Shau Kei Wan - Name

Name

The name Shau Kei Wan comes from the bay where the town is located. The bay is so named because its shape looks like a Shau Kei (colander). The bay had another name in the past - Ngor Yan Wan ( (Chinese: 餓人灣), translates to "Harbour of Starving Men"). It is said that there was a ship of people forced to dock by a typhoon. They landed hoping to buy some food and found that there was no agricultural products at all in the place. They left almost starving. Another version of the story is linked to the area's poor transportation during the dawn of the Colonial age, when people who live in the area can only rely on a sparse and unreliable Sampan service to get to the Central District. It was often jokingly said that people who live in this area will starve to death.

The name of the bay is changed to Aldrich Bay. It is named after a British navy captain who worked there. Shau Kei Wan is now the name of the town, while Aldrich Bay is the name of the bay. On maps in 1950s, Buffalo Bay is also marked, together with Aldrich Bay.

There is another story behind the name of Shau Kei Wan, which could be translated into "Pail Bay" directly in Cantonese. It is said that in the late Southern Song Dynasty, a man named Cheung Chun (Chinese: 張進) dropped a pail full of ancestral heirlooms into the bay as he sailed back to the area with the navy. The pail fell into sea just off the coast of the area now known as Eastern District.

A sadder story tells of a boatwoman, Chu Tee (Chinese: 朱蒂), who was widowed soon after getting married. She gave birth to a son, Ah Ha (阿蝦, literally little shrimp), after her husband's death. Ah Ha was a good boy who, tragically, lost his sight after catching smallpox. When he was 15, his mother fell ill. To support the family, Ah Ha became a beggar, sitting on the waterfront every day with a pail, until one day he was swept away in a violent storm. Only his pail was ever found. Chu Tee missed her son so much that she went insane, but Ah Ha's filial deed was immortalised in the name of Shau Kei Wan. However, this tale is viewed with suspicion, due to the fact that it supposedly took place during the early Qing Dynasty. The modern area of Shau Kei Wan already appeared in Ming Dynasty naval maps under the name used today.