Napo Wong Wing Chi - "I hope the people of the Western district in this generation can take on the mission and carry the history of the district to future generations."
“I am an introvert. I don’t like to stand out, never wanted to be the first to speak and was not very sociable. However, after staying behind the scenes for many years, I feel like I’m at a bottleneck and need to break my own limits. Having witnessed our representatives’ candidacies disqualified, I understand that no one can represent myself. ”
The call to run in the Sai Ying Pun district election
My name is Napo Wong Wing Chi, or just Chi. I have lived in Sai Ying Pun for 20 years, and I am running for this year’s Sai Ying Pun district council election.
I love having late night food. Tai Lee brisket noodle shop is one of my favourites as they open till 3 am. I’m not particularly close to the owner, yet I feel a special attachment to this shop. My father really likes this district, as there are plenty of Chinese restaurants. It’s convenient for him to catch up with his friends over dim sum before he goes off to work every morning.
My parents as vendors
Both of my parents work as vegetable vendors in Shek Tong Tsui Market, and they know a lot of people in the neighbourhood.
My mother used to work as a cleaner in a community college when I was a child. In 2002 - 2003, the government outsourced all cleaning jobs. My mum then became an outsourced worker and had her wages cut. As she was paid by the hour, she had to work till 9 pm every day to make up for a comparable income, and she no longer had the time to make dinner for us. Since then, I had dinner at Cafe de Coral* every night. My father used to work in Central, but was fired in 2003 during the SARS epidemic, so they decided to work as vegetable vendors.
I studied in St. Paul’s College in our district. It is a traditional elite school and a lot of my classmates lived nearby. I was afraid to be seen with my parents and be mocked for being poor, so not only did I not help out at the stall, I even avoided saying hello to them when passing by the market. My parents probably knew what was going on in my head, so they never made me go help them. Sometimes I did complain -- why can’t they provide me with a better environment, or have a more decent job like my friends’ parents?
As with many young people, I only cared about my personal goals and what was missing in life, while failing to appreciate what I already had. At the time my only target was to study well, and hope to change my future. The drive of never surrendering to fate was what made me persist through the hard times. Nowadays, of course I can understand the hard work my parents have done for this family. I also admire their patience with a son like me. The older generation serves as a living example of the Lion Rock spirit.
Such personal experiences allowed me to fully understand the issues of social inequality in Hong Kong. It drove me to do something to change the status quo, especially for the grassroots. When others fuss over which restaurant to go to, what clothes to buy, and where to spend their holidays, many more struggle to make ends meet for their family. The more fortunate ones have the responsibility to speak up for them and help them improve their lives.
My path in social movement began in university
Upon entering the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), this sense of mission only grew stronger. I joined a grassroot concern group, and when I was conducting preliminary research concerning the minimum wage, I had a shocking discovery-- some cleaners’ hourly wage was only seven and a half dollars (equiv. 96 US cents). At the time a Big Mac meal at McDonald’s was around twenty dollars (US$2.55), almost three hours worth of their work. We also supported the construction workers’ strike, after which they successfully unionised and obtained collective bargaining power, negotiating with the employer to get reasonable annual raises.
I don’t regard myself as a particularly smart or capable person. Throughout the years of participating in social movements, I’ve met plenty of people with remarkable ability to think on the spot and speak with eloquence. Hence, I constantly remind myself to always learn from others with humility.
When I was the chairman of the CUHK students’ association, I thoroughly understood what it means to be the leader of an organisation, in that every word and action needs to be carefully considered before being said or done. In that year an erotic section was added to the students’ journal of CUHK. The stance of the publication has always been to challenge different views and values. The editors were very ahead of their time, and believed that the topic of sexuality and sexual needs should be acknowledged. Even to this day, such matter is still relatively liberal and controversial. The word of this erotic page spread very quickly to external media. As the students’ journal is part of the students’ association, journalists interviewed me for my opinion. I wasn’t particularly familiar with this subject, and responded with, ‘I think it (the erotic page) is a bit over the top as well.’ It sounded as if I was criticising my own team members, which was unideal and definitely had a lot of room for improvement. That taught me to consider different stakeholders’ points of view, balancing my own position, and the needs of everyone else in order to obtain the best solution.
Personally, I participate in social movements to seek righteousness. It also trains my courage to be more decisive and have a stronger sense of responsibility. In the past my role was like a ‘manager’ behind the scenes who sorts everything out for others. I am an introvert. I don’t like to stand out, never wanted to be the first to speak and was not very sociable. However, after staying behind the scenes for many years, I feel like I’m at a bottleneck and need to break my own limits. Perhaps it’s my response to Hong Kong’s call for action. Having witnessed our representatives’ candidacies disqualified, I understand that no one can represent myself. Therefore I think it’s time to establish my own place, take on the leadership, run for Sai Ying Pun, and push forward the policies I see as valuable.
The mission of the Western district
Sai Ying Pun is an old district with a lot of historical buildings and old shops. The residents here are friendly and helpful, however they are relatively conservative and the older generation tend to communicate with the younger generation in a parental fashion. Take my father as an example, he thinks living a stable life is the most important above everything else, and hates radicals like ‘Long Hair’ Leung Kwok Hung, feeling that they bring chaos to the city. When he discovered that I was working as Leung’s assistant, not only did he try to convince me to quit (which I did not listen), he also felt that it’s really difficult to explain it to his friends and neighbours. As a result, we stopped talking about work for quite a few years.
This anti extradition law amendment bill movement is a turning point of the relationship between me and my father, partly pushed forward by information technology. Now the truth can be seen on applications such as Facebook, The Stand News or Cable News. I show him the news on an iPad every day and discuss with him what is not reported by the news on television. Now he recognises the brutality of the police, the incompetence of the government, and understands what the students are fighting for; the government is really too awful -- so much so that even he, someone who used to be politically indifferent, is now very much against Carrie Lam.
Before the MTR** was recently extended to this part of Hong Kong, people didn’t use to move around as much. Sai Ying Pun could still remain a community on its own, preserving its precious regional culture. There are still quite a lot of more affordable restaurants today, and the selfie hotspot Western District Public Cargo Working Area has not become yet another white elephant project. I hope the Western district residents of this generation can take on the mission and carry on the history of the district. I also hope that I can win the district election and contribute to this place.
- February 2022
- December 2021
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- December 2020
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- December 2019
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Journalist: Summer Time
*A Hong Kong fast food chain.
**Mass Transit Railway. The Hong Kong underground / subway system.
(Another candidate in the same district is Tomithy Lau from the DAB Party.)