A personal memoir of Ping Yeung Public School — by Dr. Miriam Lau, Division of Arts and Languages
I was about to embark on writing about various Waldorf schools in Hong Kong, which employ an alternative educational approach based on the ideals of the German philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. Unlike the traditional Chinese educational approach that focuses on academics, the Waldorf approach believes that in the first seven years of a child’s life, the emphasis is not on training a child to read and write, but to nurture his or her will and purpose through free play and engaging with nature.
Just before I started writing, I stumbled upon the following photo on the internet, and at that very moment, I had shifted my course. I am still interested to write about an alternative mode of education, but I had changed my subject material to a village school in Hong Kong. I knew I had to record the history of Ping Yeung Public School before the 66-year-old school building is completely torn down by the tractor, as seen in Photo 1. There were also several alumni in the “Ping Yeung alumni forum” on social media expressing their sadness over this and lamenting how they had wished they had taken photos of the school with their grandchildren before they had emigrated from Hong Kong.
(Photo credit: Mr. John Yeung)
To those who have not heard of Ping Yeung, it is a village school established in 1958, serving mainly the children who resided at the Ping Yeung Village in Fanling. Geographically, it is situated in a rather remote area in Lin Ma Hang, which is close to the Shenzhen border. In the past, you have to take a green minibus from Fanling MTR station, alight at “Kau Kee” grocery store and walk across from there. But now, when you drive towards the Heung Yuan Wai Control Point to get to Shenzhen, a street nameplate points you to the road leading up to “Ping Yeung”, which is quite remarkable.
Even if you have not visited the school before, you might have seen images of Ping Yeung on television, which had been used for outdoor shooting of some melodrama. According to a former teacher at Ping Yeung, in the school’s heyday, there were respectively six morning and afternoon classes, each class consisting of 40 students, and with 15 teaching staff in total.1 The school had also exceled in sports, such as table-tennis and basketball, which often received championship in the inter-school competitions of the North District in Hong Kong.2 With increasing villagers moving away from Ping Yeung, starting from the mid-1990s, the school had transitioned from serving primarily local students to a mixture of locals and cross-border students who travelled daily from Shenzhen. Nevertheless, with the reduction of cross-border students, Ping Yeung had eventually closed its gates in 2006. The history of Ping Yeung can be read as a microscopic account of the rise and fall of village schools in Hong Kong, in which there is an album of Ping Yeung photos archived by the Education University of Hong Kong.3
Yes, the school might have ceased its operation, and the building might even be “demolished” soon, yet the spirit of Ping Yeung remains fervent. The school was first established by Lau Siu-an in 1958,4 and the second principal was my late grandfather, Kwan Shek-hong, who had served the school for 17 years from 1965 till his retirement in 1982. That was a time before the emergence of any student feedback questionnaires at the end of a semester to measure teachers’ performance. Yet, the fact that many of his former students, some of them now in their 70s and 80s, still vividly remember my grandfather’s teachings and shared their nostalgic memories of Principal Kwan on social media, convinced me that my grandfather had done not such a bad job after all. While at first reading comments on my family from people I have never met seemed a bit uncanny, thanks to their sharing, I have known more interesting facts about my grandfather and my mother. Here are some of their reminiscences posted online, which I have categorized and translated them into English.
On his red beetle car
Wong: Principal Kwan is a very good principal! I am very fortunate to have him teach me table tennis, to represent the school in competitions and winning many awards. In addition, Principal had taught me to paint a tiger to enter a competition on promoting Hong Kongers’ awareness of crossing the road. In Chinese calligraphy, the words stated: “The road is like the mouth of a tiger”. I particularly like riding on Principal’s red beetle car!
Chung: When I was small, I need to go to Luen Wo Hui Market to sell vegetables at early dawn before heading to school. I met Principal, and he drove me to school on his red beetle car.
Cheng: I remembered that there was heavy rain one day after school, so I had ridden on his car.
On his teachings
M. Yeung: As I was a transfer student, I came to school in the same year with Principal Kwan. Principal’s teaching style was through active learning and application, which I believe was even more innovative than today’s education. He had contributed hugely to the school. He taught us Chinese language, and through him I was immersed in Chinese culture, and began falling in love with poetry, lyrics, and classical prose. Very nice meeting you here.
Chung: Principal Kwan had excellent handwriting. He helped students write down their names on their umbrellas to avoid them getting mixed up. He also taught me harmonica. He was a person of immense talents. Very grateful for meeting such a good principal!
On the revamping of school facilities
R. Yeung: From what I know, Principal Kwan had overseen the construction of a new hall during his reign. Students are thus no longer exposed to sun and rain during the school’s anniversary (i.e. the first Sunday of every December) and in other big ceremonies. Principal had devoted his entire life to education, and he taught everyone irrespective of their backgrounds. I am very honoured to have been able to teach at Ping Yeung under his leadership.
On my mother
Yip: The Ping Yeung Village had preserved a lot of precious artefacts. In the book on Lin Ma Hang, one of the pages depicts Principal Kwan carrying a little child on his lap, and that is his daughter!
Chung: How is your mother? She had taught me music when she served as a substitute teacher at Ping Yeung! Principal Kwan had a tenacious spirit and worked tirelessly, which is admirable!
A request
M. Yeung: I have a bold request, we all love and respect Principal Kwan. At that time, all the Chinese textbooks had been composed by him. My favourite one is Li Bai’s Jiang Jin Jiu (Bring in the Wine). Today I know that you still keep his calligraphy and painting, could you consider posting them here on a regular basis, so that we can revisit his work and pay tribute to him? Actually, the most important thing is to unite the strength of the alumni.
When I was researching into the history of Ping Yeung, a former teacher in the school had kindly suggested me to contact an alumnus who might be able to help me with my pursuits. She is a legislative council member – Chan Yuet-ming. I was given a phone number of her office, and after much thought, I had decided to try emailing her first as writing would give me more space to explain my request for a phone interview. I had emailed her on a Monday, to my utter surprise, her assistant called me on Tuesday morning, and gave me another number to contact her personal secretary. I immediately called, and the phone interview became a face-to-face interview to be taken place at the Legislative Council on the following day.
It was my first time entering the new legislative council, and probably also my first time meeting an alumnus of Ping Yeung face-to-face. Hon. Chan said to me,
Your grandfather had taught me at Ping Yeung, and your grandmother, who always liked dressing in qipao, had taught me at the Tin Zan Kindergarten that she had founded!
Beside Hon. Chan sat her husband, Mr. Zhang, and although he is not an alumnus of Ping Yeung, he had delivered an important message which I would like to convey to all the concerned alumni at once:
The tractor that you saw in the photo was not used to demolish the school, instead it was actually used to pull out the weeds from the ground. Our application to transform Ping Yeung into a youth centre for promoting sports had just succeeded. Although the name of Ping Yeung would not be kept, the school building would remain.
Upon the earlier request of an alumnus, let me close this memoir with a painting from my grandfather. It was around vernal equinox (春分) at the time of my writing, which signifies the arrival of spring and a time of new beginnings and renewal. So I chose to share the following painting titled “Sounds of the Pine Tree” with the alumni of Ping Yeung.
(Ping Yang’s school song)
Cloudy mountains vast and green, lush trees enshroud the scene,
Fields unfold in verdant hues, rice and wheat share fragrant news.
Majestically it stands alone, our dear “Ping Yang” known,
Gathering the diligent youth,
To learn from sages, ancient truth.
Only through hard toil and steel’s fire,
Can one forge strength that won’t tire.
With perseverance and exceptional might,
Strong and healthy, striving for the right.
Let’s all work hard, together in our quest,
To make our school shine brightest and best.
Acknowledgements
I am immensely grateful to all the kind souls who had helped me with the writing of this article. Almost all of them I had never met in person but who had trusted me enough to share with me their memories and sentiments of Ping Yang. In alphabetical order, they are Hon. Chan Yuet-ming, Mr. Robert Yeung, Mr. John Yeung, Mr. M. C. Yeung, Mr. Raymond Zhang, and many other alumni who, like me, still share nostalgic memories of my grandparents today.
