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week 2: Lam Tin Tsuen, Tsing Yi

The Tangs of Lam Tin on Tsing Yi tell visitors their ancestral village was founded in 1984. Then they smile and explain that the government resettled them from the original nearby site where forebears founded Lam Tin (Blue Field) three centuries earlier.

Today, in the new village, the Tangs remember their heritage by holding hearty clan feasts.

They use any occasion to celebrate; recent parties were sparked by the soccer World Cup,  marriages, births and festivals.

'Feasts are a part of our village tradition,' says Tang Kwok-kong, chairman of the Tsing Yi Rural Committee and a native of Lam Tin.

What better way to honour the past? Older Tangs remember fondly the years when Tsing Yi slumbered peacefully.

'Our ancestors were simple folk,' Mr Tang says. 'We are Hakka who lived by fishing and farming. Life was good. We got fish from the waters and on the slopes we grew pineapples, which were famous. We raised ducks and chickens.'

The tranquil life came to an abrupt end when the economic boom of the 1970s echoed over the island. The villagers were told the government had earmarked strategically located Tsing Yi as a site for  major industrial development. The Tangs had to move. The old Lam Tin was condemned to be buried under the rising tide of progress.

'In 1980, we were moved into housing estates while our new village was being built,' Mr Tang recalls. Four years later, the Tangs moved into their new home.

Mr Tang chuckles. 'When we first moved, the houses were brand new and the modern kitchens changed the communal feeling of the village.

'Our village changed, of course. But we were all together and that stressed the importance of keeping our traditions alive.'

As part of the resettlement deal, the government built a new tsz tong (ancestral hall) to hold the clan tablets.

The Tangs soon added their own touch of history; they built  an outdoor communal kitchen with charcoal fires to heat the contents of two enormous woks.

'An important part of our village lives was the happy feeling we all enjoyed when holding feasts,' Mr Tang said.

At Lam Tin, this means a noble spread of dozens of dishes which totally cover the large tables. The gau dai gui (nine big courses) meal offers  Hakka favourites. Two  10kg woks can cook dishes for more than 1,000 people. 'It's an important part of our village life,' Mr Tang explains. 'For hundreds of years it used to mark special festivals and celebrations, and that's exactly what it still does today.

'We have gau dai gui gatherings to mark the birthday of Tin Hau, New Year celebrations, when people get married or when couples have a baby's first moon party. It's mostly the men who cook.'

The largest annual feast is a five-day celebration in the spring marking Tin Hau's birthday. The fires are lit early, traditional Hakka dishes like minced pork and lotus rice are prepared. Above the flames, the huge woks heat slowly, the contents stirred by spoons as big as shovels.

'It's not just eating,' Mr Tang insists. 'It's the family gathering, the 200 Tangs who live here getting together. It's how things must have been a couple of hundred years ago.'

As the Tangs dine on succulent servings of their special dishes, they can see the towers of middle-class housing at Broadview Gardens. That estate rose on the site of their old village.

Unlike other communities, few of the Tangs of Lam Tin have migrated abroad.

'There's only one or two living overseas,' Mr Tang says.

He points out that although they follow the old ways when it comes to family feasts, new traditions constantly evolve.

'A new custom started recently, quite by accident,' he explains. 'About 10 years ago, a young bride was marrying into the village. The husband was very romantic and wanted to build her an old-fashioned ornate sedan chair like those used a century ago, to welcome her into the village.

'It became a village project. My son, who was then about 12 years old, was involved.

'Everyone worked on it. The result was pretty big and very impressive. When she was carried into the village, she arrived like a queen.

'These days, we take it apart and carry it in elevators to wedding parties in big fancy hotels.

'We use it to carry new  brides being brought into the village. It's a spectacular welcome. People from neighbouring villages ask to borrow the sedan chair.'

This example of evolving traditions demonstrates that Lam Tin is a living community, Mr Tang contends.

Links with the past are encouraged. Near the communal hall, nets hang to dry although the village is now a long walk from the sea.

Tang boys still follow the fishing customs of their ancestors. They go down to the shore, push a boat out into the fast-moving currents that swirl around Tsing Yi and try to net fish.

'During the [soccer] World Cup, the boys caught some fish and we fried them up for snacks which we ate as the entire village watched the games together.'

When they moved 22 years ago, the clan immediately tried to recreate a feeling of permanence.

They planted a banyan   tree outside the ancestral hall because there had been banyans  in the old village and they brought good fortune to the clan.

'Look at that tree.' Mr Tang points to the three-storey tall banyan  tree with its widely-spread branches.

'It's the same age as the village. You wouldn't believe it's only 20 years old. It's large and strong.'

Like the Tang clan's links with their past.

Today we feature the first of seven finalists in our Preserving Villages series, a project to highlight communities among the 600 surviving New Territories villages that are working to keep alive their heritage and communal traditions.  The SCMP, with the Home Affairs Department and indigenous villagers, has spent a year collecting suggestions from district officers, rural workers, businesspeople and friends. We visited more than 40 villages and identified seven finalists. We are featuring the first six on Mondays this month and next, and we will reveal a grand winner on October 23



Old ways in a new home