Tsoi Yuen Village - sacrifice for the greater good? To hell with the greater good!

I was supposed to continue talking about the red-shirters debacle on my Part II Trip to Thailand. But as there are something I believe it's more urgent to address, I skip my trifle and here discuss a more dire issue before I go back to my whining and dining (ahem. I don't drink while I dine. But I whine whenever I have time, so...)

I am now a researcher working on two projects: one is my thesis on the Hong Kong indigenous women. The other project I am working on is the railway dispute between the government and the Tsoi Yuen village. I happen to have the privilege working on this project because the village was just a doorstep away. Because of my research, I have moved from my home in the urban area to the village close to Tsoi yuen a year ago and I heard the whole dispute from the villagers in my village. Out of curiosity and a fervent encouragement by my supervisor, I began to work on this project as a paper.

I wasn't very familiar with the village. To be honest, I am not familiar with the rural part of Hong Kong at all. People living in the city thought they are self-sufficient and thus, very often, do not find the need to go to the countryside. If they do, it's more because of leisure. For me, I did the same. Why bother to go to the countryside if I can find everything in the city.

Working on the ethnographic research about the village and the railway dispute teaches me what self-sufficiency really means. It means you grow your own food and you eat your own food. During the economic downturn, if you can't sell your vegetables, you eat them. You eat your rice. You mix your own honey with water and the drink is absolutely refreshing. And this is such a novel experience to an urbanite like me.

However, the government has planned to build a new rail connecting Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou that will shorten the time of commute to one hour.

I have no objection whatsover to the building of a railway. After all, I enjoy traveling by train and it's always more fun to travel by land than by air.

But, if this is built on somebody's soil and homes will be wrecked and families be destroyed. What should we do?

Well, I guess a responsible and considerate government will first look into the case and see how it could help to rebuild the homes of the affected. In such a way that villagers could still maintain their own ways of living, if the choice of the villagers' invaluable land becomes inevitable. In short, the government would uphold quality living for their people as top priority and minimize the disturbance done to the villagers.

Usually, before undertaking this sort of huge project, a responsible, civilized and considerate will widely consult the public, and then conduct an environmental assessment report, before discussing and negotiating with the affected parties.

Unfortunately, our government, in order to appease the Chinese government,jumps the queue. That's to say, they copy down and conduct spot check of each household in the village before even the local district body knows.

The upshot: I have been witnessing hubbubs and confusion and crying in the village. I could hear laments, roars of frustration. I could see tears weltering in the eyes of grannies. I could hear sobbing about the loss of their farm. I have heard loads and loads of stories about their 50 years tying to the soil.

I heard one story from Tang Gun tai's mother, who is 70 something. I bumped into her one time near the market and we took the minibus together. I asked how she was doing. Looking frightful, she was shaking when she told me how scared she was if she had to leave the village. "I spent 50 years with the soil of Tsoi Yuen village. I built my own house, my own farm. Now, I spend my time at my home growing and selling my own vegetables. I don't know what I can do if I remove my house. I don't want to live in the public housing estate. This is my entire life!!. Where else can I go? I know no one. I have my kids of course. But the soil is my life. It has always been my entire life! I am very scared!!" Her eyes were red and full of tears.

As a researcher, I have to stay as objective and independent as possible. But at the same time, I can't help feeling the dread, the unwillingness, the frustration, the anger of those people. It moves me. Despite the differences among the villagers. Despite the different concerns between the so called "indigenous" and
"non-indigenous" villagers, I feel the same concern, the same bewilderment among them. Why take my home? Why don't you care that this is my home? Does it matter whether I am not the "indigenous" or "non-indigenous" when this has been my home since God knows when?

Well, I guess there is still a long road for Hong Kong to pride herself a modernized and civilized society if she could just ignore and marginalize those who are not in power..... Power to the people, by the people? It's now up to the Legislative council to prove itself it's not a rubber stamp.