Law Uk is a former

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

village house in

Chai Wan Chai Wan (; ), formerly known as Sai Wan (西灣), lies at the east end of the urban area of Hong Kong Island next to Shau Kei Wan. The area is administratively part of the Eastern District, and is a mosaic of industrial and residential are ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. Named after the surname of the family who lived in the house, it was built in the mid-18th century during the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

, about 90 years before the British took possession of Hong Kong Island. It was rediscovered in the 1970s and is a declared monument of Hong Kong. After being restored, the house was turned into the Law Uk Folk Museum, which serves as a branch of the

Hong Kong Museum of History The Hong Kong Museum of History is a museum that preserves Hong Kong's historical and cultural heritage. It is located next to the Hong Kong Science Museum, in Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The collections of the museum encompass ...

. It is the only example of Hakka architecture left in the area.

History

It is not definitively known when Law Uk was completed, but it is estimated that the house was constructed in the mid 18th-century. This was about the time when the Law family moved to Hong Kong from

Bao'an County Bao'an County, formerly named Xin'an County, was a historical county in South China. It roughly follows the administrative boundaries of modern-day Hong Kong and the city of Shenzhen. For most of its history, the administrative center of the cou ...

in Guangdong province. The approximate date of construction is backed up by official documents from the

that dated from 1767 and 1796. The existence of these documents—which were in the Law family's possession—came to light when Law Uk was rediscovered. At the time it was built, the house was on Hong Kong Island's waterfront with

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental in ...

. However, it is now much farther inland due to land reclamation that has been undertaken over the years. The area around present-day

was uninhabited and simply featured barren and forested land. When the Laws moved there, they were part of an entourage of approximately 300

people, who settled in the area and established a village. The majority of them worked as stonecutters in neighbouring

quarries A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

. Others were

fishermen A fisher or fisherman is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishers and fish farmers. Fishers may be professional or recreati ...

due to the area's proximity to the sea. The Law family, however, were impoverished

rice farming Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly '' Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domestica ...

peasants who also raised chickens and pigs on their farm. One of Law Uk's wings was destroyed during the Battle of Hong Kong in 1941, when a Japanese

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...

was dropped onto it. Nonetheless, the village lifestyle of the Hakka continued through the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce ...

until 1945. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, the number of refugees coming to the colony increased dramatically, and they began to set up squatter huts on hills around Chai Wan. This ended up "destroy ngthe Hakka's way of life." Due to the shortage of land, the Hakka village was cleared and demolished, and Chai Wan was transformed into an industrial area with many public housing estates. As a result, the Law family moved out of the house in 1960 and were resettled into one of the surrounding housing estates. This was a similar situation for the other villagers, whose descendants now live in apartment complexes close to where the village once stood.

Restoration

Utility room, Law Uk Folk Museum (Hong Kong)

Before its rediscovery, Law Uk was left in a derelict state and used as a workshop that produced metallic furniture. This caused the building to be a

fire hazard Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. Fire safety measures include those that are intended to prevent the ignition of an uncontrolled fire and those that are used to limit the development and ef ...

, due to the spray paints and other flammable goods stored inside. The

Resettlement Department The Resettlement Department () was a department of the Government of Hong Kong, responsible for constructing resettlement estates for homeless refugees, established in 1954. In 1973, the Resettlement Department and the Building Section of the ...

rediscovered the house in the early 1970s and urged the curator of the new

—which opened in July 1975—to buy and renovate Law Uk. The building was ultimately restored and reopened as the Law Uk Folk Museum in 1989. It was declared a monument of Hong Kong in the same year on 10 November. The museum served as one of the three branches of the

, along with the

Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence is a museum in Hong Kong, located in a former coastal defence fort overlooking the Lei Yue Mun channel, near Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island. The fort was built by the British in 1887, intended to def ...

and the

Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum The Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum is composed of a brick tomb (E. Han or slightly later) and an exhibition hall adjacent to it. It is located at 41 Tonkin Street, in Cheung Sha Wan, Sham Shui Po District, in the northwestern part of the Kowloo ...

. This has now been expanded to five branches with the addition of the

Fireboat Alexander Grantham Exhibition Gallery The ''Alexander Grantham'' was a fireboat of Hong Kong's Fire Services Department. The fireboat was named after former Governor Sir Alexander Grantham. The boat has since retired from service and been replaced by other vessels. On 10 Marc ...

and the

Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is a museum in Central, Hong Kong. It is located in Kom Tong Hall (), at 7 Castle Road, Central. After the preparation work undertaken by the Hong Kong Museum of History, the museum was opened on 12 December 200 ...

. Due to its modest size and less-than-ideal location among industrial factories, the museum experienced poor attendance over the years. Because of this, the Museum of Hong Kong had contemplated closing the Law Uk Folk Museum. However, it remains open and operating to this day. Law Uk is the sole surviving village house and the last example of traditional

housing in Chai Wan.

Architecture

Law Uk has been described as a "typical"

house, consisting of five rooms where approximately ten people could live. Centered around the main hall, the house was designed to be symmetrical and features a

lightwell In architecture, a lightwell,light well, light-well sky-well,skywell, sky well or air shaft is an unroofed or roofed external space provided within the volume of a large building to allow light and air to reach what would otherwise be a dark or ...

at the front of the hall. This was key as the house did not have many windows, for fear of

robbers Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

and pirates. As part of the restoration in the 1980s, a new annex to the house was built that matched the overall architectural style of Law Uk.

References

External links

Law Uk Folk Museum
– Hong Kong Museum of History {{Eastern District, Hong Kong History museums in Hong Kong Declared monuments of Hong Kong Hakka culture in Hong Kong Chai Wan Folk museums in China Historic house museums in China Houses completed in the 18th century

History

Restoration

Architecture

See also

References

External links