Housekeeper of Disused Firecracker Factory
Maggie, Loi Chi Kei
Sun has been working in the factory since 1964 till now. “I still remember the first day I came to Yi Long is on August 15,” said Sun, who witnessed the rise and decline of the firecracker industry.
During the mid-80s, the foreign countries banned the import of firecrackers, so the firecracker industry in Macao started to decline.
“After the decline of the firecracker industry, everyone left the factory. I’m the only one who stays,” Sun said.
Yi Long is still well-kept – the surrounding walls, the office and the facilities are still there. However, it gives people a kind of loneliness. The factory seems isolated from the outside world. The interior of the factory is very spacious like a village with many little broken houses, many trees and a small temple. There are even a river and a small pond with a small boat deeper inside. Next to the entrance of the factory, it is a building where Sun lives. The building has three rooms, including one sitting room and two bedrooms. Actually, it was the general office of the factory in the past, where workers would get their salary. Besides, there is a toilet, but no kitchen. The old kitchen has become a cage for his two dogs so he now only prepares his meal at a corner of the sitting room.
Every day, Sun gets up early in the morning and takes a stroll. He then comes back to the factory and prepares his lunch. After that, he stays in his sitting room and spends the whole afternoon listening to the radio. His job is just to make sure everything goes well in the factory. He lives in the factory without paying rent and the Yi Long Company pays him several thousand patacas as his salary.
In his living room, much old stuff can be found but television, because of the electric lines. The lines are too old and are not affordable to the high electric supply.
Although the factory is disused, the owner once allowed the outsiders to go inside and play war game. This attracted a lot of war game fans to visit this old factory.
Meanwhile, this raised people’s attention to the protection of the cultural heritage. Many people started to think that this disused factory is an important and valuable place in Macao’s history.
On May 2011, people were not allowed to play war games inside anymore. Legislator Chan Ming Kam asked the government about this issue in 2010. The government replied that they planned to protect the factory by changing it into a firecrackers theme park and they were discussing the details with the owner of the factory.
Due to the complex ownership problem, the government needs more time to deal with it. Until now, the factory has still been disused and no specific action has been taken by the government.
“I have been living and working here since 1960s,” the old housekeeper Sun Gun said. Can you imagine how an old man lives alone in a disused factory for decades? And what kind of disused space the factory is?
Sun comes from Shiqi(石歧) and works at Yi Long Firecracker Factory in Taipa. Before the closed down of the factory, his job was to prepare meals for the factory’s workers.
“There were a lot of workers and I had to prepare meals for eight tables every day, including lunch and dinner,” Sun said proudly.
Macao firecracker industry has hundred years of history and was one of the leading industries, while Yi Long firecracker factory has 83 years of history, established since 1928. During the most prosperous times, there were seven big firecracker factories and Yi Long was one of them.