Help with a historical novel set in Hong Kong

Carol Major and Hilda Tam Hio Man are co-authoring a historical novel set in Hong Kong, inspired by a true love story in Carol’s family. Carol’s husband’s grandfather, a white Australian, secretly married a Chinese woman in the 1960s - but her existence did not come to light until after he died, although she had lived in his flat since the late 1960s. She must have been in her late teens or early twenties when they married. The grandfather would have been over 65. Following her discovery she disappeared.

Carol has been haunted by this story ever since - Who was this woman? Why did she agree to be hidden from the family for all of those years? And what became of her?

To answer these questions she turned to fiction, although a fiction that would be based on historical facts. She wanted to imagine the sorts of situations that would lead to such choices. Carol asked Hilda if she could assist from a Chinese point of view.

When Carol told me about this story, I wondered if the readers of Fusion View may be able to help her. I know that many of you love books and stories and have connections with the Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Singapore. So I suggested to Carol that we might put a call for help up here on Fusion View and maybe some of you could help with this great project.

The authors need your help with the texture and detail of life in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s to help them flesh out the historical details of their novel, inspired by this haunting love story.

Carol writes:

The story is about two little girls, Chloe and Yun, who emigrate from the mainland to Hong Kong in 1950. Chloe is an orphaned Eurasian. She is taken in by a British couple in Hong Kong and attends an Anglican school. Yun is Chinese. Her family had hoped to have a better life in Hong Kong but end up depending on the Triads for their livelihood.

Chloe hopes to make a successful life through hard work. Yun sees no way out of her situation but to marry a westerner who will take her overseas. Events come to a climax when a British official who has been involved in corruption becomes an embarrassment for both the Triads and the British administration. He is banished to Australia with a minder to ensure that he does not tell his story. The minder is Yun.

The women continue to correspond with one another as they try to make sense of where fortune has taken them.

What help we need

We are looking for texture and detail. Did any of our readers live on the Peak in the late 1950s, early 1960s? Did their parents? What would be the response to a little Eurasian girl attending an Anglican school? How would she be treated by the other girls?

We will create a fictional school but need historical details to colour it. Can our readers describe the layout of classrooms, the daily routine, the food in the cafeteria, clique behaviour, summer vacations and so on?

Most of the dwellings that existed on the Peak during that time have been torn down and replaced by high rises. Does anyone have photos of the smaller bungalows? What were the interiors like and so on?

How did people travel up and down to the city in those days? I took the peak tram and also walked up using the escalator. Might Chloe have taken the same route to visit Yun?

Does anyone know what the border at Shenzhen looked like in the 1950s, and the entry process? It has been completely done over now.

Are their any stories or thoughts that run parallel with the plotline that might inform it and add colour? We would love to hear them.

Research so far

We have read much history from general sources and spent time in the Museum of History in Hong Kong gathering information about the time period in question. Articles appearing in the Royal Asiatic Society Journals have also helped. We have also read Elsie Tu’s books about Colonial Hong Kong. A contact who worked with an intelligence service is providing de-identified material on the operations of the Triads and the British Administration. Another contact whose father was involved with the Colonial Office is providing additional detail.

We have found that it is the personal experiences of real people that make the difference. Hilda has asked students to collect stories from their parents and grandparents. It would be fantastic to have more stories about those who came from the mainland in the 1950s—their dreams and what they left behind.

If you can help, please contact Carol (carol.major[at]advancednarrative.com) or Hilda (da_tam[at]yahoo.com). Please also mention Fusion View in your email to them.

More about the Authors

Carol Major was born in Scotland, immigrated to Canada as a girl and settled in Australia in her late twenties. She has been a professional writer for over twenty years with numerous articles published in the health care and social policy field. She is a principal of Advanced Narrative www.advancednarrative.com, a company that specialises in using story telling techniques. She completed both a Master and Doctorate of Arts Degree (Creative Writing) at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, during which time she completed two novels. Her short stories have appeared in literary journals and anthologies in Canada and Australia, and on the performance website 1001 Nights Cast.

Hilda Tam Hio Man lives in Macau. Her first novel Ah Xun¡’s 5 Destinies was published by Association of Stories in Macao (ASM) in 2006. Hilda’s poetry and translations have recently appeared in Jacket, Segue, Cipher Journal, Poesia Sino-Occidental and The Drunken Boat. A collaborative volume of translations of the Tang poet Meng Jiao was published by ASM last year. Hilda is now working on the translations of classical poems by women poets of the Song dynasty and writing a novel with Carol. She holds a Master of Arts in English Studies from the University of Macau.