Tightly Bound Flowers · The Lonely Fifteen-Year-Old Shooting Star[2]-Ghost Mom Cooking
Kowloon Walled City
Kowloon Walled City (Chinese: 九龙寨城/九龙砦城/九龙城寨/九龙城砦) is a very special area in Hong Kong. Around the Song Dynasty, a government salt farm was established between Tsim Sha Tsui and Cha Kwo Ling, and a “government fortress” was built next to it, which was managed by salt officials and garrisoned by the court.
January 26, 1841 (the twenty-first year of Qing Daoguang), Admiral Sir Charles Elliot (August 15, 1801 — September 9, 1875), the British commercial director and Royal Navy officer in China, landed at Possession Point and occupied Hong Kong Island. The British held a flag-raising ceremony and fired cannons to declare their sovereignty. 1842 (the 22nd year of the Qing Dynasty’s Daoguang) The Qing Dynasty was defeated in the First Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking was signed by both sides. The Qing Dynasty ceded Hong Kong Island and opened five ports of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai to trade.
His Majesty the Emperor of China agrees, that British Subjects, with their families and establishments, shall be allowed to reside, for the purpose of carrying on their mercantile pursuits, without molestation of restraint at the cities and towns of Canton, Amoy, Foochow-Fu, Ning-po and Shanghai, and Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc.,will appoint Superintendents,Consular Officers,to reside at each of the above-named Cities and Towns.…
…the Island of Hongkong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and to be governed by such Laws and Regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., shall see fit to direct.
— — Treaty of Nanking
The Treaty of Nanking did not cover Kowloon. The British built Victoria City (Chinese: 维多利亚城. also known as Queen City or Hong Kong City) in Hong Kong, which and the Kowloon Walled City on the opposite bank are looking at each other from a distance.
On June 9, 1898 (Qing Guangxu 24), the Qing Dynasty and Britain signed “The Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory” (also known as The Second Convention of Peking) , the British leased the area north of Boundary Street in Kowloon and south of Shenzhen River. However, Kowloon Walled City remained under the jurisdiction of the Qing court and was garrisoned by the Dapeng Xiezuo Battalion of Xin’an County, Guangzhou Prefecture.
When the British took over the New Territories, some of the original residents of the New Territories feared that the “feng shui” (literally “wind-water”, sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is an ancient Chinese traditional practice which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment) and land rights of the major clans would be damaged, the Six-Day War of 1899 was fought between the British Empire and the major punti clans of the New Territories in Hong Kong on 14–19 April 1899
The British government believed that the conflict in the New Territories was orchestrated by the officials of Xin’an County, which violated the Article on “The Convention Between Great Britain and China Respecting an Extension of Hong Kong Territory”, which stated that “it shall not interfere with the defence of Hong Kong by arms”. On May 16, the British sent the Royal Welsh Musketeers and 100 artillery volunteers to occupy Kowloon Walled City.
In 1900 (Qing Guangxu 26), Li Hongzhang (Chinese: 李鴻章; also Li Hung-chang; 15 February 1823–7 November 1901, was a Chinese politician, general and diplomat of the late Qing dynasty. He quelled several major rebellions and served in important positions in the Qing imperial court, including the Viceroy of Zhili, Huguang and Liangguang) passed through Hong Kong on his way to Guangzhou to take up his post as Governor of the two provinces, and negotiated with the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Henry Arthur Blake (Chinese: 卜力, 8 January 1840–23 February 1918, was a British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903) , who eventually ordered the British troops to withdraw from Kowloon Wall City.
From then on, the British no longer administered Kowloon Walled City. The Qing court also did not station troops to manage it, and Kowloon Walled City became an anarchic zone.
In December 1984, China and Britain signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration (Chinese: 中华人民共和国政府和大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国政府关于香港问题的联合声明. Signed in Beijing on December 19, 1984, by Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as heads of government of the two countries) to deal with the Hong Kong issue, and in 1987 the two countries jointly decided to dismantle the Walled City of Kowloon.
On January 14, 1987, the two governments reached an agreement to demolish the Walled City.
In April 1994, the Hong Kong Government completed the project and converted the original site into a park..
There were no streets, just dark, garbage-strewn walkways: a dark, legendary slum in Hong Kong where 40,000 people once lived, including refugees and criminals, dentists and prostitutes. When the place was about to be demolished in 1993, a photographer found the courage to explore the labyrinth and took some unparalleled pictures.
— — Der Spiegel (The Mirror is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg)
Known as Sin City, this 0.026 square kilometer area of Kowloon Walled City was once home to more than 50,000 people, making it the most densely populated area in the world. In 1974, the British Hong Kong government sent 3,000 police officers into Kowloon Walled City to eliminate pornography, gambling and drugs, but they suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw. Hong Kong people all know: “If you don’t want to die, don’t set foot in Kowloon Wall City.”
There are only two public toilets in Kowloon Walled City, one of which is still a dry toilet, which stinks and is infested with rats. For the people of Kowloon Walled City, Staying alive is the only life.
It was here that Becky Lam was born and raised, and her relationship with her parents was nearly broken. For Becky Lam, the life as a “fishball stall” (offering sexual services) in the movie, has been too much better than her real life. Truancy, theft, drug addiction, sex trade…… is the norm of living, only the occasional love, to give a splash of color to the beautiful girls.
Ghost Mom Cooking
In 1986, police officers received a complaint from a building in Kowloon Walled City that for a couple of months, a foul odor was emanating from a unit in the building. When the officers arrived, they also smelled rice in the midst of a foul odor. After knocking on the door a little girl of six or seven years old opened the door and there was a smaller girl inside the door with salami and rice sitting on the fire. The officers asked who else was at home, the girl said her mother was at home, just finished making dinner, was not feeling well and went back to the inner room to rest.
The officers came to the inner room and were stunned by the scene on the bed, a corpse that had decomposed so badly that it was completely impossible to see its face. Due to the severe decomposition of the body, it was also impossible to take fingerprints. Based on the walk-through, the family could only be suspected of being stowaways. The father had abandoned the mother and daughter. The two children were 4 and 6 years old, and completely incapable of taking care of themselves. No matter how they were questioned, each of the two girls insisted that their mother was the one who cooked the daily meals.
The case could not be confirmed, and was widely disseminated, and was given the name “ghost mother cooking “. This is actually not a horror story, but a warm hearted wish. Perhaps, the Becky Lam from the Kowloon Walled City, under the shooting star wish, is a mother who cooks.
In 1989, with the authorization of Becky Lam, director Herman Yau (Chinese: 邱礼涛, born 1961, Hong Kong. Director/Writer/Cinematographer/Producer/Actor, IMDB: nm0946875), based on the real-life story of how the studio forced Becky Lam to do a nude scene during the shooting of the film Lonely Fifteen, made the autobiographical film No Regret (Chinese: 靓妹正传,1989 , IMDb: tt0093314), starring Becky Lam’s husband, Fred Carpio, as the male lead, and actress Ling Yeung (Chinese: 杨羚, born November 15, 1967, Hong Kong, actress. IMDB: nm0947803) as Becky Lam.
Waving my hand for my freedom and parting with you today
There is no need to have tears in my eyes There is always a time to part
I won’t turn back on the long road, don’t worry about me
I have my youth in my hands, I don’t care what I lose and gain
I want to fly like a seagull, fly far away in the sky.
I want to fly to the end of the sky, to the sunset.
I wave my hand for my freedom and become a seagull
My youth is in my hands, I want to go just when I want
I want to be like a seagull, flying far away in the sky.
I want to fly to the end of the sky, to the sunset.
I wave my hand for my freedom and become a seagull
My youth is in my hands, I want to go, I want to go
I don’t care whether I win or lose
— — Lyricist: Jimmy Lo Kwok Tsim (Chinese: 盧國沾, May 1949, Hong Kong lyricist, active from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s, faded from the lyric scene in the early 1990s due to an accidental disability. He has written lyrics for more than 3,000 Hong Kong Cantonese pop songs and is known as the “Lyric Saint”)/ Peter Lai (Chinese: 黎彼得, May 13, 1950, formerly known as Lai Shing Shing, a famous lyricist and actor in Hong Kong)，Composer: Michael Lai (Chinese: 黎小田 , November 8, 1946 — December 1, 2019, Hong Kong composer and music producer), Singing: Candice Yu On On (Chinese:余安安, October 22, 1959, born in Hong Kong, is a famous actor and singer in Hong Kong, vice president of the Hong Kong Film Workers Federation), Freedom in my hands, “Lonely Fifteen” Theme Song.
Blooming Runner , January 26, 2023
[Watching the flowering of a lifetime and gaining enlightenment of all dharmas]
Follow me, we watch the flowers bloom and fall together; share me, this life is difficult, only bonding.
— — Blooming Runner
