Winnie Feng

Winnie Feng Huiyan, 72, is a resident of Shanghai, but has lived in Hong Kong on and off since the late 1930s. As a child, she visited her grandfather, a former Chinese minister who was later caught and placed under house arrest by the Japanese at The Peninsula. She has vivid memories of Repulse Bay in the 30s, Kowloon and holiday homes in Tsing Yi.

I was born in Shanghai, the youngest of three. I have an elder brother and sister. I was educated at the Loretto School, run by American nuns. From there, I went on to St John's University, where I earned a degree in teaching. My speciality was English.

My grandfather on my mother's side was Li Sihao, a prominent politician and minister of finance in 1919 and again in 1924-25. He resigned in 1937, because of the political situation brought about by the Marco Polo incident (the bombing of the Marco Polo Bridge marked the official start of the Sino-Japanese war). The Japanese wanted my grandfather to head the puppet government they were setting up. He escaped from Beijing to Shanghai. They found him and continued to pester him to become their figurehead. He decided the only way to survive was to come to the relative safety of the British colony of Hong Kong. And that's how my connection with Hong Kong was established.

My grandparents lived secretly at 5 York Street in Kowloon Tong, and we visited on summer and other holidays. They enjoyed having all nine of their grandchildren with them and we treasured the times we spent here with our cousins. When we were children, we always thought of Kowloon as being residential - because that was where we lived - and Hong Kong side as being the business district. We marvelled at the double-decker buses, which were new in Hong Kong, and stared in wonder at the trams. They were so tall and so narrow, we were convinced they were going to topple over. I remember the excitement when were allowed to ride in one.

Our family had a bungalow in Tsing Yi and we went there. It was very green and there were a few bungalows along the beach. I can't tell you how much things cost, because we lived a very privileged life and were chauffeured around. The shopkeeper on the corner of York Street used to give us 'presents' of sweets, which were charged to our grandparents. This idyllic existence ended when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. After the Japanese arrived in Hong Kong, my grandfather was seized and taken to The Peninsula, which served as military headquarters, and kept there from December 1941 until April 1942, when he was sent back to Shanghai on a chartered plane. The Japanese still wanted to enlist his services, but he refused and withdrew from political life altogether. Following the liberation, my grandfather was appointed an adviser to the municipal government. My grandmother was very lucky, because she died before the second world war reached Hong Kong.

The trip back to Shanghai was a nightmare. We were on a British ship, which took nine nights and 10 days to reach Shanghai, three times the normal voyage time. Food ran short and the family hung around in our cabins. We were at our wits end. The master was worried about the Germans, and the Japanese rising sun was painted over the British union jack. The vessel was the Taiyuan. It was owned by Jardines.