History's sidelines are littered with faceless participants who paid a heavy price for their involvement in political upheavals. The legacy of the 1967 riots was no exception.
Siu Kim-fai, whose beating by a factory foreman 40 years ago triggered the disturbances, led a miserable existence for the rest of his life as a result.
Until the day he died, he had harboured bitterness towards the riot leaders who he felt had manipulated and then abandoned him.
Siu was one of the workers at the Artificial Flower Works in San Po Kong who staged industrial action against new work rules announced in April 1967. He said he was not originally a member of any leftist labour union and the Hong Kong and Kowloon Rubber and Plastic Workers General Union, a member of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), did not approach workers at the factory until early May.
His woes began when he was beaten by the foreman during a scuffle on May 6 while he and fellow workers tried to prevent goods leaving the factory. He and 20 other workers were arrested and the incident became the immediate trigger for the bloody riots.
Siu claimed he was beaten by police when arrested and again when taken back to Wong Tai Sin police station for interrogation. He was prosecuted two days later but was not convicted. He was seen by the leftists as a hero in the anti-British struggle.
'People from the FTU took me back from the court to their headquarters in To Kwa Wan,' he would say later. '[Federation chairman] Yeung Kwong told me: 'You don't have to worry about your livelihood. We have plenty of money'.'
