It has been 16 years since Fung Yu-chuk moved out of Choi Yuen Tsuen, the farming village in Shek Kong where she grew up. Even so, she has never lost touch with the land. Admiring beds of crisp water spinach in a former neighbour's yard, Fung doesn't hesitate to wade into the mud, harvesting the best-looking leaves with deft hands.
The 48-year-old returns regularly to Choi Yuen Tsuen (literally Vegetable Garden Village), where she grows a variety of crops such as chilli and peas in her sister's market garden.
'I come back whenever I have time. I have to work in the field,' says Fung, a cleaner at a Tuen Mun school. 'It's something I can't live without.'
Fung's efforts to retain her farming roots form part of an oral history project launched by heritage activist Chu Hoi-dick to better understand neglected villages and their contribution to agriculture in Hong Kong.
Under government proposals for a controversial HK$39.5 billion express rail link to Guangzhou, Choi Yuen Tsuen and the surrounding market gardens will be razed to make way for a shunting station. Compiled from interviews with 10 villagers aged from 40 to 80 about their struggle as market gardeners, the oral history project features detailed articles as well as videos, some of which can be viewed online (expressrailtruth.com).
Many regard the project as a bid to document a vanishing culture, but Chu, who has formed a Choi Yuen Tsuen support group, says he's not so pessimistic.
