A Conversation with Rev Guy Shea

This is an excerpt from a conversation that was recorded in 1997 between a friend, of mine who is a Eurasian performing artist, and her friend Rev Guy Shea in London. I’ve corresponded with her several times and while it has never been validated, the names and dates do coincide. Another chip in the shell that hides the pearl?

V: Do you know anything about my granny’s adoptive mother? I think she was called Anne Hunter. Is that correct?

G: I don’t know what her name was, but I do know something about her.

V: I do have a photo of a gravestone. She died in 1937. (this might have been her daughter by marriage with Mr Hunter)

G: As late as that! She was a Eurasian woman, and she had a proper Chinese name, but I can’t think of it now. She made a living by buying young girls, and bringing them up.

V: Like courtesans?

G: No! They were not courtesans, they were adopted, brought up and then married off for a daaih lai see – big money packet. That’s why your mother had so many so-called ‘Aunties’!

G: You see, in Hong Kong’s ‘Kow See Tow’ it was known to the women concerned that this was not a permanent liaison.

V: …but that they would be financially catered for at least to the end of their lives?

G: Not necessarily. They were catered for while the man was there, and some were catered for later, some were not. And very often what they did was find somebody else.

My friend is part of a family with long-time connections to Hong Kong. Their own history is well documented and there are other instances of parallels between the Eurasian families of the era. Names keep cropping up and passing by like ships at sea; just not quite close enough to recognize the passengers. There’s more on this subject to come.