Liu Man Shek Tong: Ancestral Hall, Then School

The Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall belongs to the Liu clan of Sheung Shui. The Antiquities and Monuments Office traces the clan’s founding ancestor, Liu Chung-kit, from Fujian to Guangdong during the Yuan dynasty. The family first settled in Tuen Mun, later moved to Futian north of the Shenzhen River, and eventually put down roots around the Sheung Yue River in Sheung Shui. The places in this account describe a gradual movement across a borderland, not a single leap from one home to another. The clan’s descendants later spread beyond the area. By the early Yongzheng reign, the Lius had built their main ancestral hall. Its construction reflects the prosperity of the family in the eighteenth century. The hall is therefore both a building and a marker of settlement: its location near the Sheung Yue River anchors a lineage story in one specific part of Sheung Shui.

The ancestral hall follows a three-hall, two-courtyard plan. Its surfaces carry plaster mouldings, wood carvings and murals with auspicious motifs and pictures. The sequence of halls and courtyards organizes movement through the building, while decoration lends meaning to its interior. These features help distinguish it from a simple meeting room: it was designed as a formal place for ancestral memory and clan gathering. The hall was later restored during the Qianlong reign, showing that care for the building continued beyond its original construction.

In 1932, the ancestral hall was converted into Fung Kai School, providing modern education. The school moved to new premises in 1974. The change is striking: a building created to hold clan memory became a place where children learned in a different institutional setting. Restoration works followed in 1984 and 1994, and the hall was declared a monument in 1985.