Tiu Keng Leng - History

History

Rennie's Mill got its name from a Canadian businessman named Alfred Herbert Rennie, who established the Hong Kong Milling Company at Junk Bay (his partners were Paul Chater and Hormusjee Naorojee Mody). The business failed, and Rennie drowned himself there in 1908, but was mistakenly reported that he hanged himself to death at that time. The incident gave the Chinese name for the site 吊頸嶺 (Tiu Keng Leng / Jyutping: diu3 geng2 leng5), meaning "Hanging (neck) Ridge". Because it was inauspicious, the name was later changed to similar sounding 調景嶺 (Tiu King Leng / Jyutping: tiu4 ging2 leng5, which can be interpreted as "ridge of pleasant scenery".)

On June 26, 1950 the Hong Kong Government's Social Welfare Office (the predecessor of the Social Welfare Department) settled a considerable number of refugees from China - former Nationalist soldiers and other Kuomintang supporters (according to official government account, there were 6,800 of them) - at Rennie's Mill, following the Chinese Civil War. The Hong Kong Government's original intention was to settle these refugees temporarily before they would be repatriated to Taiwan by the Kuomintang or to Mainland China by the Chinese Communist. But this day never came for the Kuomintang (under the auspices of a political-oriented charitable body named Free China Relief Association which became prominent after the government suspended food ration in 1953), the residents of the enclave became more supportive to the Kuomintang cause. Thus, by the late-1950s, in correlation with the Cold War context in Asia at the time, Rennie's Mill gradually became a Little Taiwan and a Bastion Against Communism, with the flag of the Republic of China flying, its own school system and practically off-limits to the Royal Hong Kong Police Force until 1962 when the Hong Kong Government decided to turn it into a resettlement estate due to its apprehension of the growing Kuomintang presence in the enclave. It also had a significant missionary presence. Despite its pro-Kuomintang atmosphere, the 1967 Riots did not have an effect on Rennie's Mill.

In 1996 the Hong Kong government finally evicted the last of Rennie's Mill's residents, ostensibly to make room for new town developments, as part of the Tseung Kwan O New Town, but widely believed to be a move to please the Communist Chinese government before Hong Kong reverted to Communist Chinese rule in 1997.