Ngau Tau Kok

— An old Hakka woman, who was married into the Hakka stone-cutters’ settlement of Ngau Tau Kok in East Kowloon at the age of 9 in 1897, recalls that her sister-in-law bought hemp in Kowloon City market and brought it home to weave, took it back to Kowloon Street to be dyed and later brought it back to the village to make into clothes for the family. Making bedclothes and mosquito nets was also mentioned. Most items were dyed black in colour. Her husband’s family were Hakkas from near Taàm-shui and they had then been in Ngau Tau Kok for three generations.