A Tsing Yi Story: Ms. Bao
It’s a minor miracle that the Chung Mei Wet Market even exists. Born out of a shared identity and history, this row of market stalls represents a community spanning at least two generations. Many of the vendors were originally situated on Tsing Yi Island’s main street back when it only had one. When the island was slated for redevelopment, the indigenous villagers were moved into three-storey houses via the Small House Policy. When the villagers moved, so did the vendors, following their clientele. By setting up shop on the ground floor plots of these village houses, a community was born.
As of late, however, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) has been launching a city-wide campaign to clean up city streets and one of the targeted locations is this small village market. They have been fining each stall up to HK$6,000 per day if they find that vendors are exceeding their plots and sprawling into the streets. For a small village market, this is equivalent to a death sentence.
It is 11:00 am, and I arrived shortly after inspectors came to penalize the vendors. People were visibly upset, and the atmosphere in the market was stale. Most around me were apprehensive at the sight of a camera, understandably so. Except for one lady, Ms. Bao, who greets me for a chat.
At 80, she still works at her corner stall at the edge of a staircase, selling dried and pickled goods among other miscellaneous wares. Every morning at 5:00 am, she sets up her stall with the help of her 91-year-old husband. Her outlook on the raids is bleak. She tells me, “If the FEHD keeps coming in, the market won’t last much longer—there’s a lot less people already.”
She’s been here in the village since 1981 and set up shop against the will of her husband. She laughs as she tells me: her husband didn’t want her to start a business; he was worried he would look bad and embarrass the in-laws by having them think she had to work because he couldn’t feed her. Little did he know, she confided to me, she didn’t care—she just wanted to sell stuff and start her own business.
Her spirit is unwavering; she has no children left to take care of, as they’re all adults working good jobs. At this point, she’s working for the love of it.
