Prior to 1971 in Hong Kong, it was legal to have several wives and concubines. Polygamy and concubine were common in Imperial China and continued in Hong Kong till 1971, making Hong Kong the only Colony in the British Empire embracing this practice. It is interesting to note that the “main wife” often encouraged the husband to seek a concubine, where she was unable to conceive. Further a concubine automatically raised the status of the main wife to “Tai Ma” (big wife) with undisputed authority over the concubine.
My father-in-law was a druggist and he owned a successful drugstore in Western District, which is a stone throw away from the business centre of Hong Kong. He had two wives, maintained two households, owned a business and drove a car, not an easy feat for someone living in the 1940’s. Unfortunately, due to his neglect and penchant for a leisure life, he lost his drugstore business to one conniving nephew. Overnight the comfortable lifeline was severed.
Hong Kong people were and are still reputed to be resilient, adaptable, persevering, undaunted, so was my father-in-law. He had to re-invent himself, and he did but not without some hardship. There were times when there was no money to put food on the table and my late mother-in-law, a good-hearted easy-going woman, had had to seek help from some caring neighbours. This was at a time when her seven children were still young and had yet to finish school.
My father-in-law moved on to a new business venture and began manufacturing medicinal pills, for cure of internal disorder like diarrhea, stomach pains, ulcers and other ailments. If you are envisioning a plush state of the art laboratory, think again. The manufacturing process took place at home in the kitchen. Powders and crushed herbs were mixed with water into a dough, shaped into small pills and baked, a crude way to produce medicine. Imagine the consequences today if the pills cause health complication. Hong Kong was then famous as a free country, with a liberal “Laissez Faire” policy which led Hong Kong to progress quickly from a “Barren Rock” to one of the most sophisticated cities in the World.
Later my father-in-law tried his hand at “Fung Shui”, the Chinese art of Geomancy. He quickly became a Fung Shui Master. He did very well in this enterprise because not only was he knowledgeable or perceived to be knowledgeable in this field, but he was a convincing talker. He could hold an audience. Further, Hong Kong was flooded with newcomers from China who were superstitious and willing to pay high price for a glimpse of what the future lay ahead for them.
My father-in-law had a bad temper, a trademark of the household. Here is an episode. The family lived on the third floor of a building with no elevator. Every time my father-in-law returned home, he pressed the buzzer, which was located on the ground floor, three times, effectively a siren to warn people to hide. Should one cross his path, hell broke loose. He needed no shout, just one long penetrating side glance, this was enough to send a shiver down one’s spine. Only after he had cooled down through a face and torso wash, life resumed its normal course.
In fairness, I had also witnessed the good side of my father-in-law. One time, he was in a good mood, a rare occasion. He gave her youngest and favourite daughter a twenty-dollar bill, quite a sum then, his face radiating with a caring smile and fatherly love.
Face was and is important to Chinese people. People from Shanghai in particular were reputed to dress extremely neat for appearance when in public while at home they might have to endure a meagre meal of simple congee. My father-in-law, not from Shanghai but from Chiu Chow, never left home without a well ironed shirt and pants.
Mother-in-law and all siblings regularly enjoyed Dim Sum together, an established family activity, but father-in-law never joined once. Instead he indulged heavily on his pet birds, a popular and prestigious past time of the older folks, spending numerous hours feeding the birds with live crickets and grasshoppers, cleaning their feathers, exchanging whistling, talking to them, and keeping the bird cage in tip top condition. He needed his treasured pets to be at their best when show casing them at the morning gathering of bird lovers at the park.
