In the past, Hong Kong film and television dramas swept the world, and a group of actors with superb acting skills became household names because of this, and I believe that there are still many people who are their fans.
Speaking of famous actors in the Hong Kong entertainment industry, Zheng Shaoqiu's name can be said to be a household name.
In 1981, "The Rogue Emperor" starring Zheng Shaoqiu was all the rage, and many people were attracted to the handsome protagonist in the play.
But what many people don't know is that this TV series is based on a true story in Hong Kong.
This is a true story that happened in Hong Kong, where a homeless man claimed to be the emperor of Kowloon, and that the whole of Hong Kong was their fiefdom, and insisted on graffiti on the streets of Hong Kong to swear his sovereignty as the "emperor".
What kind of story is this? Who is this "Nine Dragons Emperor"? What kind of story does he have? Today, let's take a look at this story.
The story of a nail household
Nail households have existed throughout the ages, but because the story of the nail household discovering an "emperor" is unseen and unheard of.
It was in 1953 in Hong Kong.
At that time, Hong Kong was still under the control of the British government, and for the development of the city, the British government decided to re-urbanize the whole of Hong Kong.
To replan the city, the first thing is to demolish the original chaotic urban buildings, which is a demolition household.
Whether in the past or now, everyone knows that demolishing households is equivalent to getting rich overnight.
Moreover, the government has no way to resist the demolition, so the people are willing to take a large amount of money and move out of their original residences.
However, some people are willing to move, and naturally some people are unwilling.
Zeng Zaocai is like that.
When everyone else was celebrating becoming a demolition household and making a lot of money, Zeng Zaocai stood up and said that he had lived here for too long, and the things at home should be sorted out slowly and moved after a while.
Later, he didn't move back and forth, and slowly became a "nail household".
Just when the relevant local departments were trying their best to do Zeng Zaocai's ideological work, who would have thought that Zeng Zaocai would stand up again.
After hearing what he said, many people said that Zeng Zaocai was "acting as a demon", but some people said that what Zeng Zaocai said was true.
So, what did Zeng Zaocai say at that time?
Zeng Zaocai was originally relocated, and he also sorted out his things at home.
But a few days later, he went around declaring that he had found something.
According to Zeng Zaocai, it was the genealogy he found when he was sorting out the things in his home.
There are genealogists in all of them, and there is nothing strange about it.
But what is surprising about this matter is that the genealogy of the Zeng Zaocai family is very "legendary".
According to the genealogical records taken out by Zeng Zaocai, it turned out that among the ancestors of Zeng Zaocai's family, the first ancestor turned out to be the "prime minister" of the Zhou Dynasty on the mainland.
How many years have passed since the Zhou Dynasty at that time, let's just say that the Zhou Dynasty has the official position of "Prime Minister"?
This is not the most legendary, the most legendary thing is that the second ancestor of the Zeng family turned out to be the later concubine of the Zhou Dynasty, and the emperor of the Zhou Dynasty at that time also gave the Zeng family the Kowloon City, which was very remote in the Zhou Dynasty.
Zeng Zaocai took the family tree and told everyone confidently: The whole of Hong Kong belongs to their family! He is the "Emperor of Kowloon"!
In this way, Zeng Zaocai is the thirty-fifth generation of the increase, if there is really this genealogy, all this is true, then Zeng Zaocai is really the "Nine Dragons Emperor".
But what about the truth?
The so-called genealogy is not an heirloom, someone has carefully checked it, it is completely made of modern paper, it is conceivable, this genealogy is not real at all.
So at that time, no one believed that Zeng Zaocai's genealogy was true, and no one believed that Zeng Zaocai would be the "Nine Dragons Emperor".
Everyone thought Zeng Zaocai was crazy, indeed, Zeng Zaocai was really "crazy".
This strange genealogy changed Zeng Zaocai's entire life, when Zeng Zaocai realized that he was the Emperor of Kowloon, he felt from the bottom of his heart that he should not live such a poor and extremely ordinary life, he should be the "emperor".
Since then, Zeng Zaocai has been addicted to his "emperor dream" and can't wake up.
After Zeng Zaocai began to complain everywhere, no one paid attention to him, he wrote his own holy decree, Zeng Zaocai every day on crutches, holding an ink bucket and a brush, scribbling and painting in the streets and alleys of Hong Kong,
For everyone, Zeng Zaocai is a madman's behavior, but for Zeng Zaocai himself, this is his "holy decree", he writes whatever he wants in his fiefdom.
This kind of behavior is definitely unacceptable to everyone, and many citizens' houses have been painted in a mess, and they have chosen to call the police.
At that time, the police were most afraid of receiving a report about Zeng Zaocai, because Zeng Zaocai made a "small mistake" every time, but it seriously affected the city's appearance and people's lives.
Because it was a "little mistake", the police couldn't really do anything about Zeng Zaocai, they were arrested for a few days each time, and they had to send people out after a few days.
Over time, everyone knew that Zeng Zaocai was a "mad emperor", and the police arrested him every day, Zeng Zaocai ran every day, and also started a guerrilla war with the police.
Zeng Zaocai's life has embarked on a completely different path, so what kind of person was Zeng Zaocai in the past? What happened to him after becoming the "Emperor of Kowloon"? Let's continue to see.
The family is in a difficult situation and goes out to earn a living
Probably many people can't imagine that the madman "Nine Dragons Emperor" Zeng Zaocai many years later was once an ordinary person who worked hard for life.
Zeng Zaocai was born in 1921 in an ordinary village in Guangdong.
Zeng Zaocai's original name was not called this, but "Zeng Cai", because the family was in a difficult situation, so Zeng Zaocai's parents looked forward to Zeng Zaocai's birth to bring wealth to the family.
But things in the world often backfire, Zeng Zaocai did not bring any wealth to the family after he was born, and it coincided with troubled times, and the family's life became more and more difficult.
Looking at the mountains and rivers drifting and the people struggling to make a living, the Zeng family didn't expect to get rich, they just hoped that the family could eat enough and survive.
Therefore, Zeng Zaocai's family gave Zeng Zaocai this name, which means that the stove in the family can ignite the fire first, and only when you have eaten enough can you want to make money.
When Zeng Zaocai was sixteen years old, it was when the Japanese invaders invaded China in an all-out way, and the Zeng family felt sorry for this son and were afraid that he would have three longs and two shorts in the war, so they sent Zeng Zaocai to Hong Kong.
At that time, Zeng Zaocai's uncle was doing business in Hong Kong and was also the richest relative of the Zeng family, which is why they chose to send Zeng Zaocai to his uncle.
After arriving in Hong Kong, Zeng Zaocai's uncle really took good care of this nephew and found him a job growing vegetables.
After a few years, Zeng Zaocai felt that growing vegetables was not profitable, so he took it upon himself to change careers and become a construction worker, which was this decision that really changed Zeng Zaocai's life.
Although the work of a construction worker is more lucrative than growing vegetables, it has a certain risk, and an accident occurred while working at a garbage station.
At that time, Zeng Zaocai was hit by a huge garbage can, but fortunately only hit his foot.
Unfortunately, from that day on, Zeng Zaocai was disabled, and he had to walk on crutches every day, let alone go out to find a job, and Zeng Zaocai was only in his twenties at this time.
Since then, Zeng Zaocai's source of income in Hong Kong has become the welfare of the relevant departments.
One can imagine how desperate Zeng Zaocai was at that time.
He often wondered why such a change had happened to him, and he was already trying so hard to live.
Fortunately, Zeng Zaocai still has his own relatives in Hong Kong, and Zeng Zaocai's uncle didn't expect his nephew to encounter such a thing, he originally wanted to let his nephew exercise hard for two years and give him some important business.
After Zeng Zaocai's accident, Zeng Zaocai's uncle began to take Zeng Zaocai to his home to take care of him, not only that, but also personally taught Zeng Zaocai to write and read, he told Zeng Zaocai: If we can't do hard work, we will write and read, and we can make money if we have knowledge.
Because of such a good uncle, Zeng Zaocai gradually cheered up and began to concentrate on practicing calligraphy and reading.
A few years later, Zeng Zaocai reached the age of starting a family, when his uncle gave him a house and told him a good family business.
Zeng Zaocai's wife was fifteen years younger than him, and the two of them soon had children, although they were not rich, but they had a group of children and a harmonious husband and wife, and they were very happy.
Zeng Zaocai's uncle settled his nephew and breathed a long sigh of relief.
Just when everyone thought that Zeng Zaocai's life would be spent in peace and ordinary, something happened because of the demolition.
At first, although Zeng Zaocai was reluctant to move for a while and became a nail household, he never thought of completely changing his life until the mysterious "family tree" appeared.
Thinking that he is the "Emperor of Kowloon", the whole of Hong Kong should be his own.
After that, Zeng Zaocai went completely crazy, he began to be unwilling to live an ordinary and hard life, and began to dream of being an emperor crazy.
It's just that in the eyes of onlookers, Zeng Zaocai has become a madman and a scourge that affects Hong Kong's cityscape.
But time changes a lot of things, and a madman becomes an artist.
Many years later, Zeng Zaocai became an artist praised by everyone, he had many followers, and his "holy decree" graffiti also became a work of art in the eyes of many people, and later one of Zeng Zaocai's works was auctioned for 55,000 Hong Kong dollars.
How did Zeng Zaocai become an artist that everyone admired?
Artist Zeng Zaocai
At that time, Zeng Zaocai's works can be said to be all over the streets and alleys of Hong Kong, as long as the bus can arrive, Zeng Zaocai will be on crutches, take his own tools to catch the bus, and write the "holy decree" in a whimsical way.
Later, after the subway was opened in Hong Kong, Zeng Zaocai's "holy decree" spread to more places.
At this time, Hong Kong became more developed, and people's vision became more tolerant, and many people no longer laughed at the old man, but began to look at Zeng Zaocai's works with an appreciative eye.
Zeng Zaocai gradually became famous, but his family couldn't stand his crazy behavior and chose to stay away from him.
In 1995, Zeng Zao's house was finally successfully demolished, and the story of this nail household came to an end.
Tsang Chochoi's sons and daughters were all assigned a new house, and they only took their mother to take care of them, and as for Tsang Choi, they were randomly thrown in Kwun Tong.
Gradually, Tsang's family rarely came to visit him, and Tsang lived alone in Kwun Tong, with only a tattered bed and his own crutches left in the house.
At this time, Hong Kong's law enforcement officers didn't care much about this crazy artist, but just silently cleaned up his graffiti.
At the same time, law enforcement officers also found that Zeng Zaocai's graffiti had become popular, and sometimes they had to drive away onlookers first if they wanted to clean it up.
Tsang Zao Choi's graffiti has become a cultural wonder in Hong Kong, and many people like to see Tsang Choi graffiti on Hong Kong's street shoes.
There are also many well-wishers who will send food, ink, and so on to Zeng Zaocai, who writes.
Later, I don't know when it started, not only ordinary Hong Kong citizens fell in love with Zeng Zaocai's graffiti, but even Hong Kong's cultural circles also noticed Tsang's works.
There is a young artist named Deng Dazhi who actually printed Zeng Zaocai's graffiti works on the clothes he designed.
With the beginning, everything developed rapidly, and many clothing, water cups, and canvas bags in Hong Kong began to be printed with Zeng Zaocai's works.
It is worth noting that no one paid Zeng Zaocai any copyright fees at that time, so Zeng Zaocai was a well-known artist at this time, but also a poor and destitute homeless man.
Later, when Zeng Zaocai was still 81 years old, he was sued in court for graffiti and was fined 500 Hong Kong dollars.
Later, Zeng Zaocai, who was in his eighties, could not walk after an injury and was admitted to a nursing center.
Since then, Tsang's works have become one of the most famous works in Hong Kong, and Hong Kong has held many exhibitions of Tsang's artworks, and in 2003, Tsang's works were selected for the Venice Biennale, an international event.
Later, Zeng Zaocai became popular all over the world, and even many famous magazines in the United States, such as "Time Magazine", used Zeng Zaocai's works as covers.
In 2004, Hong Kong's famous "Ten Most Representative Hong Kong Designs" included Zeng Zaocai's works.
In the same year, at Sotheby's, Tsang's calligraphy sold for HK$55,000.
It's a pity that Zeng Zaocai was even more confused at this time, and when the reporter told him the good news, he asked instead: The person who bought this work is surnamed Kang, is it the descendant of Emperor Kangxi?
Zeng Zaocai was confused for most of his life, and passed away in 2007, his life seems to be in a daze, but he has lived an achievement.
If a person knows how warm and cold he drinks, perhaps in Zeng Zaocai's heart, he has truly realized his ideals.