Pictures for Tung

anonymous-01
Mon, 09/22/2014 - 23:50
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Pictures for Tung

Here are four other pictures.

The first is another view of the beach. The picture of the bungalow by itself says on the back in her handwriting: "Back view of our bungalow. You can see they have just started to build the kitchens on each side of the steps."

My aunt is pictured on those steps with one of her dogs on the third picture.

The final picture of a bunaglow with buildings in the background has on the back in her writing" The bungalow belonging to the old missionary who has lived here for five years and planted all the trees and plants around the house. He sort of superintends the island."

Date picture taken
1923
Tags
John Olson
Gallery
1920s Hong Kong

Comments

Thanks Heaven.  

I just assume the person who took those pictures was actually staying on the same hill at that time, or on the beach below,ie the Kwun Yam Wan ( or the Afternoon Beach---water too cold in the morning, warmer in the afternnon due to the sunshine)

Upper Left ---Kwun Yam Wan.

Upper right---the first house opposite to London Mission ( however, not sure what LM house looks like yet). Photo indicated there were more houses behind it and they were not along a straight line nor the same level. Let name this tiny hill-top  as the ' hill-top of West KYW' or 'HWKYW". And photo taker stood at the junction nearby.

Lower Left---Your aunt and her dogs..same direction indicated by the sunlight but could be by the same or , different house. Mostly likely also on HWKYW.

Lower right----This picture ( a very tricky one) was taken from the other end of the HWKYW. The far right has view in north-north-east direction w.r.t. the photo-taker, showing water off the Tung Wan, and other islands in the distant background. The near background seems to be the London Mission Junction area where the two upper photos were being shot from. The far left has the view in the west-west-north ( or near true west )direction, showing the  two houses on top of the hill-top nearby. It seemed to be that the camera was set to its max. aperture, covering more than 90 degrees. 

Between these two houses and the foreground houses, there is a vale which provides a foot-ball field for the islanders and major Sport Day for  schools. You need to know the local geography for sure.  The field is completely hidden from the picture. Even the sight of the vale is totally blocked off by the house in the foreground.  I knew over here and for decades  the annual 2-days Sport-Day event attended by hundreds of young althelets and thousands of students, yearly made some young names famous among the island population . Today the sport field has an expensive look. Different estates overcrowded the area. It still remains to be a nice place to visit.

What bothers me a lot  in the picture is this:

Why did the photo not capture the distance landscape of the Lantau Island, which has peaks over 2500' in the background. In hesitation, I guess the strong light explosure must 'drown' out the fuzzy distant Lantau landscape due to the camera's capability and the fading of photo itself. Or the effect of a picture of lower horizon!!!

Take a look of this picture :

http://gwulo.com/node/7410

and divide it into 4 equal parts (one horizontal bisector and one vertical  bisector). Consider only the island landscape of the Upper Left one, then comes the clues :

On the right stood the higher point which is the east hill of KYW and then coming closer is the HWKYW with couple of  houses  on the ridge. Houses on a gentle slope down towards the London Mission ( building in White), which is by the juction of the area.  On the far left is the house (or 2 overlapped) on the hill-top across a vale ( almost hidden ), cleary west of (actually south-west-west of) the London Mission. They are the missionary houses.

According to a book,  it reveals that during 1920s the China Inland Mission which had an office in Shanghai, often suggested to  missionaries in transit to stay at Cheung Chau for safety (  friendly islanders ) and peaceful beauty ( of course!)  There were houses for hire.

( In the 50s and 60s, these houses over the vale from the HWKYW no longer exist and the location became a government weather station with long-wave radio antenna towers  around and stop sign at the entrance perimenter.)

The photo taker must be at the far right of HWKYW and  aiming the left for the picture.

This is my guess or no guess!!

Thank you for checking!!

 

Tung

Thanks Tung. Your knowledge of the area and the development is amazing. Your explanation makes sense too. On one point I can assure you. The house with my aunt in the doorway is the same as the one pictured by itself. I have several other pictures of her husband there as well and they all seem to be taken on the same roll of film.

I think the mystery of the picture bottom right is partly solved my moddsey who has identified the Austrialian flag. Does this help you? My aunt saying on the back of the picture that an old missionary lived there may raise some more information.

Again thanks,

Sean

Hello Sean,

it's fun to help solving photo puzzles. Thank you!!

As for the Australian Flag....will find out more later. It's unusual to rasie a national flag on a private property of a third party country. But as I understand that it is a common practice during war time for avoiding friendly fire or for diplomatic protection. And was sort of safe thing to do especially as they didn't speak the local language. There was a house with a Swiss flag in the Fa Peng  penisula area ( East of KYW ) in 1960s. Nearby of it stood a all-bombed out cottage--a vivid reminder of the WWII as we walked through the rubbles.

Recently I put up a comment with info for related photo access.  The subject title is : Aerial view of Euro-houses by Kwun Yam Wan 1970s.

Pls read my comment there and view the photo galleries of (google search for)

 ' islands district's content'

http://hkclweb.hkpl.gov.hk/doc/intranet/eng/18districts/islands/photo.html

look at #10 photo from top of the listing

Pls enjoy

Tung

Thanks Tung and Moddsey. You have both been to a great deal of trouble.

First Tung. The link you gave me is not working at the moment so will check again. Sounds very interesting.

Moddsey, thanks for your patient research. No idea why there is no mention of my great uncle Charles Olson or his wife Ethel Olson. The picture of the bungalow shown here is clearly annotated on the reverse in my aunt;s writing saying this is their new bungalow which they were building. Other pictures follow of the site. I can only assume they sold it before it was ever registered in their name! Not surprising as Charles was something of a wide boy by all accounts. Certainly black sheep of family.

Sean

Here is how I fetched the picture.

Google search on 'islands district's content' ( Hong Kong ). It comes up the home page or a page for photos. Select the photo gallery. Down from the top, at #8, 9,& 10,( list was not numbered!) three  titled as ' Aerial view of Cheung Chau' , select the #10 one.

The picture's major right is Tung Wan and its background, and the minor left is the Kwun Yam Wan  and its background.  The area on the hills was quite forest-like, not very overgrown.  There is a rocky table area separating the two Wans water. From here, look uphill a bit.  That's the junction I was talking about.

If you compare it with a present-day picture, the site of London Mission house is somewhat at the hill-top behind the Warwick Hotel ( the ugry curved screen-like building).  The LM house looks pretty cubic in its days. Right behind the LM house, there is a patch of white  and this is the sport field ( a mud field without grass ). On its left is the HWKYW which also includes a winding path down to the KYW beach.  From the picture you can see the few houses (2 or 3)  are quite big for one family. The Carlsons (or Calsons ) were there  in one of them during the 1960s. Mr. Carlson Sr. woud say ' Hello, good morning & how do you do ? ' to all the people walk by on the Peak Road'  He had a big smile all the times. We kids also played ' cowboys and N.A. Indians battles games with kids from the LM house. That's was fun too!

There is a sort of ' pi' shape buildings  further off the HWKYW area , which is actually on the other side of the valley behind. That's the english junior college I attended during the 1960s. This valley is very tropical most of the year and has the only creek with running natural  water of the entire island. Maybe there is a spring at the deep of the far end .  

On the right of the sport field, the missionary houses  on this hill must have been replaced with the weather station (and living quarter annex ) long before the 1950s , and were further transformed  ( today ) as youth centre for marine police department and other decent housings. The Peak Road run by its west side. Further south-west has the  famous Alliance Bible Seminary, since 1950.

There is also a fresh water spring at the foothill of the LM house near the shore. It is the nearest fresh water for a salty swimmer.  ( just  few steps away the sea water). Most people don't know it ( almost a secret !)----actually near the famous ancient words carvings. But  not  sure what has happened to it nowaday.

For us Tung Wan was a place to swim, and Kwun Yam Wan was a place to scream-- because of  more water activities a kid can venture about.

good to on board the time machine!!

Tung

 

  

It is a delightful thing to tell somethings special about Cheung Chau.

Will try answer more puzzles!!

Have you look at those pictures from the webs of  'Junk Harbour-- Cheung Chau" and the '1959 old Cheung Chau island-- gordon670''  ?

If you want to fly by the island,............  again   ?   ,  try this on YouTube :

'Kai Tak IGS mit Swissair Coronado-Werbefilm aus den 70er' 

Which is a simulator flight of  a commercial jetliner. The landing approach begins on a low level fly-over by the Cheung Chau's north island. There is a VOR  station for air traffic en-route to Kai Tak Airport. You can see the Kwun Yam Wan and Tung Wan over the island landscape.

Prior to this era,  the flight path was  a  low level descending approach over the south island,  from  the Italian Beach in the far west  to the Police Staion of Tung Wan area; very much slightly west of the Boundary line for the old  European Enclave.  Imagine !! Many times a day you would have breath-taking views of  big commercial jet flying  nearby and passing over the Police Station  on the same or lower level with you when you were on the hill-top of the  missionary houses. But those days are gone.  The YouTube film is the closest thing I can get now.

Pls enjoy!!!

Tung

 

I found there are many interesting Cheung Chau pictures on the

 'islands district's content' web site

because some of those vividly bring back alive the places  I used to frequent.

It is worthy to check them all and discover more for your own persuit. There is at least one in color an aerial view of the south island, ( the north island is in distant) clearly has the sport field and its surrounding on open display. The foreground coast line is the Nam Tam Wan.

pls enjoy!!

Tung

About one of the Pictures for Tung.

Recently I go through the article , from google search, about the life of  a Canadian Missionary-- John Livingstone McPherson ( 1874-1947 )

and speculate this house ( in the Lower Right picture)  could be one of his family residences on the Island.

McPherson was born in Forest, Ontario, of Canada in 1874, educated for BA in Philosophy from University of Toronto, and a year of Theology study at the famed Knox College and at about 30 went to work as a  YMCA missionary (Persbyterian) in Hong Kong 1905 up to 1935.

His address moved from the Peak of Hong Kong island to Cheung Chow ( ie Cheung Chau) about the 1917or 1918. ( By 1919 the Europeanization law of southeast Cheung Chau was set up). The picture dated for 1923, said of the five years of this tenant residing made good sense.  There is a young lady or a teen among the garden trees in the photo's lower right, could it be one of the McPhersons. His daughters were still quite young then. By calculation, he was about 49 years old...getting old by the 1900 standard. ( Sun tan lotions were not common in those years)

The google article also reveals that  J L McPherson not only remarkably spearheaded major development of the Chinese YMCA and its expansion projects in the colony, but also held positions as President of Hongkong Missionary Association and  Secretary and President of the Cheung Chau Resident's Association. Again the photo tells relevant bits of information about the leadership figure of the Cheung Chau island living in that house. ... How Wonderful!!

( While still living on the island 1950-71, there was an public hall for all the islanders  young or old to spend their times in pure healthy activities or social functions, similar to YMCA without YMCA.. that is the Cheung Chau Resident's Association and was part of the Fong Peng Hospital building. It was in the same neighbourhood of my family home. An area of well forested terrace behind the Hung Shing Temple by the mid-Bay area. There were many old photos hung on the wall. Maybe McPherson's picture was there too. We walked by the place almost everyday while attending a primary school neaby and knew that had all kinds of newspapers and magazines for free leisure  reading. Others found their chess partners to practice their battle skill here. Some came here to listen radio programmes and music or just to enjoy the cool air stream swirling around in the heat of summer.. in time of typhoon afternath this was a charity centre for relief too ..etc .. ) 

The Australian flag in the picture also made good sense too. List of tenants or owners provided from the ' old Hong kong / Cheung Chau's European Houses' listed some of those with the 'Persby N Z or N Z' designation. ( by the way, McPherson's Home office listed as from New York) Indeed Australian and the New Zealander came to Hong Kong always appeared to be from the same corner of the horizon and they were like natural brothers and sisters at social functions here. In his times McPherson was one of the head figures in the Persbyterian Church's  Missionary field  and took up the mentorship of  many secular projects in the social service of the colony. He probably invited many missionaries or friends, Persbyterian or others, to stay on the Cheung Chau houses, on his suggestion. By the way could it be possible that the flag was a New Zealand one instead? Do they look alike? .........................doesn't matter...really!

The other residency ( probably one of the multiple houses used by  his Persbyterian Missionary Association on the Cheung Chau ) of McPherson probably is the House #28 or the next one  nearby of it.  An oceanview property attributed from the Peak Road west.  This site appeared to be very close to the Laura's Mystery Rock area. In a different photo ( from the Hongkong History Archives) labelled as the ' 1919 J L McPherson house ', there is a fenced court ( for tennis or something )beside the house by the cliff head of the west Nam Tam Wan of Cheung Chau. This also matched well with his hobby--- a tennis player.

McPherson and his wife raised their daughters on the  Cheung Chau island with the helps of Chinese amahs ( house servants). Their daughters spoke fluent cantonese and were remarked as ' the Chinese girls' as they were in furlough with their parents on the visit to North American. That's really funny.

In 1935, McPherson retired to Tunbridge Wells  of Kent, UK , a root country of his parents and received the MBE from the King for his work in the Far East colony there. He lived in UK to the end. A proud  fellow Canadian eh !!

 

From Tung: Thanks for the clues given by the photo.

It is a real joy to figure out the house and some special person there, from this lovely island. .......I like clues very much.

 

Mmm....  tea time!!

would you like. 

 

Hi Tung,

Tireless research and really fascinating.

I can only help on one point. You mention the young girl or woman in the picture. In fact on the back of the pihoto my aunt indicates that it is she who appears in the picture. I did not mention it because it did not seem important at the time.

I suspect she was making herself known to her neighbours as she was VERY good at being the life and soul of the party!

So that is a mystery solved.

Tea time again.

Sean

I agree, good detective work!

The flags of New Zealand and Australia are similar, but the big star below the Union Jack confirms it is an Australian flag (compare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_New_Zealand and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Australia).

If anyone is following along at home, here are links to the McPherson article and the photo of the family on Cheung Chau.

Regards, David

Thank you all very much.

Honestly, do any of you  sense any kind of music in mind when examining all those Cheung Chau photos ?  ...................

I do.

Sometimes as I look at those Cheung Chau photos I can hear: Chopin's ' fantasie impromptu op.66 ' ,

( pls turn on YouTube below while reading the following )

' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvm2ZsRv3C8 '

As I step on the island Cheung Chau from the fast ferry, I begin to wonder where is the scenario I used to know in the good old past,  indeed I am confused. It's very strange that I am no longer like that smelly fishermen's harbour, the noisy town, lazy villagers. why so many people here and  there by the praya! Crazy bicycles speeding at me in both directions  like shuttles squeezing thru the moving crowds. Do they care about my existence here? I guess not. Who would care about a single tiny note within a piece of tedious  music. My vision is totally out of  focus  for   everything is so burred.  I am being pushed on and on without choice. Then comes the smell of  tasty food from stalls along the way! Oopsi, not bad my buddy SHS ( sudden hungry symptom ) come to haunt me again   and I know by instinct that my stomach acid is boiling wild. Saliva activated itself in out of control manner, like a baby craving for mother's milk...And I am not the only one so desperate, you see.   How come the food on hands disappear as fast as the cash in the wallet? With excessive salt intake, my heart beats faster and faster!! So mind becomes so wild and I now gone astray. Lost at last!! Yet  I keep walking aimlessly.......

But then....... the beautiful Tung Wan opens my eyes even wider.  It's not a dream. It's a picture beauty. I am so pleased that the backyard of the town is actually a wide opened sandy beach by crystal clear sea water. Over here air is so fresh that it heals my heart at once and all of the anxiety in my mind is gone in seconds.  I can hear my heart says 'thank you, thank you'.  My mind cleanses up itself like the ' Zest '! The softness of the sand almost leads me to the  Wan's  shallow water. My desire is, however, to go up  higher, on the hills and headlands where the views are much more splendor under the blue sky. I must dash off to the hills.

Yes, I see, I like to run on the Peak Road. I don't care what kind of day, I am so excited to be here again like the old days. I know all those trees. They  welcome me back, I can feel it!!  I am back in this Paradise island. The sea, landscape, those rocky cliffs.... charming houses and bungalows by the sea...... my mind of wandering around is even more greedy than before. But my legs soon is getting heavier and heavier, and sense of gravity is stronger too........ Sorry... real sorry 'cause I just can't do it at this age, I admit.

Well, how about settle for something smaller. ....What!? Be practical :

Let's go to Kwun Yam Wan, OK?  MMMM   ....OOOOOK. So I can relax for real till the next ferry run.

As I wait  by the Kwun Yam Wan beach area I have a second thought. I shouldn't hate the town and the fishy harbour. It's alright. It's alright. They are fine. They are so beautiful as they can be!!!           zzzz.................zzzzz...............zzzzzzz............zzzzz............

wake up!  pls don't miss the last ferry run. Let's go back to the town.

It is still very alive after sunset. The glittering night is equally attractive under the starry sky. No more dashing bicycles at last. I can enjoy the walk with ease and peace Now. I know how to check out my favourite food. And I see better than the daytime. The sidewalk sellers still try offer best deals to the onlookers. Street performers display their talents. The music and laughters fill up the air.  I  That's right!  More crowds more better for the island is here for you and ........ me, till the ferry  eventually takes me in.

                                               .................................

Thank you very much, Chopin...you ARE so genius!! You actually wrote my feeling in your music in your lifetime---( Only Heaven knows how to do this.)

 

Thanks Heaven!

 

Tung

 

Recently found:

http://www.hkmemory.hk/collections/hkplaces/AllItems/images/201107/t20110722_42503.html

This picture brings up the true beautiful island landscape before the mindless developments of 1960s and beyond. Why mindless? because the island didn't have a long term policy from authority guarding its natural merits.

We can only hope they learnt the lesson.

Pls enjoy

 

Tung