hongkong King Yin Lei, Wanchai History

Arek Madiun   8:48 AM   Comment  

It's probably fair to say that of all the buildings in Hong Kong, King Yin Lei has held my fascination for the longest time. Of course, when I first saw the place I was only about 12 years old and it was the intriguing fortress of an evil drug-producing ex-member of the Shaolin temple who, sadly, ended up skewered on the end of a spear courtesy of a kick by Bruce Lee. But it was my, some might say, "unhealthy" obsession with that film (it was Enter the Dragon in case you hadn't guessed) that really kick-started my whole Hong Kong obsession and ultimately led me to come and live here.

On a few earlier trips out I had tried to find out where this building was and failed miserably. It wasn't until I finally moved here in 2006 that I finally stumbled across it, by accident, on a trip up to the Peak one day on the #15 bus. It's at 45 Stubbs Road.

Since that day, not only have I found a couple of other on-screen uses of it (see later), but also followed with great interest the events that began to unfold in 2007 when its long term owner, Stephen Yow Mok-shing, sold it. What followed the sale was a rather sorry indictment of the way the HK Govt often works (or doesn't work, as the case may be).

Mr Yow had bought the property in the mid-70's as an investment and he and his family had spent various amounts of time there over the years, but the upkeep and maintenance was getting a bit too much and so it was considered a good time to sell. House prices in HK were at a pretty good level and the eventual sale price exceeded, I believe, HK$400m+. I suspect that that price was a pretty good return on investment for the Yow's.

Taken in 2009 after the new roof tiles had been attached 

Unfortunately for the conservation minded, inevitably, the new owner had no intention of keeping the place and just wanted the land for redevelopment and in a rather sneaky bit of cynical manipulation he set about readying the place for demolition. It took a few days for people to notice but all of a sudden some rather large holes started appearing in the external walls, the old window frames were ripped out but most disastrously, the glazed green roof tiles were smashed to pieces and dumped. In hindsight it seems to be that the owner was being careful about not knocking it down straight away but damaging it to the point whereby saving it would be deemed useless by the Govt. It may or may not be a coincidence that the secretive new owner, who'd bought the property via on offshore shell company called Ice Wisdom, was later outed as Cheung Chung-Kiu - a Mainland property developer with very close ties to Donald Tsang's then HK Govt.

In true face saving and buck-passing fashion that people in Hong Kong know so well, the Govt were very quick to lay the blame on the former owner, Stephen Yow. They explained - in this case correctly - that the building was privately owned and therefore they had no way to intercede in the matter. What they neglected to mention - other than their close links to the new owner - was that Stephen Yow had already made several attempts to offer the building for sale to the Govt in order to secure its preservation. This fact didn't come out until several days later, after the Govt had already denied this was the case and after Mr Yow was vilified in the local press as a result of their denial.

Eventually, someone finally owned up to this fact and everyone decided to turn their attention on who the new owner might be (it was still unknown at this point, at least to the general public). What followed was the Govt realising they had to eat some humble pie and make some effort to reach and agreement with the new owner over the building's future and a land swap deal was struck by which an adjacent piece of land of similar size and plot ratio was exchanged for the building. What surprised me about it all was that Ice Wisdom agreed to stump up for the costs of repairing the damage that had been done to King Yin Lei. The place was declared a Monument (protecting it, in theory, from future demolition) and a massive renovation project was launched to fix the holes and restore the roof to its former glory. The building disappeared under blue tarpaulin for a long time before being reopened to the public in 2011. Yes, the place was so damaged it took 3 years to fix!

The restoration project was run by Professor Tang Guo-hua from Guangzhou University and involved work that could only be done by skilled artisans from as far away as Fujian province.

The Govt did run sporadic open days for a while - starting in April 2011 - with a limited number of tickets, none of which I managed to make it to, sadly, and in a somewhat ironic twist they asked Stephen Yow to lend them some of his furniture to furnish the house with for the open days. However, as of early 2014, the open days have now come to a close and the Govt has undertaken a bidding process for the building's adaptive reuse. Unfortunately, one of the main limitations of the property is that despite its 17,000 sq ft size, most of the space is divided into rooms too small to be of any great use, limiting the potential for its future utilisation. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

There used to be a tennis court here until 1966

Anyway, the building has quite a history and we can read some of it courtesy of the recent(ish) heritage assessment carried out by the Antiquities and Monuments Office a few years ago. Here is the link: http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr07-08/english/subleg/brief/175_brf.pdf, but I have cut/pasted the most interesting bits below:

The residence at the site was built in 1937 by Mrs. Shum Li Po-lun (????), the granddaughter of the renowned Chinese merchant and social leader Mr. Li Sing (??) in the 19th Century. Her father, Mr. Li Po-chun (???), was also a notable merchant and social leader in Hong Kong who made great contributions to many social welfare causes. Mrs. Shum sold the house to the Yow family in 1977. The Yow family is a successful merchant clan represented by Mr. Yow Qhei-man (???) who ran dried fruit business in Hong Kong. His son, Mr. Yow Mok-shing (???), is also a famous businessman who was appointed as Chairman of Tung Wah Hospital in 1979.

The site was sold at HK$24,000,000 in 1977, and the Yow family named the house �Ultamia� (???, King Yin Lei), literally �House of Virtuous View�. The name is inscribed on the Pai-lau (??) at the entrance to the site.

Now, of course I mentioned the house's brief but rather spectacular appearance in Enter the Dragon in the beginning of this post, but since I first wrote about this place back in 2006 (on version 1 of this blog, this is version 3) I have also seen it used in Clark Gable's Soldier of Fortune (filmed in 1955) and also the Robert Culp/Bill Cosby vehicle, I Spy (filmed in 1965).