First Person: Ricky Szeto Wing-fu
The executive director of one of Hong Kong’s most famous herbal tea chains, Hung Fook Tong, Ricky Szeto Wing-fu spent his childhood fighting and stealing on the streets of Hong Kong. Now the admin head of the business administration department at Shue Yan University, he talks to Emily Wu about how he’s always faced his challenges head-on.
My childhood was an interesting one. My mother died when I was only eight months old, and my dad, a carpenter, moved to Brunei for work.
We were a poor family of three brothers. My dad only took my eldest brother with him. My second brother and I were raised by our grandparents, here in Hong Kong.
The movie “Echoes of the Rainbow,” about a working family in the 60s, moved me a lot. Maybe it echoes my family in some ways.
I suffered from serious asthma and I was as thin as a rake. I had to take this weird “medicine” to cure it. My grandmother found a nest of baby mice that hadn’t opened their eyes yet and asked me to swallow them, and my dad sent me a box of bird’s nest once a year.
My granddad was a long-winded man. Our dinner every night lasted for two hours and the only topic was the war of resistance against Japan. It was so boring and I didn’t want to stay at home.
I spent my time on the streets, fighting and stealing. I was a street child, a bad guy.