Hawker turned property tycoon called the ‘queen of Hong Kong harbour’, Old Mary, gets musical tribute
Hong Kong hawker turned property and factory owner Old Mary, who was born in China in 1870. Her descendants think this was taken on the day of the visit of Britain’s Princess Margaret to her store in Nathan Road, Kowloon, in 1966.
Many years ago, as a child, Stephen Au Kam-tong encountered a woman called Old Mary. On a recent afternoon in his studio in Ngau Tau Kok, Kowloon, the actor, writer and director describes their subsequent relationship. A few polystyrene rocks are scattered on the floor in front of us; he has been rehearsing his forthcoming production, The Ten Commandments, in which he will play Moses. It is a suitable backdrop for the genesis of another righteous story.