He was a ‘freedom swimmer’ to Hong Kong from China. Now his barrister son helps refugees
- Chinese refugee Chan Yung-tak tells Jason Wordie about escaping to Hong Kong after 2 failed attempts and jail time, and becoming a proud dad
I was born in Macau in 1943 but don’t have any documentary proof of that; Chinese midwives didn’t keep such records in those days, and anyway, I was born during wartime, and everything was pretty disordered.
Later on, I learned that our family lived above the “Jik Lei” bicycle shop on Rua do Cinco de Outubro, down on the Inner Harbour – it’s not very far from the Hong Kong Temple.
We were five children in our family, but only four of us lived to be adults. Unfortunately, my oldest brother died as an infant in Macau during the war.
Another older brother eventually moved to New York and settled there; he has now passed away. My next oldest brother and his family never came to live in Hong Kong – they stayed on in Canton (Guangzhou) and now they live in Sydney, Australia.
My sister was the first of our family to settle down in Hong Kong. She arrived by herself in 1959, and eventually had a family. They still live here, and we meet from time to time; she has also passed away, so I am the only sibling still living here now.
New China
We were a Shanghai family originally, but moved down to Canton after the Japanese invaded China. The family worked at a tobacco factory.
