bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Three schoolgirls who collected a wealth of information on the development of wonton noodles in Hong Kong won second prize in an inter-school competition for Study Projects on Local History organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History.

  The three were Michelle Yip Pui-yee, Uranus Ho Sui-shan and Kwok Tsz-kiu from Wong Shiu Chi Secondary School.

  The team was supervised by art teacher Lee Tsz-wa.

  The students spent last summer vacation collecting information by visiting the Public Records Office and taking pictures in Tai Po, where they found evidence of wonton noodles in the 1950s.

  They also interviewed the person-in-charge of Ping Kee, an old wonton noodle shop in Tai Po, to trace the origin of the noodles in the territory.

  Sui-shan said they chose Ping Kee for the case study because the shop had been selling wonton noodles for 50 years and had witnessed changes in its development over the last few years.

  'The shop still has traditional Chinese decor and its own method of making wonton noodles. Visiting the shop makes you feel as if you can see the history of wonton noodles in Hong Kong,' she said.

  The wonton originated in Guangzhou in the Ching Dynasty, but it came to Hong Kong after World War II.

  The girls found that wontons in Hong Kong are different from those in the mainland. 'Hong Kong lies on the coast so people like adding shrimp as an ingredient,' Pui-yee said.

  There are economic and political reasons for the popularity of wonton noodles in Hong Kong, she said.

  'In the past, wonton noodles were the preserve of the rich, but they became more widespread as the economy improved, ' Sui- shan said.

   The girls discovered outlets where wonton noodles were sold had changed. Wonton noodles were sold on the streets when it was introduced from the mainland during the '50s and '60s, but later the Government allotted street hawkers the ground floors of old buildings which provided them a steady place from which to sell the noodles.

  During the '60s and '70s, old buildings were demolished and wonton noodle shop owners were forced to sell wonton noodles on the streets.

  'In the '80s, street hawkers switched their businesses from the streets to the markets on housing estates.

  'The noodles also spread to other parts of the world as Chinese emigrating overseas during the '80s. You can find wonton noodles in Europe,' Tsz-kin said.

  Sui-shan said the project was a challenge, but it gave her an opportunity to categorise information systematically.

  Sui-shan predicted that wonton noodles would face strong competition from Japanese food.

  'Nowadays, it's rare to find children who love wonton noodles. They love fast food and Japanese noodles,' she said.

  Mr Lee said their success in the competition was due to their in-depth presentation.

  'The students, showing economic and political implications of the issue, impressed the judges,' he said.

  Since 1992, the Hong Kong Museum of History has been organising the Inter-School Competition of Study Projects on Local History.

  This year's theme was Food Culture of Hong Kong and 43 reports were received.

 Tomorrow: Siu Ming Catholic Secondary School's winning report on old restaurants in Central and Sheung Wan Team researches reasons behind local snack's popularity 



History of wonton noodles wins praise