Loo Hin, 80, is a retired fishmonger who began as a stall assistant at the Wan Chai wet market during the second world war. He recalls that the biggest drawback of the job then was keeping a sharp lookout for ghosts while getting supplies during the night. He laments the mechanisation of his industry and worries about the seas being gradually emptied of fish.
I was born in Chungsan and came to Hong Kong in my teens. I came with my mother to join my older brother and sister, who were already here. When I arrived, I could not find work. Times were tough and I did anything I could find as a labourer. I worked on bomb shelters and pillboxes on the hillsides before the second world war reached us.
After the Japanese arrived in December 1941, I went to work for fishmongers in the Lockhart Road market in Wan Chai. My uncle had dealings with the live fish trade, so it was not difficult for him to slip me in. There used to be a stone jetty with steps leading into the sea at the Wan Chai waterfront. My job was to get seawater to keep the fish in.
The toughest part of working for fishmongers was getting up at 3am daily. I could never balance properly on a bicycle, so I had to ride a pedicab to Shau Kei Wan to get supplies. Roads were deserted and my greatest fear was coming across ghosts. Thankfully, I never saw one, but others insist they witnessed strange happenings. There was a certain stretch between Tai Koo and Shau Kei Wan where a shiver always went through you. The story was that if you were on your own, you would acquire a very chatty companion who would vanish if someone else showed up. We never went there alone, always in pairs. We believed the Japanese killed people on the hillside in that area.
Once the fish were collected and taken to the Wan Chai market, we filled the tanks with seawater and laid out the frozen fish for the bosses to start the day's trade. They usually showed up about 6am, and if we'd finished everything, they treated us to bowls of congee for breakfast. We closed at 1pm for a little rest and then started again from 2pm to 6pm. During the war we worked for our meals. When it ended, I was paid $30 a month, with the boss giving me small increments annually and a bonus at Lunar New Year. The increments were only a few dollars at a time, but they made you feel the boss appreciated your efforts.
I stayed on and eventually became a stallholder and employed at least two workers at any given time. I spent more than 40 years in the business, moving from Wan Chai to Causeway Bay and finally to the Happy Valley wet market. It was a good business to be in because Hong Kong people have always been fond of all types of fish, particularly all the different varieties of pomfret, golden thread and red snapper, which have always been plentiful.