Chung Kok (象角) Hall
Date Published
: Building (existing), Donations, villages, Diaspora, Chinese
: Pearl River Delta 珠江三角洲
: Chung Kok / Xiangjiao / 象角
: 1913
Chung Kok (象角) Village hall listing numerous overseas donors.
Chung Kok Association Hall
In 1913, when the community leaders of the then 11,000-strong village were erecting their hall in order to improve the health of their fellow residents, they were able to draw upon the resources of fellow villagers living and earning in destinations as far afield as Port Darwin and Atherton in northern Australia, Sydney and Melbourne further south, and Hawaii and San Francisco across the Pacific Ocean.
We know this because, at its erection in 1913, the right side of the Chung Kok community hall had two large slabs of black slate embedded into it. Beautifully carved into the first is a list of 222 donors, recorded not only by name but grouped according to where they were when they donated, along with the amount of their donations recorded in the currency of that place. Thus we have, in the order inscribed, the destinations:
花旗大埠 / San Francisco (lit., First Port of the Land of the Flowery Flag) – 25,
波咑呿埠 / Port Darwin – 24,
雪梨埠 / Sydney – 63,
西澳洲埠 / West Australia – 13,
咩喱彬埠 / Melbourne – 32,
丫咑噸埠 / Atherton – 20,
堅吐埠 / Cairns – 13,
庇喱士彬埠 / Brisbane – 6,
檀香山埠 / Hawaii (lit., Sandalwood Mountains) – 26.
The second slate slab on the hall’s side lists more names without locations (presumably those donors living in the village itself), alongside an account of the plans and intentions that resulted in the building of Chung Kok’s fine new community hall. This is an account that ends with the hope that “fellow people will co-operate in maintaining generous donations and support and assist together to promote and maintain honour for the future”.
Chung Kok Association Hall Name
Inscriptions panel
Memorial inscriptions
