Home Town Girl
Amy Tse Tsz
"When I started secondary school in the 'big city' of Tseung Kwan O, I had to straighten out a lot of misconceptions," says Amy Tse. Born and bred in Sai Kung, she had always spent her free time like other kids there - outside - swimming, on the beach or on a boat. Deeply suntanned by the end of the summer, she was briefly mistaken for a Pakistani on her first day of school.
Despite an odd beginning, Amy's new school friends were curious and interested in her different 'small town' life. She invited them to Sai Kung to prove that it wasn't as terribly remote as they thought and that people didn't live in shacks up in the hills.
Growing up in Sai Kung was comfortable, says Amy: "Everyone knew everyone else." Wherever she went people said hello, remarking on how well she did at school or asking what she had bought. The atmosphere was friendly, normal to her, but as she found out later, quite different to Kowloon or Hong Kong. Strong bonds linked people then and still do now among those who have lived their whole lives there.
As a young kid visiting the isolated Pak Lap beach by boat with her uncle, Amy felt like it was her own private beach. Today, since boat and road access have become so much easier, crowds of visitors call the beach near her mother's first home, and other previously inaccessible places, their beaches.
"Sai Kung has changed a lot since I was a young kid. It used to be quiet and relaxing, with cool breezes at the pier," she says. "It is so much more commercial now and some new businesses aren't representative of Sai Kung. Catering to the tastes of the tourists is destroying the local culture. Sai Kung will lose its advantage and its charm as it becomes more similar to Kowloon or Hong Kong."
Although her home town has irreversibly changed, Amy's strong ties with Sai Kung mean that she intends to stay there after she finishes university and makes her way in the working world of Hong Kong.