Chasing the Dragon
Read Chasing the Dragon Online
Authors: Jackie Pullinger
C
HASING
THE
D
RAGON
O
NE
W
OMAN
’
S
S
TRUGGLE
A
GAINST THE
D
ARKNESS OF
H
ONG
K
ONG
’
S
D
RUG
D
ENS
JACKIE PULLINGER
WITH ANDREW QUICKE
P
UBLISHED BY
R
EGAL
B
OOKS
F
ROM
G
OSPEL
L
IGHT
V
ENTURA
, C
ALIFORNIA
, U.S.A.
P
RINTED IN THE
U.S.A.
Regal Books is a ministry of Gospel Light, a Christian publisher dedicated to serving the local church. We believe God’s vision for Gospel Light is to provide church leaders with biblical, user-friendly materials that will help them evangelize, disciple and minister to children, youth and families.
It is our prayer that this Regal book will help you discover biblical truth for your own life and help you meet the needs of others. May God richly bless you.
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This story is factual, but for obvious reasons, some names have been changed.
All Scripture quotations are taken from the
Holy Bible, New International Version
®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 1980 by Jackie Pullinger and Andrew Quicke
New Introduction and chapters 16 and 17 copyright © 2001 Jackie Pullinger
All rights reserved. This edition issued by special arrangement with Hodder and Stoughton Limited of 338 Euston Road, London NW1 3BH, England.
First British edition published by Hodder and Stoughton in Great Britain in 1980.
First American edition published by Servant Publications in 1982.
Second British edition published by Hodder and Stoughton in 2006.
Second American edition published by Regal Books in 2006.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Library of Congress has cataloged the first edition as follows:
Pullinger, Jackie.
Chasing the dragon / Jackie Pullinger with Andrew Quicke.
p. c.m.
Originally published: London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1980, in series:
Hodder Christian paperbacks.
ISBN 0830743820
1. Pullinger, Jackie. 2. Missionaries—China—Hong Kong—Biography. 3. Missionaries—England—Biography. I. Quicke, Andrew. II. Title.
BV3427.P8A3 2004
266’.0092—dc22
2003028164
Rights for publishing this book in other languages are contracted by Gospel Light Worldwide, the international nonprofit ministry of Gospel Light. Gospel Light Worldwide also provides publishing and technical assistance to international publishers dedicated to producing Sunday School and Vacation Bible School curricula and books in the languages of the world. For additional information, visit
www.gospellightworldwide.org
; write to Gospel Light Worldwide, P.O. Box 3875, Ventura, CA 93006; or send an e-mail to
[email protected]
.
For my family, especially my father
.
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him…. “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers … has been hurled down.”
Revelation 12:9-10
CONTENTS
7. Big Brother Is Watching You
INTRODUCTION
O
f course,
Chasing the Dragon
backfired on me. I had written it in the hope of recording history and inspiring hope. Having disposed of one decade, I had hoped to get on with more life. Instead I was invited to retell the story again and again, whereas I had meant that you, the reader, might see that the same God could impart His heart and His power in your city and write your own books.
In 1989, the announcement of the Walled City’s impending demise prompted the telling of the life and death of the Kowloon Walled City in
Crack in the Wall
. The book was intended as a collection of cameos suitable for the coffee table. Like
Chasing the Dragon
, it was again a history and gave, among other things, the continuing saga of the Walled City’s Triad boss and his eventual quiet turning to Christ.
We have little evidence as to what happened to those whom Jesus healed in the Gospels. The accounts, for the most part, stop suddenly. This new edition will not finish their stories but is an attempt to update our situation. The first edition covered about 10 years, and the new material in this edition overviews more than 20 years in two chapters. I hope you will forgive the time swings. It all seems like yesterday.
The Walled City has gone. Even Hang Fook Camp, our urban squat, has gone. So where can you find us today if you visit Hong Kong? Hopefully, in all the streets and blocks. We will probably be unnamed, for we care not to extend our work but rather His kingdom. There are many more adventures to be had.
There are many more battles to be fought. It would be such fun to be a part of them rather than just read of them. So go! Write your own books. Go!
Jackie Pullinger
2001
PREFACE
I
first met Jackie Pullinger in 1968 when I went to Hong Kong to make a film for BBC television. Thanks to a friend’s introduction, she came to my hotel to tell me about her work in the Walled City, which was then just beginning. As I had run a youth club myself in the East End of London, I was fascinated by what she told me. When I went to see the Walled City with her, I found that it was exactly as she described it.
Over the years, Jackie and I kept in touch by letter, and year by year her work developed. Yet those outside Hong Kong who had ever heard of Jackie Pullinger were very few until the
Sunday Times
wrote about her work in 1974. Thereafter followed a question in Parliament about the status of the Walled City; articles by Reuters, UPI and other international agencies; and a 50-minute film by the British TV company, ATV, in 1978.
When Jackie went to England to talk about the work, I asked her if together we could write a fuller account of all that had happened. With some reluctance she agreed, and I revisited Hong Kong in 1979. However, Jackie did not approve of my first draft, and so she rewrote the whole book herself when she came to stay with our family in California.
Some of the names and places in the book have been changed to protect the characters concerned, nearly all of whom are still living in Hong Kong. Apart from that, everything happened as Jackie describes it. It is her story, but many of the events described can be verified from other sources.
My thanks are due to the many people who helped us complete this book against a tough time schedule. Among many, I would mention Marjorie Witcombe and Mary Stack in Hong Kong, who lent us their homes; Susan Soloman in California; my brother Edward and his friends at the World Bank in Washington, where the manuscript was completed; and, most
important of all, my wife, Juliet, who did a magnificent job of editing and advising throughout.
Andrew Quicke
London
April 1980
GLOSSARY
amah | a Chinese servant |
congee | a rice porridge, often eaten for breakfast |
daih lo | Big Brother |
daih lo | Big Mother, the senior Chinese wife |
for-gei | waiter or worker |
fui-goih | repent |
gong-sou | a talk between rival Triads to attempt a settlement over gang affairs |
“Hai bin do ah?” | “Where do you come from?” |
Hak Nam | darkness—often used as a name for Hong Kong’s Walled City |
kai ma | godmother (this term and the next are used to define a close relationship between an older woman and a child she takes to be her own) |
kai neui | goddaughter |
lap-sap | rubbish |
mama-san | a name for a woman who is in charge of various girl prostitutes or bar girls |
“M’gong?” | “Not talking?” |
mintoi | eiderdown |
“Moe yeh” | “Nothing” |
pahng-jue | lord of the hut or master of a drug den |
pin-mun | illegal business |
Poon Siu Jeh | “Pullinger” in Chinese |
sai lo | Little Brother |
Seui Fong | Names of different Triads that are illegal in Hong Kong |
siu yeh | a snack |
tin-man-toi | weatherman, meaning watchman |
wunton | dumplings stuffed with shrimp and pork |
“Yau moe gau chor” | “You must be off your head” |
“Yauh” | “I’m here” |
“Yeh sou ngoi nei” | “Jesus loves you” |
Note:
One U.S. dollar was worth HK $6.89 in 1966.
1
THE TRAIL OF BLOOD
T
he guard spat into the alley but nodded quite kindly and allowed me to pass. I left him there squatting in his soiled T-shirt. Having no further interest in me, he removed one of his flip-flops and returned to picking his black toenails. The entrance he was so ceremoniously guarding was almost hidden, and I had to squeeze between two dark buildings as I crept into this strange Chinese “city” so feared by the people of Hong Kong.
The darkness blindfolded me for a moment, and although I knew the way well by this time, I stepped very cautiously along the narrow lane that was barely wide enough for one to walk. I kept my eyes lowered on the ground for two reasons: to avoid stepping on nameless horrors, and so fall into the open sewer, and to avoid presenting an upturned face to the windows above, which intermittently spewed their refuse onto the street below. I clapped my hands to make the rats run, but some of them were so tame that they sat arrogantly in what they obviously regarded as their territory; it took several loud claps to shift them.
Then I saw it—a small spot of red gleaming in the filthy mud, and a little way ahead several more drops. It was certainly fresh blood. My stomach gripped into a tight knot, for I feared that I knew whose blood it was. Ah Sor had been given to me by a magistrate to look after as a son for one year. Then a Triad group, nicknamed
Seui Fong
, came after him to slash him over some unfinished gang business. It seemed that they had found him. As I hurried on, I saw glistening patches ahead and stepped
past two more
tin-man-toi
—the watchmen for the Triad gangsters who controlled the Walled City. They knew me and yielded as I passed; their faces showed nothing.