Crumbling vestiges of a warlord's empire: grave and home under threat
Nearly 100 years ago, a defeated general retreated to a corner of Yuen Long. Now, his heritage-listed home is in disrepair and his grave under threat
Behind the stained and cracked walls of the Shum Residence, a vanquished warlord once lived in grand style with his seven wives and 19 children.
In one of the three buildings in the compound, a piece of calligraphy still sits framed on a wall, the characters now faded with damp. It was a gift from almost 100 years ago from the Republic of China's then president Li Yuanhung.
The mahogany furniture has all had to go after being damaged by repeated flooding. Some of the beams are exposed.
The historic home in the quiet Yuen Long village of Fung Kat Heung was built in the 1920s in what was then a British colony by the once-powerful general Shum Hung-ying, after his reign over Guangdong and Guangxi came to an end.
The compound now sits in land zoned for industrial use. Mountains provide a dramatic backdrop but in front is a dump for building waste.
The story of the vanquished warlord was revived when the Conservancy Association, a non-governmental heritage conservation group, warned that his grave in southern Kam Tin lay under a public housing development in the government's blueprint for a new town.
Sham Kwong-cheung, 57, is one of Shum's grandsons. He said: "Our grandfather first lived on Caine Road on Hong Kong Island when he escaped to Hong Kong after losing the wars. Later in the 1920s, he bought a vast area of land here and established this village. He named this village Fung Kat Heung, meaning may all ill luck turn good."
Sham's cousin, Shum Hing-leung, also 57, said: "To protect the family from persecution, the general had arranged for his wives and children to settle in Hong Kong, where he joined them later, escaping here disguised as a merchant."
Born in 1871 in Guangxi, Shum was a Hakka native. Official documents in the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office described Shum as a "bandit" before he became a prefecture officer in the last years of the Qing dynasty. He rose through the ranks in Sun Yat-sen's Republic of China government to become defence commissioner in the two provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi.
After Sun's republic had succumbed to Yuan Shikai's short-lived Empire of China, the Warlord Era began.
Shum, who has been criticised for betraying Sun, eventually lost control of his southern empire but surfaced again in Hong Kong as a landlord. At one point he owned an estimated million sq ft of property in different parts of the city, in Kam Tin, Sheung Shui and Nathan Road in Kowloon, his grandsons said.
Shum Residence has been given a grade two historic building status and comprises General House, the living quarters at the centre of the compound; Hip Wai House, where the general lived; and the Shum Ancestral Hall.
The compound was built largely in traditional Hakka style, but Hip Wai House incorporated European architectural features for which the general had developed a fondness while living in Shanghai.
The general was married eight times but one of his wives died before the move to Hong Kong, where the large family spilled beyond the compound to form the surrounding village.
About 100,000 sq ft of its properties were still in the family's hands, said the grandsons, who estimate that was only about half of what the grandfather had acquired. Many family members have moved out of Fung Kat Heung and sold their land, and there are ancestors of the general in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada.
Pointing to the dumping ground in front of Shum Residence, Sham said: "This piece of land was sold about 12 years ago, and it became a construction waste site three years ago. Since they've been using it, it started to cause drainage problems. In the past two months, more layers were added and the land has got higher. Now when it rains, the house floods."
The cousins said they have complained to the Drainage Services Department several times. A spokesman for the department said it had inspected the site following inquiries by the . It found that "some of the storm water drains within these private lands had been modified" and had referred the case to relevant departments to follow up.
The condition of Shum Residence exposes the difficulties in maintaining privately owned heritage buildings in Hong Kong.
A government scheme offers a maximum subsidy of HK$1 million to maintain the buildings, but the family said it had never considered applying for several reasons. Firstly, the amount was far from enough to overhaul the three buildings. Secondly, although they are already opening it to visitors, they feared they would have to make that a formal arrangement. Thirdly, the co-ownership of the houses would mean complex family meetings.
As the Conservancy Association pointed out, the family's graveyard is now posing a new problem. It stands about 10 minutes' walk from the Kam Sheung Road MTR station and the government's preliminary maps for a new town with a 90,000-strong population puts it right under the development.
The graveyard, which has 10 graves, including that of the general himself, has not been given any historical grading.
The family has yet to hear from the government as to whether it wants to resume the land, and there are different opinions. "I must preserve the graveyard! I want to be buried next to my mother when I die," Sham said.
Shum Hing-leung agreed. "I will not accept money in exchange for our family graveyard. If the government asks to swap land with us, that may still be considered."
