Magical stories happen every day in this world.
In the last century, there was a strange person in Hong Kong, and this person even influenced Hong Kong for more than fifty years.
This person is Zeng Zaocai, who claims that Hong Kong is his own fiefdom.
He scribbled in Hong Kong to swear his "sovereignty," and for more than fifty years he became a disgrace to Hong Kong.
Why did he become like this? Is Hong Kong really inextricably linked to him?
Zeng Zaocai's "ingenuity"
In 2007, the Internet rumor that the "Kowloon Emperor" Zeng Zaocai had passed away, this news suddenly caused an uproar in Hong Kong, major media rushed to report, and people began to recall the bits and pieces of Zeng Zaocai's lifetime.
Someone said: "Tsang Tsang was a very successful street artist who used walls as canvases to paint a beautiful landscape of Hong Kong. ”
However, some people said: "The graffiti of Zeng Zaocai has no beauty, and it also greatly affects the work of the municipal department, which is simply a shame for all Hong Kong people." ”
People's evaluation of Zeng Zaocai is polarized, why did Zeng Zaocai become a person who scribbles on the streets and does not pay attention to social morality?
If you understand Zeng Zhaocai's youthful experience, you may be able to find the answer.
Zeng Zaocai was born in a very remote small county in Guangdong Province, and people have different opinions about his specific date of birth, but it is certain that no matter when he was born, it will not change the embarrassing situation of his family.
Fortunately, his surname added points to him, and "Zeng" was pronounced "Zeng", so his parents began to fantasize that this child could bring good luck to the family, preferably wealth, and the name Zeng Cai appeared.
Old photos of the people of Hong Kong
Such a consonant name was undoubtedly unique in the social environment of the time.
But it is obviously the most foolish to want to change your life through the name, and even if Zeng Zaocai already has a good name like "increasing wealth", it still does not make the family's life a little better.
Not only that, but the family's life was worse, because he had just been born, and his mother had to take care of him closely, which led to a lack of labor in the family.
All the pressures of life are on the father, whose ability is limited, and their life is once worse.
Women with children in Hong Kong
When Zeng Zaocai grew up a little, many children around him went to kindergartens to study, but Zeng Zaocai's family was really difficult, and Zeng Zaocai wanted to go to school as a luxury.
He could only stay at home every day and play games with himself, waiting for his parents to return.
A little older, Zeng Zhaocai had the opportunity to attend elementary school, but he only reached the second grade and had to drop out of school because of his family situation.
After dropping out of school, Zeng Zaocai was almost ten years old, and the children of that era were precocious, so Zeng Zaocai understood a lot of truths, in order to improve family conditions, he took the initiative to go out to find some jobs to do, and the most he did was odd jobs.
Working children
Because he was too young to dare to hire him all the time, Zeng Zaocai often changed his work place at both ends of three days.
But his income is still very small, after all, he is still a child, his strength is small, and his efficiency is low, but Zeng Zaocai is already very satisfied, at least he can reduce some burdens for the family.
Even so, Zeng Zaocai's family was still destitute, often without rice.
His parents found that the promise of "increasing wealth" might be too heavy for God to allow their family to fulfill their desire to be rich.
So he changed his name to "Zeng Zao Cai". It means to fill the pot and stove first, and not worry about eating and drinking.
But their lives still did not improve, at this time, Zeng Zaocai was sixteen years old.
At that time, he was already an adult at the age of sixteen or seventeen, and there was no such thing as an eighteen-year-old adult, so his parents let Zeng Zaocai go to Hong Kong to develop.
Hong Kong is an international metropolis, where it may bring zeng zaocai the opportunity to get rich, so zeng zaocai embarked on the road to Hong Kong with his parents' ardent expectations.
Zeng Zaocai's first stop after arriving in Hong Kong was to defect to his uncle, who was not a rich family in Hong Kong, but his life was always better than that of the Zeng family.
He went to work at a construction site with the help of his uncle.
In the construction site, Zeng Zaocai also relied on strength to eat, moving bricks, moving cement, steel bars, etc., such a heavy work made Zeng Zaocai tired and unable to stand up straight.
He was in his youth, it was the time when he grew up, if he did such a construction work for a long time, it would definitely affect his physical development, and his uncle did not intend to let Zeng Zaocai continue to do this work, but what else could Zeng Zaocai do in addition to contributing?
Even if his uncle was unwilling, Zeng Zaocai still insisted on doing it, which also caused his height to stay in the shape of sixteen or seventeen years old forever.
Zeng Zaocai had already had enough of a poor life, and in order to make a fortune as soon as possible, he also found another job.
The job is slightly easier, but the working hours are after the construction site leaves work every day, and at that point zeng zaocai has been tired for a day, so even if the job is relatively easy, it is also a burden for zeng zaocai.
But this life did not last long, and Zeng Zaocai had an accident.
He was taking out the garbage at the garbage dump that day, and perhaps he was too tired during the day to have no strength when dealing with a metal garbage can, which suddenly hit Zeng Zaocai's feet.
At that moment, Zeng Zaocai's feet first felt numbness, followed by a huge pain, Zeng Zaocai was covered in sweat, but because he did not have money to go to the doctor, he could only grit his teeth and hold on, and limped home.
But by the time he got home, his feet were already swollen high.
Although he couldn't sleep in the pain of the night, he could still walk, and who knew that the next day his feet would not listen to the call.
Zeng Zaocai originally thought that after a few days, the swelling would be fine, and when his uncle asked about it, he also said that he had accidentally twisted it, but after a few days he still did not get better.
The uncle could only take him to the clinic for treatment, and the doctor said that Zeng Zaocai's bones had been seriously injured, and he was afraid that he would never be able to stand up again, and he could only walk with the help of double crutches.
Huge changes after the blow
When he first heard this news, Zeng Zhaocai was frightened and did not move for a long time, he had just started to earn money to support his family, he encountered such a change, he really had no way to accept.
He will walk on crutches for the rest of his life, he will never be able to stand up, and this sunny thunderbolt will almost cost Zeng Zaocai half a life.
He cried incessantly, if time could be reincarnated, he would rather not go to a second job, but there was no regret medicine in this world, and Zeng Zaocai could only admit his fate even if he was unwilling.
He was taken home by his uncle to recuperate, and his uncle had been trying to find a way to comfort Zeng Zaocai, but his uncle understood that no matter how much comfort others tried to comfort him, he could not change back to Zeng Zaocai's healthy body.
Zeng Zaocai often sat in a chair, no one knew what he was thinking, the uncle found that Zeng Zaocai's mood was wrong, in order to alleviate Zeng Zaocai's anxiety and uneasiness, the uncle began to teach Zeng Zaocai to write.
Zeng Zaocai paid all his attention to calligraphy, his progress was rapid, in the blink of an eye, a few years had passed, and Zeng Zaocai's calligraphy had been written in a similar way.
In order to make a living, Zeng Zaocai began to sell his calligraphy works, but his works were still far from the level of the master, and the calligraphy works placed on the ground were often unloved, and after a period of persistence, Zeng Zaocai gave up.
Since his body was greatly traumatized, Zeng Zaocai's mentality has changed a lot, originally he put all his energy on making money, but now he is useless, Zeng Zaocai has some broken cans and broken emotions.
The roof leaks in the overnight rain, and the place where Zeng Zaocai lives is going to be demolished, which is actually a good thing, after all, the demolition money can improve the living standards of Zeng Zaocai, but Zeng Zaocai does not know what he thinks, and even does not agree to the demolition.
Zeng Zaocai became a nail household, and the employee in charge of the demolition work discussed Zeng Zaocai several times, and finally said that he was moved, and Zeng Zaocai promised to demolish, but he had to clean up the things in the family first.
The staff was very happy to hear it, and gave Zeng Zaocai several days to sort it out, as long as he could invite this big Buddha, the construction period was postponed for a few days, but who knew that there was a mistake in the middle.
Zeng Zaocai's family does not have many things, the most proud of him is probably the bookcase of books, Zeng Zaocai while sorting out his treasure book collection while looking through, but his eyes are attracted by a "Zeng Family Tree".
Everyone has such a thing as a family tree, but Zeng Zaocai said that his family's family tree is not ordinary, that day Zeng Zaocai learned about the history of the Zeng family in the Zeng family tree, and also discovered a big secret.
The Zeng family has a huge connection with Hong Kong, or Hong Kong belongs to the Zeng family! Such a statement not only makes historians laugh, but even the dolls who are in elementary school do not believe it.
However, Zeng Zaocai insisted that Hong Kong belonged to the Zeng family, and also listed a series of evidence, according to Zeng Zaocai: "Hong Kong was once the fiefdom of his wife. ”
But who is his grandfather's surname? Zeng Zaocai could not say, he could only explain: "The emperor gave Hong Kong to my grandfather, who has been growing vegetables and beans on this land to feed the earliest people in Hong Kong." ”
So which emperor rewarded The Fief of Zeng Taigong? Zeng Zaocai said that he was the Guangxu Emperor, but later changed his mouth to say that he was the Xianfeng Emperor, and when he later mentioned this matter, he was firmly the Guangxu Emperor again.
People all saw that Zeng Zaocai's actions were only to attract people's attention, or to resist demolition, so they never paid much attention to his nonsense.
However, Zeng Zaocai went around preaching what his wife looked like, and he himself was the Emperor of Kowloon, which made many Hong Kong people feel humiliated.
Originally, people still thought he was pitiful when they saw him, and more or less would cast a sympathetic look, but since Zeng Zaocai began to dream, people's first reaction when they saw him was contempt.
Zeng Zaocai did not feel that the gaze of these people was a violation of him, but instead began to graffiti on the wall on crutches.
"I am the Kowloon Emperor Zeng Zao Cai" and "The Guangxu Emperor gave me the Hong Kong fiefdom of Taigong" and so on are all from the hands of Zeng Zao Cai.
The late years of the "Kowloon Emperor"
At first, Zeng Zaocai only scribbled near his home, because his legs and feet were inconvenient and he couldn't walk too far, but before long, the walls near his home were basically filled with Zeng Zaocai, and he began to shift his position.
A pair of crutches, a brush, and a bottle of ink are the epitome of the second half of Zeng's life, and he insists on proving his "noble status" to the world, but no one believes it.
People feel that Zeng Zhaocai is both pitiful and sad, and it is pitiful that he lost the ability to walk freely at a young age, and it is sad that in middle age, because a genealogy made him dream of becoming an emperor in the Spring and Autumn Period.
However, Zeng Zaocai was happy in it, he was laughing all day long, people did not realize that he had any spiritual problems, and even some people envied Zeng Zaocai's mentality.
But how much bitterness is there in that? When Zeng Zaocai was young, he had married a wife who was fifteen years younger, although he was disabled, but at least at that time, his behavior was normal, and the life of the couple was very happy.
He and his wife also conceived several children, two of whom died prematurely, but they were also happy, and although his wife worked hard, she was always a harmonious family.
But since Zeng Zaocai got the genealogy, he has changed, he does not do his job all day, his wife often can't catch his shadow, he is obsessed with the "emperor's cause", and his wife has to accept the instructions of others.
It is really unbearable, Zeng Zaocai's wife left a few children and returned to her mother's house, Zeng Zaocai's life is even harder, originally "busy" after a day he can still eat a hot meal, but now the family is cold, everything has to rely on himself.
Although he has the protection of the disabled, he can only barely make ends meet, and sometimes he will be exploited a part, and Zeng Zaocai's old age is very bleak.
The lonely man insisted on what he thought was right, leaving his body and life out of the cloud of nine clouds, and he really didn't know whether to say whether Zeng Zhaocai was self-inflicted or persistent, and his psychedelic behavior made many people unpredictable.
But his "works" have expanded day by day, from the initial house nearby to the entire street to the whole Kowloon, Tsang Zao Cai spent decades to build Kowloon into a "place where Tsang Zao Cai is pervasive".
He has also become an obstacle in the eyes of city managers, and the walls that have just been painted may change back to their original appearance the next day, and the dense words have caused many people a headache.
Zeng Zaocai also used a brush to design the white T-shirt on his body into an "emperor-only" costume, which was just a cliché of Zeng Zaocai.
He became a symbol of Kowloon, and although he brought some bad influence, he became the only Hong Konger to exhibit his work at the Venice Biennale.
Zeng Zaocai's life is more absurd than unfortunate, perhaps after he was seriously injured, his spirit has been wrong, and he needs a catharsis.
He was anxious to prove to the world that even though he was disabled, he had a position that many people could not hope for, but he spent his life and spent more than fifty years to prove the "truth" in the end.
After the death of Hong Kong's "Kowloon Emperor", his works were protected, and perhaps this is also an unforgettable memory of a generation of Hong Kong people!