How John Fung found his passion for photography after difficult teenage years in Macau and Hong Kong, and why he always lives in the moment
- Born in Madagascar and raised in Macau, Fung went through a number of odd jobs and even tried modelling, before discovering a passion for photography
- Wanting a break, he opened Black Sheep restaurants in Shek O and Sai Kung, then went back to his first love. His images should always tell a story, he says
In the 1940s, my father left China to find work in Madagascar, East Africa. For some years, he ran a stall in a market. When he was ready to start a family, he wrote to a matchmaker back home, who introduced him to a wife. They married in China and returned to Madagascar together. Although it was arranged, it was a love marriage.
I was the first child, born in 1953, and have three younger siblings. We lived in the capital, Antananarivo. People were not rich, but it was a very peaceful and simple life. As kids we ran around barefoot. We spoke a little French, a few words of Malagasy – it was enough to play with the local kids.
When Madagascar got its independence (from France, in 1960), my father decided it was time to leave. In 1966, we flew to Hong Kong, but immigration wouldn’t let us enter so we went to Macau.
Class struggle
My father moved to Hong Kong to look for work and the rest of the family stayed in Macau. My brother and I went to Yuet Wah College, an all-boys’ Catholic school. It was a hellish adjustment – the education system was so different from what we’d come from in Madagascar and lessons were difficult.
The teacher spoke Cantonese, but I didn’t understand what she was saying as my parents’ dialect, which we’d grown up with, was so different. After a few years, the whole family moved to Hong Kong and lived on Argyle Street, in Mong Kok. In those days it was such a quiet area that I used to sleep with the window open.
Odd jobs
The Hong Kong education system was even more difficult than the one in Macau. I wasn’t doing well at school, so my various uncles suggested work for me. For a few months I packed clothes in a factory, which was very boring.
