The Link Between Congee Culture and Argots of The Heaven and Earth Society

From 1910s to 1940s, the Triads became the largest and most numerous organizations in Hong Kong, and some of their branches have evolved into organizations that endangered public order. Before the fall of Hong Kong, the Triads grew stronger, and their activities became more and more semi-public. After the war, the new immigrants who speak Teochew dialect and Cantonese, mostly working as labor. At this time, the Coolie societies had a strong sense of hometown friendship that many new immigrants relied on to obtain accommodation and job opportunities. Due to the absence of a sound legal system and lack of social security, the coolie societies had to gang up to protect their interest and the conflicts between the relationship between different ethnic group were worsen. Especially the labors in Triangular Pier, has the strongest cohesion, Teochew people were the most united group in those labors, followed by Dongguan people and Fujian people.

In those years, as the merge salary, Teochew congee became the main meal of labors, because of the cheap price and suitable for nutritional supplement (Teochew congee cooked with a special way, which make the congee taste soft). In this way, Teochew congee was the best choice for them as three meals per day, The porridge stall named "Teochew Alley" (潮州巷仔) which located at Nam Pak Hong Lane (南北行街, today's Bonham Strand West 文咸西街) in the Triangular Pier (北角三角碼頭) and other porridge stalls situated in Sham Shui Po Ferry Pier (深水埗碼頭) in Kowloon (九龍) were the favorite porridge stalls of Labors because of the low price.

Porridge stalls also sold Teochew salty snacks, which include, coarse fish (雜魚), dried radish (菜脯), canarium pimela (烏欖), kale borecole (橄欖菜), preserved laternula (鹹薄殼), fermented olive (欖豉), lotus roots (蓮藕), fried peanuts (炸花生). It cost five cents of Hong Kong dollar for a small bowl of congee and ten cents for a big bowl. And the other snacks could all be served as five cents. Teochew Congee is simple, without Wok Hei (means the chief cook the dishes with strong fire power and great skill). Once the customers selected and ordered, Vendor poured congee in porringer or scoop congee with saucer. Rickshaw pullers and labors were the primary customers of porridge stall. Because of their heavy work, they need eat three meals per day. They can fill the belly by congee which just cost 20 to 25 cents per meal.

Although Teochew people called "Ziah⁸ Zog⁸" (食粥, means eat congee) as "Ziah⁸ Mi⁵" (食糜), the argot system of Trial was popular with working class. According to Xiao Yishan's (蕭一山, 1902-1978) research of Argot of Tian Di Hui in The Historical Materials of Secret Societies in Modern China (《近代秘密社會史料》), "Ziah⁸ Zog⁸" (食粥) called as "Da² Neng⁷" (打浪), "Im² De⁸" (飲茶, means drink eat) as "Cai² Cen¹" (采青). Teahouses were the contact station of gangs in mainland China, the members of gangs contact with argots through the placement of teacups.