A House in Law Uk Tseun

My Father's House in Law Uk Tseun

Here is what a typical house would look like in Law Uk Tseun. The sizes of the houses in the village area was dependent on the size of the land that each family owned and so from there they built the house appropriate for them. My fathers house, in particular was longer in length than it was in width. The end of the house actually collapsed due to age which they then made into land. Furthermore, the house next to my father's as highlighted in the picture used to actually belong to someone else's however it was soon given to my father's family as the person died due to the close relations they had with my father's family. Partly due to having the same surname, the majority of people living in the Law Uk Tseun were very close and saw each other as family which was easy as the are only consisted of 18 homes. As everything also had to be self-provided, it also meant that people felt the need to be friendly with each other just in case of times in need of resources resulting them as seeing each other as more of a family rather than neighbors.

As the entire Law Uk Tseun area consisted of only 18 houses meaning that there were also only 18 families living there, it is not surprising that the community is very close knit and so people often did not both closing or even locking their doors. This is mainly because as everyone saw each other as family, theft was not a problem and due to the physical closeness, a thief or a criminal could be spotted a mile away and fellow neighbors would help each other out. The picture shown on the side is what many houses had back in the day (photo was taken in the 1970's) and it is basically an animal door that would enable the family to leave their front doors open especially in hot weathers as well as preventing any wild animals such as ducks coming into the house unwanted.

The layout/structure of houses in Law Uk Tseun 

Land opposite the houses (owned by certain families and used for crops)

As you can see here, the physical structure of all the houses in Law Uk Tseun is very simple in that all the buildings are built in a row reflecting the close-knit community. Additionally, this was also known to be a slight hazard as all the houses would be affected in the case of a fire or in many cases, when certain parts of the houses would collapse due to age it would often affect other neighbors.


Opposite these houses would be similar structure of land. Generally, each piece of land that is directly in front of a house would belong to the family of the house and this would often be used by them to grow crops for personal and business uses. However, not all families are restricted to this piece of land as some families would own more pieces of land and some would own less dependent on the family wealth. Regardless, wealth was not a major part nor was it a worry for many of the neighbors of Law Uk Tseun as everything was self-provided anyway and if they ever needed anything more then they could always trade with other families in Law Uk Tseun or families from other villages.

A side view of the biggest house in Law Uk Tseun

The picture here shows a corner view of another house in Law Uk Tseun. As you can see, not all the houses in Nam Chung during this time were restricted to only being one story. The house here actually consists of three stories making it the biggest house out of the 18 in Law Uk Tseun. Additionally, the size of the house as well as the size of the land they owned signifies the level of wealth of that particular family.




Sources:
- All the pictures here were taken from a family photo album and were personally taken from different family relatives
- Information was taken directly from talking with my Father and Uncle
- http://hiking.gov.hk/chi/trail_list/country_trail/Nam_Chung_Country_Trail/introduction.htm - also used for further background information