Hong Kong Central Market veterans recall bustle and mainland workers who showered in the open, stayed overnight
- After stylish revamp, landmark brings back former tenants to share stories of earlier era
- Homeless workers stayed day and night at market until they earned enough to rent cubicles
Pork seller Jackie Lai Hon-yuen remembers his father’s stall in Hong Kong’s Central Market for the mainland workers who spent their days and nights there in the 1970s and 1980s.
There were about 10 men who would sleep on wooden boards placed on metal railings installed above the stall.
“They usually stayed there until they earned enough to rent a cubicle,” he recalls, referring to Hong Kong’s early subdivided flats which had wooden boards as partitions. “Those workers spent their lives completely in the market.”
Lai, 51, a second-generation pork seller with a wholesale business at a nearby Sheung Wan market, is among guest speakers who will be at the revitalised market at Des Voeux Road Central on Saturday afternoon to share their stories about the history of the place.
He says the homeless mainlanders who made up most of the market workers would sneak in after closing hours and stay overnight.
