“Money-Grabbing Reflex” – A Story about My Grandfather
Amy Choi
“Money” has recently become a hot topic among many people around the world, including my family and friends. Series of events leading to the world financial tsunami have been triggering doubts, worries and fears in the minds of many. Such worries and fears, it seem, are slowly becoming part of human collective consciousness.
While we are on this hot topic, I would like to share a story about my grandfather about his “money-grabbing reflex”.
My grandfather was a rich businessman who succeeded to build his career from scratch. During the years of Sino-Japanese War in the late 1930s, like many other Chinese who were desperate to flee from the suffering of war, he decided to leave their village in southern China to search for a safe and stable place to live elsewhere. Together with my grandmother and the three children they had, he went to Guangzhou, and then to Macau, where my father was born. Then, they fled to Hong Kong, where they decided to settle down, and later gave birth to six other children.
It turned out later that Hong Kong, then a British colony, was not exempt from war either. During that time, like many other people who fled from mainland China, they lived in very poor and basic conditions. The whole family just lived in a small room and barely had enough to eat.
My grandfather’s Choi’s ancestors were seed traders in mainland China. When the War was over, my grandfather also sustained this family tradition and started a seed-trading business in Hong Kong. Nobody told me the details of how his business grew over the years. Nevertheless, when I was born in the late 1960s, his seed-trading company had become the biggest and most prestigious one in Hong Kong. My grandfather and the four sons who worked with him had also become well-to-do businessmen.
Everyone in our family looked up to my grandfather with honour and great respect. Although he was not well-educated, he was intelligent, capable, and exceptionally quick and sensitive to calculation and numbers. He was well-known by his business partners for his honesty and for his ability to always keep his promises. Besides, he was also a good husband who took cared of and supported my grandmother, all ten children, many grandchildren and his relatives in Hong Kong and mainland. A year before I was born, he built a 12-storey apartment building in a nice area in Hong Kong Island. He did it to make sure that all his four sons had places to live together after they got married. He also made sure that all his six daughters had a chance to be well-educated.
My father and uncles worked hard in the family business. They did their best to make a good living for themselves, their wives and their children. We were more than adequate in every basic survival needs such as clothing, food, accommodation and transport. My strongest childhood impressions were the flashes of memories that brought back to the times when the whole family had banquets and feasts during festivals and the birthdays of my grandparents. During those times, we had banquets on the 12th floor and the rooftop of the family building. The whole family and staff of the family business would occupy four to five round tables that could accommodate 12 people each. Every time when we held those banquets, the family would hire the same team of chefs who would bring with them in their big lorry cooking utensils, tables, chairs, chopsticks and spoons, charcoal and cooking ingredients. The main chef would throw up sizzling food in his huge wok under which hot, golden fires which sometimes burn through. Another chef would barbecue a few whole piglets with charcoal. Children would play games while adults would eat and chat with each other. It was a hustling and bustling time. The grandchildren of my time were like living in a dream village!
In the beliefs of my family, “good business” and “prosperity” were values that were very much treasured. How to make good business and how to become more prosperous would be common topics of discussion for the men during and after their meals. These money concepts were deep in our hearts, and were impressed in every cell of our body. Even though I was a young girl who knew not much about money, I was also dipped in such concepts. During my primary school years, whenever I received my half-yearly report cards from my school, my parents would ask me to bring them in person to grandpa. Every time, I did that I would feel quite nervous. First, my grandfather felt and looked like a giant to me. Second, I also knew that if he was pleased with my grades, I would get one hundred dollars as reward, and I would be happy!
Perhaps because of their past experience of war and poverty, and perhaps because of traditional beliefs, my family had all sorts of taboos surrounding the issues of prosperity and money. To keep one safe from being scolded, one better be careful about what one say or do especially during important times like the Chinese New Year. A day before every Chinese New Year, my mother would be responsible for preparing flowers and plants for my grandparents’ apartment. Every year, she would choose Chinese Sacred Lilies and Peach Blossoms. In some years she would also prepare Orchids and Chrysanthemums. But in one year, she brought Hedychium coronarium (Jiang Hua), a white flower with fragrant smell. First, my mother was told by my grandma, white was only a colour for the dead. Second, the name of the flower, Jiang, sounded exactly as the word “stuck” in Chinese, and therefore was considered to be unlucky for good business. I also remember, in another year when I was about eight or nine years old, my family went to the Peak to take a hike around the top. This was considered to be a lucky yearly ritual for our family. That year, the wind was blowing very strongly. When I was playing with the wind with my hands, I said “Let’s eat North-West Wind!” (meaning “you got nothing to eat” in Chinese slang). Immediately, I was being starred at and being reprimanded by my mother.
There were all sorts of events and happenings surrounding the issue of money in my family. Some were happy, some were not. But there was one incident that made a strong impression when my grandfather was in his late years. My grandparents were full of vitality when they were young. Even when they were in their 60s and 70s, they would hike up the hill for morning exercises every morning. Then, they would go for morning dim-sum in a Chinese restaurant. Grandma liked to play mahjong at home, while grandpa liked to spare some time everyday at the company. However, grandma’s health deteriorated quickly when she got kidney problems in her late years. Not so long after she got the disease, she passed away. Soon after losing his old mate, grandfather’s health also deteriorated. He had a stroke and then he was also suffering from memory loss. During his last year of life, he spent most of the time sleeping and lying in his bed. When he was awake, he might be helped by the nurse or his children to go to the living room, to walk, to sit on a chair or to watch TV. When grandchildren visited him, he would often not recognize us.
During the time of such bodily and mental state, one day, he was sitting in the living room watching T.V. One of my uncles took out a few one hundred dollar bills from his pocket and put them in front of my grandfather. My uncle said, “Old Pa, these are for you to eat dim sum.” Without a split second of thinking about it, he quickly moved his shaking arm, snatched the notes and then quickly and shakily put them in his own pocket. When I saw this, I was very surprised. How come grandpa could act so quickly when he saw money, while he was not even able to recognize his own grandchildren? Then I also wondered: has he been making money so much in his life that it has become a reflexive action? Did he think about it when he snatched the bills? Or did he have an intention in mind?
Too bad, my grandfather is not here anymore. Otherwise I could have asked him. I know what he would have said, though. He would probably say: “You studied too much and your brain has been polluted by your books. Don’t think so much, otherwise you will not be able to make so much money!” In fact, this was one of his few advices to me after I graduated from university.
I would like to thank my grandfather. Because of the hard work and blessings of him and my father’s generation, I had a safe, free and worry-less childhood. I had a good education, and I could create a life that I like. Even during this time of financial tsunami, I can still sit here so relaxed to write this story of my grandpa to share with everyone.
Thank you so much, grandpa!
