This page shows you a rare example of ancestral worship that has been carried a bit too far:-
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These are 2 photos of the front and back of an
electrical switch box that stands directly in front of the Hong Kong Central
Public Library opposite the Victoria Park in Causeway Bay (the calligraphy have been recently painted over and therefore
removed). I have seen his familiar calligraphy in literally many tens of his
public creations all over Hong Kong during the last 20 years or
about. The author must be getting old by now, because
many years ago
you could see his work in town and outskirt of Hong Kong everywhere, but now it
is seldom seen, also his hand writings are not as steady as it used to be. This
author's name appears
to be Zeng Ji Chai (
),
alias Zeng Jao Chai (
),
or simply Zeng Chai (
).
He does not claim to be the author but these names appear often in his work. In his nutty style and strictly personal way of ancestral worship he tries to
display publicly the names and origin of his ancestral seniors, and sometimes
even the position held by them in the former feudal dynasties. Also as shown
in the pictures he wants to indicate who he is, and even to which village in the New Territory he belongs.
So in his own unique way he proclaims his birth right as a descendant of Zeng.
In actual fact, strictly speaking he is a remote but authentic clan
uncle of mine, though I have never met him, nor have
I known anything else about him. The reason is that he belongs to the 71st generation descendant in the Zeng
ancestral tree, starting from
Prince Qu Lie (
)
of Xia Dynasty (
)
almost 4000 years ago, and I am of the 72nd generation. The only difference is that most Zengs in the
Kowloon area today are likely to be descendants of the Zengs who had migrated
southwards to these
parts at the end of Sung Dynasty about 1000 years ago, and my ancestor Zeng YinShi (
843-923 AD) had migrated southwards to Fu Jian in the Tang Dynasty more than a 100 years earlier.
According to the naming system it's
quite impossible to mistaken the Zeng's generation distinctions wherever and whenever
the Zengs go in the world, as long as they have been named under the
given traditional system....
I can well understand "Uncle" Chai's (
)
feeling about the glorious
clan history but I normally would not encourage his methods of
showing it. In order to carry out such nutty way of ancestral worship he would have to stealthily
come out under cover of night and broadcast a tiny part of his local clan
identity on utilities at busy traffic
junctions, and other constructions, but what he seems to
prefer most are large ground traffic light switch
boxes (such as the one shown by the photos above. Probably because they are
properties of some public Companies). At any rate Uncle Chai's (or Uncle Choi in
Hong Kong's local dialect) dedicated efforts has successfully carried out his proclamation and glorification
of ancestry for many decades. Generally he is left alone to his nutty
vandalism, which has put his work and his name in the spot light in Hong Kong and even far beyond,
probably because
other Chinese people can also feel the inner vibration of love and tradition for their
own ancestral roots.... Nowadays the tracing of ancestral roots has become
a major movement and a big global interests, even commercial interests. One needs only to input search texts such
as "Ancestry" or "Genealogy" into any large Internet Search
Engines, one can see how large are the ancestral root searching activities going on
everyday...
Uncle Choi's endeavours may seem odd, but behind
the action lies the unusual dedication, pride and courage. The source of that
pride and courage come from thousands of years of
historic efforts and sacrifices as generations
after generations of Zeng's ancestry struggle (including some like Uncle Choi) to up keep the highest standard of
morality and spirits of the 2500 years old "House of Three Reflections" 
... So, come to think of it, I really ought to say
"Hurray! Uncle Choi! Well done! You have shown the world the real meaning
and gratitude for the roots of your own being! And how proud you are of your
forefathers! ". Let this little web page help to
immortalize your unusual courage, dedication and years of hard work!.....
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