My Grandfather, Cha Chi Ming
I write these memories of my grandfather on the occasion of his duan chi.
While his passing has been heartrending for me, his life deserves to be celebrated without regret. There have been so many eulogies of Gung Gung (GG) commemorating his many honors, public achievements and from his admirers. These are pieces of his personal side that intersected with my memories. Among GG’s most relaxing and profound joys was the time that he spent with his rambunctious, rowdy, and frequently unruly family. As the eldest of the third generation, I’ve had the privilege of knowing him the longest.
He was 50 when I born. At that time, China Dyeing Works was already established as one of the stalwarts of the New Territories industries, providing employment for many in Hong Kong: including my grandfather Mr. CC Wong who built the first CDW factory and all subsequent upgrades, and Cousin Larry Yu’s grandfather Mr. IT Yu.
Me as a baby
I was born during a difficult time for his business. The imposition of textile quotas essentially throttled Hong Kong’s burgeoning export machine, and GG needed to find growth somewhere else. About this time, through his British and Japanese contacts, he was considering expansion in West Africa. The financial burden on him must have been tremendous. All seven of his children were in school, including 5 in college and 2 in boarding school. Fortunately, I was a small baby and did not eat much
My first memory of GG was at three. There was a lunch prepared on the large round dining table at Shouson Hill. One of the dishes was my favorite char-siu pork, and while the adults milled around, I sneaked meat off the plate with my grubby hands. GG caught me and asked me to stop; telling me that what I was doing was naughty. I’m not sure what I thought, but the temptation proved too much, and I sneaked another piece when I thought he wasn’t looking. He caught me and took me into the corridor behind the dining room to discipline me. From that moment on, I started paying careful attention to everything that GG told me.
My next memory involved a very rare visit by GG to my parents in the US. Emily and I were very small and asked him to tell us a story. He said he did not know any stories, but could tell us something about when my mother was small. He told us that my mother loved oranges. He once found her, a child of 5, sat in a wheel barrow full of oranges, happily peeling them and eating them. I recall—from a five year old’s memories—the story of how he rode a train carry dyestuffs to Chungking. It stuck in my head because he said that none of this would exist (he waved around the room to include me and my sister) had he not made it to Chungking.
Emily and I had three occasions to live with GG. Once in the mid 60’s when we were babies: I do not remember much beyond the char-siu incident, although I vaguely recall the wooden water buffalo. Once again in the early 70’s when we lived in Shouson Hill for about a year. Then, we lived there once more in the mid 70’s for about 2 years before we moved to our own flat in Shouson Hill.
The Early 1970’s
Of the early 70’s, what I remembered was how much my parents and GG worked. There was even a time when we were babysat for several months by GG’s colleagues, the Yeungs. As kids, we were spoiled by our Aunts and Uncles. When they were in town, Uncle Payson and Aunt Ronnie lived in Shouson Hill. Aunt Virginia also stayed there while she dated Uncle Tim. And Aunt Priscilla taught us how to Go-go. We would sometimes be invited to chaperone Uncle Victor and Auntie Laura on their dates.
This must have been the time of maximum growth of the Nigerian and UK ventures. So he was away from Hong Kong a lot—usually with one or both of my parents. Dinners were an endless procession of discussions about telex and people and companies referred to by their initials.
The biggest deal at that time was Nixon’s visit to China. I remember every TV in the house was tuned to watch that event. A TV was put into the living room (a big no no to this day) to track every activity. GG pointed out Chairman Mao and Chou En Lai to me. It didn’t mean much to me then. Still, I remember asking how come they were playing ping pong in such a fancy hall?
It turns out that this visit foreshadowed the opening of China. More importantly, that reopening would mean that GG and Nai Nai could resume contacts with his relatives in China—Nai Nai’s father and mother, his sister’s family and Uncle Bill Liu’s family.
He would walk 30 laps, sometimes 50.
From my kid’s point of view, GG and my parents’ travels were so exotic. Unusual things tended to follow him back from Africa. We grew up looking at huge ivory elephant tusks and exotically carved ebony and hard wood African faces. What? Didn’t every household have sub-Saharan African art in the living room and a Christmas tree flown in every year from Switzerland?
He also brought the first, if not only, domestic servants from Nigeria to Hong Kong. These servants were always men. I sometimes felt that the African servants were quite lonely. They were surrounded by Chinese speaking servants, including very stern Chinese housekeepers and cooks, with only a pair of runabout uncontrolled English speaking Chinese kids to befriend them. Nevertheless, they were deeply loyal to GG and felt privileged and well rewarded to be working abroad and in Hong Kong. We heard that one servant eventually returned to Nigeria and married 10 wives!
GG liked kids and he liked animals. There were always at least two dogs at Shouson Hill for as long I can remember. At this time, there was also a grey parrot. When GG was in Hong Kong he would walk around the enclosed driveway towel in hand at least 30, sometimes 50 times, in the morning before going to work. He would be trailed by a vicious Doberman called Peggy and sometimes by me on a training bike. I remember that I could not ride around as often as he walked. The Aunts liked to play badminton in the driveway, and I even remember GG taking a few swings in those days.
There were isolated activities that I recall clearly: There was a leak in the roof once, and I got to follow him up the ladder on to the roof to look around (Maybe they were looking at central air conditioning). When Typhoon Rose blew through, Hong Kong was paralyzed by continuous Signal 10 winds for almost a week. One of the windows in the upstairs rooms blew out. The eye of the storm passed right over the Colony. At that point, he and Nai Nai made me do a little ritual by painting something on my forehead, making me pray to the four winds with the windows opened, then lead me outside to pray some more. There may have been incense and chanting involved. He wasn’t home when a large python hid in one of the drainage pipes. The dogs sniffed it out and the servants and Nai Nai had to kill it with bamboo brooms. But I remember how impressed he was with it when he got home. From a child’s perspective, that snake was 50 feet long.
GG hardly ever said anything, but he was very supportive of the grandchildren. During those days, there was a red velvet drape between the vestibule and sunken living room. Emily and I would give periodic after dinner “plays” using the vestibule as a stage, and usually enlisting the wooden water buffalo as a third “actor”. Nai nai, and especially GG, would attend every one. When he clapped (which was just often enough to keep us interested, and only for Emily’s plays), we could not be happier.
And he would show his sentimentality in very unusual ways. Sometime around this time, I remember making a conical cardboard Santa Claus in one of my grade school classes. It was put on top of the annual Christmas tree at Shouson Hill. Ever since then, it was put on top of every tree in lieu of a star. One year, while I was in college, I was embarrassed by it and tried to substitute it for a proper Christmas star. He suggested that that Santa Claus was more appropriate. So back it went for more than 20 Christmases. Sadly, I believe the Santa Claus was lost somewhere at the turn of the millennium during the major remodeling of Shouson Hill.
The Mid 70’s
The next time we lived with GG and Nai nai was in the mid-70’s. Emily and I were bigger by then, so I got a room to myself; the one downstairs that is now the mahjong room. GG was gone even more often during these years. I believe he was setting up UK and US operations at this time. It was during this period that he bought a house in Los Altos Hills at Blandor Road. Emily and I were invited to visit the Blandor house every summer until I went to college. He still drove at that time, although he was already past 70. He drove very fast and was caught speeding several times going down Magdalena Avenue.
Blandor had one of the first TV’s with a remote control channel changer Reception was awful, so there was not much point to changing the two of three stations that were available. During leisure times, GG taught us kids how to play mahjong and cards. He liked to walk up and down the hills and roads of Los Altos especially in the twilight. Emily or I usually accompanied him. The walks were comfortable if quiet.
Back in Hong Kong, we were immersed in studies at this time, so our times with our parents and grandparents intersected mostly at dinner times. Frequently, he would get home from work and fall asleep on his vibrating Lazy Boy Recliner before dinner. Emily and I took turns having the job of waking him up for dinner. We always knew he was asleep because even with the door closed and the air conditioning running, we could still hear him snore.
I remember that every dinner had to have a fish. And he would always eat the fish eyes and fish cheeks. He would give the fish cheeks (which are the best part of the fish) to Emily and me when the mood struck him or when we did something interesting. My parents would always discuss business at the dinner table. After dinner, he would always return to his bedroom to watch TV. He liked to watch soccer matches, particularly German football, tennis, and nature documentaries.
Sometimes, when we weren’t loaded down with homework, the kids would be invited to join him. If there was some underwater adventure (mostly produced by Jacques Cousteau), he would point to the fish and tell us that “this one is good to eat”.
He had a dry sense of humor. He taught Emily and me, for example, how Shanghainese people used learn English. Counting One, Two, Three, and then using Shanghainese words and hand motions to match up the words. It was so funny that we could not stop laughing…
The Uncles brought two innovations into the house. The Pong machine introduced me to gaming. GG was fascinated even had a few tries, but I’m not sure if he enjoyed it, but he would sit and watch Emily and I play. The other innovation was the VCR deck. The machine was huge and fussy and no kids, but GG knew how to work it better than my Dad.
He still walked in the mornings, although we no longer joined him, since we had to commute to school. The dogs were different by then, but they still followed him around the yard. He got to naming them by size: Maxi, Mini, then finally, Midi.
Our relatives from China were given permission to migrate to Hong Kong, too. I remember meeting GG’s sister’s family for the first time. Uncle Jack Liu (Jing Jing) stayed at Shouson Hill for a year to study at a Hong Kong high school, ahead of the rest of his family moving to
Hong Kong. Uncle Jack seemed to live in deadly fear of GG, stuttering every time he was spoken to.
On the work side, I remember the factory and DiscoveryBay. Visiting the factory in Tsuen Wan was made a little easier with the opening of the Cross Harbor Tunnel. The trip was cut in half to about an hour. I remember visiting Tai Tai, GG’s mother, every month or so and seeing (and more importantly, smelling) the factory. The river outside the dyeing factory was completely polluted during these years. We could see the dye waste pouring into the river and smell it. I remember asking if all that pouring was allowed and being rebuked with “don’t ask a question that you don’t understand”.
GG was devastated when his mother died. My mother was traveling to Africa when it happened. He kept his emotions in check until she could hurry back. At the airport, he let out all his sadness as soon as she emerged from Customs.
He had just bought DiscoveryBay, so every weekend, we would get in a boat and rock for 2 hours to the island. Then we would all get off the boat and walk the hills around the beaches for a couple of hours. Sometimes, the boats would visit some fishing villages for the most delicious fish dinners. GG seemed to enjoy both the boat ride and the walks. During the long and frequently up hill walks, he would easily keep up with tweeny me. He would usually want to walk further than anyone else in the hiking party, but would be stopped by Nai Nai or impending darkness. On more than one occasion, I remember returning exhausted after sunset.
College and beyond
GG was always most supportive of his grandchildren. As he grew older, he would like to just sit and hold my hand. He liked to hear stories other businesses or business people that we knew.
My deepest regret was that I did not get to spend more time with him, although happily, I think I got to see him whenever one of his peripatetic moods brought him onto the West Coast. And to be fair, he had a lot more to occupy his time than his now voracious and huge grandson. Still, several meetings stick out.During the Sino-British talks of the mid 80’s, he told me that the brain drain from Hong Kong was devastating, and he was thinking furiously of some way to stop it. His solution (dubbed the Cha Cha Proposal), Hong Kong’s Basic Law—essentially a Swiss sort of Cantonship for a limited time—has managed to preserve the essential quality of life in Hong Kong through its first 10 years of Chinese government.
He liked to talk to me about China’s defensive capabilities. He sent me books to read so that we could talk about the space and defense industries. I told him that except for shooting down satellites in fixed orbits, Star Wars was a hoax. He was so proud when he told me that he was going to be the only civilian to be allowed to watch China launching its first man into space.
He won so many honors. I remembering attending the honorary Doctorate awarded at the City University of Hong Kong. He loved posing in that funny floppy red beret. And then dressed up again, twinned with my grandmother when she was awarded the same degree later. And attending the honorary Doctorate awarded by the Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. He was so happy he flew us all up and down to China in a private jet.
The Grand Bauhinia must have meant a lot to him. Although I don’t remember him talking about it, the award came from the newly minted Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that helped establish. Being a man of few words, deep sentiment, and decisive action, I noted that his front gate was changed from the 30 year old grey lattice to two giant red Bauhinias during the next year.
On a more personal note, he took time off his busy schedule to attend my wedding to Lisa. But before then, he liked me to introduce my friends (male and female) to him. Although he never commented on them to me, he did always invite them to join in a Cha family dinner. After every dinner, my friends always point out what a multicultural family GG hosted. The dinner conversation ranged from local, to Chinese, to British, to Japanese, to African politics, science, business, family, and acquaintances. The languages would shift from Shanghainese to Cantonese to English with the occasional Japanese and Xhosa word thrown in for good measure. Everyone at the dinner table was assumed to speak all of the languages. And languages were switched mid thought. Sometimes, a single sentence could be constructed from three or four different languages. The food was served by Filipino, Thai, Nigerian, and Chinese domestic helpers. The cook was Nigerian. The food was Shanghainese.And it is here that I think I would like to freeze my remembrances of GG: laughing at the dinner table, surrounded by his polyglot family, discussing world affairs, his chopsticks poised over the fish.
CCM Happy
May his spirit rest and his memory tarry for a while longer…
<!–[if !supportFootnotes]–>[1]<!–[endif]–> (broken seven, or the end of the traditional mourning period):
Tags: CCM, ChaChaCha, ChaChiMing, G3Chas