Porcelain-Making in Wun Yiu, Tai Po
After visiting the Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po Market, I headed out to Wun Yiu, in another part of Tai Po. It is a much lesser-known exhibition as compared with the Railway Museum, but no less interesting.
The Wun Yiu Exhibition
The exhibition center lies behind the Wun Yiu Public School. It is a very small venue, but it serves all educational purposes. It shows a history of the village way before the colonial times.
I spent about a half hour to read through the captions. I then asked the lady whether I can visit the archaeological sites on show in the exhibition. She said only the animal-driven grinder is in the vicinity and open to public visit. The other archaeological discoveries, including the china clay pits, the watermill, the washing basins, paste-making workshop and the kiln are not open to public visit.
This is mainly because the public has no way to know actually where they are. Some of them, she told me, were actually re-covered with soil and buried again in order to prevent weathering and other damages. I found that to be incredulous, but I would have to take her word for it.
Historical Background
The San On Gazetteers of 1688 and 1819 contained entries that referred Wun Yiu as Wun Liu and Wun Yiu respectively. This fact indicates that the area was known for making porcelain during the early Qing Dynasty, for “wun” in Chinese means bowls.
The Man’s and the Tse’s were the founders of the Wun Yiu Village. The imperial edict of coastal evacuation of 1662 had displaced them. By the time the Qing emperor lifted the edict in 1669, only the Man’s returned to their home village in Hong Kong. Although they were makers of porcelain here before the coastal evacuation, they were not able to revive the industry after their return. As a result, production ceased.
In 1674, the Ma’s came to Tai Po from Changle in Guangdong. They purchased the kilns from the Man’s, and revived the porcelain-making industry in Wun Yiu. “It was recorded in a government document that the production of Wun Yiu amounted to 400,000 pieces annually” by the mid-Qing Dynasty. These pieces were sold locally as well as for export to places as far as Southeast Asia.
However, as time progressed, the Wun Yiu production met fierce competition from the coastal production of porcelain in Guangdong. Production continued to decline, and by the 1930s it ceased completely.
Wun Yiu is “the only kiln site that produced porcelain in underglaze blue currently found in Hong Kong.” The study of Wun Yiu’s archaeological sites had begun as early as the 1950s. Archaeological teams continued to unearth pottery-making sites in the Wun Yiu area into the 1990s. With the help of the villagers of Sheung Wun Yiu and Ha Wun Yiu, the archaeological team located all the sites that were required in the porcelain-making process.
Porcelain-Making at Wun Yiu
Rich deposits in china clay and china stones in the Cheung Uk Tei area in Wun Yiu has enabled the emergence of the porcelain-making industry in the village. Archaeologists have discovered mined quarry pits for raw materials. Close to the quarries were the watermills. The site shows 16 remains of the mill, each equipped with 3 to 6 sets of pestles and mortar. The mortar was hammered from granite.
At the animal-driven grinder, the china is ground to fine china powder (see more below). Next in the process is washing. The archaeological team has discovered washing basins, where the villagers washed and soaked the china clay powder. After rounds of washing and precipitation, the resulting mixture was the fine clay for porcelain-making.
Then the clay is kneaded and formed at the paste-making workshop. The archaeological team has discovered just three stone pillars, of the same height and shape, in the village that could have held the horizontal planks where villagers laid out the pieces for drying.
Next comes the kiln firing. There were two dragon kilns found in the area, both built on slopes. The ascending steps along the kiln were what gave them the name of “dragon kilns.” Photographs of the kiln sites show clearly the ventilation holes.
Photograph: these are firing tools
Photographs: these are the porcelain shards found at the archaeological sites. Apparently, there were heaps of them.
Photographs: the kendi discovered in Wun Yiu is indication that products here were made for exports. Kendi is a popular water container for the Muslims.
The Animal-Driven Grinder
The museum displays a cow pulling the grinder in a pictorial illustration. In fact, the Chinese name of this device means “the cow grind.”
This grinder comprises of a circular trough and a grinding blade, both of granite. It was used to grind china stones into fine powder to make clay. In those times, the most common animal that pulled the grinder was the water buffalo.
To visit the animal-driven grind, which is the only archaeological site available for public visit, exit the museum and go pass the Fan Sin Temple. Next to the temple, there is a slope leading up. Make your way up and then you will see a set of stairs going further up, with a gray railing. Go all the way up this staircase and you will reach the grind. It is well-preserved.
The Fan Sin Temple
There is only one temple in Hong Kong dedicated to Fan Sin and it is this one in Tai Po. Fan Sin is the God of Potter. According to descriptions at the Wun Yiu Exhibition, this temple was built before 1790 during the Qianlong reign. The 16th generation ancestor, Ma Choi Yuen, of the Ma clan invited Fan Sin from Guangdong to come here and protect the potters.
Villagers used to celebrate the Fan Sin birthday on the 16th of each fifth month on the lunar calendar with significant festivities such as operas. Now the celebrations are simpler with a ceremony and communal offerings.
The Wun Yiu Public School and the Ng Sheung Dai
Next to the Fan Sin Temple proudly stands the Wun Yiu Public School.
The stone plaque Ng Sheung Dai stands before it. According to introduction on site, Ng Sheung Dai was a private study for the Wun Yiu Village. The five Ma ancestors with the name “Sheung” established the private study during the Daoguang Reign of the mid-Qing Dynasty (“ng” means five in Cantonese, therefore the school name was dedicated to these five Ma brothers).
In the 1930s, Ng Sheung Dai evolved into a public school called Man On School, and provided full-day primary education for the villagers. However, education ceased completely during the war years.
The current site was established in 1949 as the first school ground for Wun Yiu Public School. The school had its heyday during the 1960s and 1970s. There were many students and the school had to expand its campus. As such, it has educated the modern generations of the Wun Yiu villagers. Due to the push for urbanization, the Wun Yiu Public School ceased in 1994. As the school building was preserved, the villagers collected the funds to restore it in 2014.
Finally, I highly recommend doing both the Hong Kong Railway Museum and the Wun Yiu Exhibition in the same day, as I did. I spent about 1.5 hours at both locations and it will make a heritage trip out to the New Territories more than worthwhile.
How to Get There
Green top minibus Route 23K runs between the Tai Po Market Station and Wun Yiu. Get off at the Wun Yiu stop, then cross the street. You will see these following views, with the aqueduct and the bridge. Cross the bridge, and you will see the signs pointing to the Wun Yiu Exhibition and the Fan Sin Temple.
This is the staircase that will lead you to the Fan Sin Temple and the Wun Yiu Public School. The museum is behind the Wun Yiu Public School.
Sources
Historical descriptions on site.
Please refer to the pamphlet of the exhibition here.
The World Ma Clan Culture Data Center, The Wun Yiu Public School in Tai Po, Hong Kong and its History with the Ma Clan.