'Living dictionary' keeps family history, culture and language alive

Robert Hau Kun-sun can trace back his family's ancestry an incredible 28 generations.

He takes pride in showing visitors, including hundreds of schoolchildren every year, village life in the New Territories, where the Hau family has lived for centuries.

Hau has converted a village house into a museum with many implements used for both food and farming.

He enjoys showing schoolchildren the traditional way of life and the crops that are still grown in front of the village as they have been for hundreds of years.

Hau has been nominated by the Conservancy Association for the heritage preservation category of the Spirit of Hong Kong Awards.

"I finished Form Two at the age of 15 and then started work as a messenger in Central," says Hau, 62, in his house in Yin Kong village as his elderly mother makes a pot of tea. "The Hau family is one of the five big families in Hong Kong. Our ancestors came to Hong Kong about 700 or 800 years ago in the Sung dynasty."

They came at a time when the Sung emperor was weak, so he fled with them. Parts of the Hau clan can chart their history back 33 generations to Sung dynasty senior officials, says Hau. Other parts were less prestigious. There were poorer elements within the clan, he says.