It might have happened 40 years ago, but for one man jailed during the 1967 riots for printing seditious articles, the events are as vivid today as they were four decades ago.
However, what might come as a surprise is not that he feels strongly about the ordeal he went through, but that the self-declared leftist is critical of a left-wing that he says has tried to conceal history.
'The 1967 riots were a big incident. There should be more discussion about it instead of trying to conceal what happened,' said 87-year-old Chak Nuen-fai. 'Critics can condemn those who took part, participants can defend their actions. But no matter what, this incident should be open for discussion.'
'The leftists just don't want to mention it at all ... Chinese are always like that - once they make a mistake, they want to be silent about it,' said the staunch supporter of the Communist Party.
Mr Chak believes one of the main causes of the riots was not the colonial government's long-term suppression of the grass-roots labour movement and the leftists but the failure of the labour unions - primarily the Beijing-friendly flagship Federation of Trade Unions - to ease labourers' discontent by providing assistance and welfare.
No matter what the reasons, Mr Chak is still critical of the violence of the leftists, describing the riots as a fiasco and a failure.
