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Name: Napolia Lee Yan-lam
Occupation: Cafe owner
Sham Shui Po connection: Lived on Castle Peak Road until the age of eight
Now lives in: Central
“My parents were busy with work and they didn’t have time for me. So they paid to get a lady who lived nearby to look after me. I called her “Ah Yee” (aunt). She was looking after a total of eight children: some of the kids lived nearby so they’d go home at night, while others would stay at her home for several nights each time. Our playground in those days was the spacious canteen at Precious Blood Hospital. “Ah Yee” liked to take us there. It was a big premise. I remember the big windows and it’s a safe and spacious place to play hide and seek. There weren’t many people and the doctors and nurses had no problem with us running around. Our other playground was a local cinema. It was popular among Sham Shui Po residents. Every evening there were hawkers selling cooked food outside the cinema. I remember the grilled cuttlefish and octopus on skewers.
Sham Shui Po is my favourite district. Things are reasonably priced and the street life is full of energy. The people of Sham Shui Po are loud and blunt, but it’s precisely because they’re straight-speaking people that this place is full of human warmth. And since I grew up in Sham Shui Po, I’ve also picked up the Sham Shui Po way of talking – I am direct and frank. Even though I don’t live in Sham Shui Po anymore, I don’t lose this side of my personality. But honestly, I don’t want to change my way of communication.”
