Background information
Ng Luen Fai, originally from Taishan in mainland China, moved to the UK at the age of ten and settled in the small town of Ferndale, Wales, in 1960. With his family overseas in Hong Kong, he joined his brother, who managed a laundry business started by their grandfather. Mr. Ng recalls the quiet streets and modest lifestyle of Ferndale, which was vastly different from life in China. The laundry shop provided a critical service to the community, handling tough, hands-on work like cleaning butcher’s uniforms, a task that required large boiling pots and coal-fueled fires.
In 1962, Ng’s brother transitioned from the laundry business to a new Chinese restaurant in Pontypridd, where Ng began working evenings while attending school. Despite these efforts, he left school at fifteen to work full-time, a decision that led him through various restaurant jobs in the area. One significant opportunity came when he worked at a local fish and chips shop owned by an Italian friend. This experience eventually inspired him to open his own fish and chips shop with his wife in Trecynon, a small village near Aberdare, where they served both traditional fish and chips and Chinese food. For 25 years, Ng and his wife worked tirelessly, with only rare breaks from their seven-day work schedule in the shop’s early years.
Ng and his wife raised two children who have both excelled in their careers—his daughter as a scientist in Canada and his son as an architect in London. Reflecting on their achievements, Ng expresses pride, noting that despite limited formal education himself, his children’s success is a source of deep fulfillment and pride for him.
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