Alexander K. Yeung
Copyright © 2024 by Alexander Yeung
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Prologue
“I am only the promise of what China is going to do in the future.” My 17-year-old aunt Sau-King Yeung, the first woman representing China in women’s swimming to the 1936 Berlin Olympics, told an English reporter of the Hong Kong South China Morning Post in July 1936.
Later in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, four Chinese women’s competitive swimmers first delivered my aunt’s promise. Zhuang Yong won silver in the 100 meters freestyle. Yang Wenyi won silver in the 50 meters freestyle. Huang Xiaomin won silver in the 200 meters breaststroke. Qian Hong won bronze in the 100 meters butterfly.
In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, more Chinese women’s competitive swimmers kept my aunt’s promise, winning four golds and six silver medals. The gold medalists were: Qian Hong in the 100 meters butterfly, Zhuang Yong in the 100 meters freestyle, Yang Wenyi in the 50 meters freestyle, and Lin Li in the 200 meters individual medley. Except the 2000 Olympics, Chinese women’s competitive swimmers continued to win gold, silver and bronze medals from the 1996 to the 2016 Olympics Games (Olympics Official Results).
In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, while Zhang Yufei of China won gold in the 200 meters butterfly with an Olympic record and the 4x200 meters freestyle, Chinese-Caucasian women joined the league of medalists to deliver my aunt’s 1936 promise. Siobhan Bernadette Haughey of Hong Kong, whose mother is a Hong Kong Chinese, won silver in the 100 meters and the 200 meters freestyle. Margaret MacNair, aka Maggie MacNeil of Canada, a Jiujiang-born Chinese adopted by Canadian parents, won gold in the 100 meters butterfly, silver in the 4x100 meters freestyle and bronze in the 4x100 meters medley.
In the 2024 Paris Olympics, Siobhan Bernadette Haughey of Hong Kong won bronze in the 100 meters and the 200 meters freestyle. Torri Huske of the USA, whose mother is a Chinese, won gold in the 100 meters butterfly, the mixed 4x100 meters medley relay, the 4x100 meters medley relay, silver in the 100 meters freestyle, the 4x100 meters freestyle relay. Tang Qianting of China won silver in the 100 meters breaststroke, the mixed 4x100 meters relay, bronze in the 4x100 meters medley relay. Zhang Yufei of China won silver in the mixed 4x100 meters relay, bronze in the 50 meters freestyle, the 100 meters butterfly, the 200 meters butterfly, 4x100 meters freestyle relay, the 4x100 meters medley relay. Women’s team China won bronze in the 4x100 meters relay, the 4x200 meters freestyle relay, the 4x100 meters medley relay (Olympia Official Results). My aunt’s 1936 promise was fully realized after eighty eight years.
My aunt Yvonne Sau-King Yeung Tan, aka Yang Xiuqiong, was born in Hong Kong on April 25, 1919 and passed away in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on October 10, 1982. She was known as the China Mermaid in the 1930s. Yet it is very sad that her story posted on Chinese social media, published in Chinese and English books is not only incorrect and false, but also irresponsible and slandering.
From my recollections and research, I hope readers will gain a true story of my late aunt through the eyes of her nephew. Most importantly, the readers will get to know her as a person that shaped a legacy of the China Mermaid, the pioneer of women swimming athletes in China in the 1930s; the founder and the first chairwoman of the ladies’ section of the Hong Kong Life Saving Society (the former Hong Kong Life Guards’ Club) from 1962 to 1966; and the Vancouver creative boutique owner in the 1980s.
The Young China Mermaid, Sau-King Yeung 1930-1936
“Did we have a celebrity in our family, dad?” My young children asked me after they came home from school in 1990s. “We learned about celebrity in the class. Our teacher told us to ask our parents if we had a celebrity in our family.”
I replied, “Your grandaunt Yvonne was the first woman who represented China for women’s swimming in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. She was the gold medalist and records breaker in freestyle, backstroke and relays in women’s swimming in the 1933 and 1935 China National Competitions, and in the 1934 Manila Far Eastern Games.
Besides those competitions, on October 14, 1930, she won and broke the record with the time 32 minutes and 39 seconds in the Hong Kong Annual Harbour Race. The Hong Kong harbour was 1,590 meters wide. She was 12 years old, and the youngest competitor.
“A Young ‘Mermaid’. Chinese Girl Wins Open Harbour Race. Record Broken” read the headline of the Hong Kong English newspaper, The China Mail, on October 15, 1930. After she captured five gold medals in the 1933 National swimming competition, China Mermaid had then become a nickname of your grandaunt. Her Chinese name was Sau-King Yeung. Yvonne was her English name which she used later from 1950s.
“Wow, that’s awesome! Did she win in the 1936 Berlin Olympics?” They asked.
“Women’s swimming competition in China was at an early developing stage in the early 1900s, and international swimming competition like the Olympics was China's first time to participate in. Therefore, your aunt lost in the preliminary heats. Yet in the 100 meters freestyle, she broke her own 1935 national record of 1 minute 23 seconds by 1 minute 22.2 seconds, and in the 100 meters backstroke, she broke her own 1935 national record of 1 minute 37.4 seconds by 1 minute 36.4 seconds in the Berlin Olympic preliminary heats.” I said.
“Was she disappointed?” they asked.
“A Hong Kong English newspaper, The South China Morning Post, July 7, 1936 wrote on the headline “Promise of the Future” about your grandaunt. In her interview prior to her trip, the reporter asked her about her chance of winning at the Berlin Olympics Games.
“My chances at Berlin? No. I do not think I will win any of the events, but I hope to be placed. Victory is not everything. My racing times have been good in China. But Chinese records cannot be compared with American and European records, not yet.” Miss Yeung smiled modestly. “You see,” she said, “I am only the promise of what China is going to do in the future.” your grandaunt Yvonne replied.
Later in her Chinese memoir, she reflected on her performance at the Berlin Olympics. She admitted that she had flaws. Despite her correct coordination of alternating arm strokes and leg kicks that were compatible to other world-class swimmers, her breathing didn’t match her strokes. Then she got tired easily and couldn’t swim ahead of others. It was a very difficult task to improve your own time by one second, especially when you were already at your very best time. You need special training in order to have spectacular results. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.34)
She was ashamed with her Olympic performance and felt she had let the Chinese people down. She had done her very best. Yet she didn’t try to whitewash the facts. She hoped her people would understand the reasons behind the failure of the Chinese swimming team at the Berlin Olympics. While she took full responsibility for her loss, she felt proud and comforted to see the Chinese National flag flying up high along with the flags of all the first world countries at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.38)
“It sounds like grandaunt Yvonne was a remarkable young lady for her young age besides people called her the China Mermaid. What was she like?” they were curious to know more about their grandaunt as a person.
Sau-King Yeung the Person 1930-1982
I noticed my aunt Yvonne had ten unique and excellent personal qualities from my personal relationship with her, my reading of her 1938 Chinese Memoir and accurate Chinese resources about her. Those qualities had deeply impressed me. Her ten personal qualities had enabled her to overcome the tremendous challenges that she faced and came out with flying colours in her times.
Courageous
It takes a lot of courage for a young girl of 12 years old, also the youngest participant to compete in an annual Hong Kong cross-harbour race in 1930. She braved through rough waves and swam across the 1,590 meters wide harbour.
“Waves kept hitting over me one after another. Yet I was calm, feeling as if the waves were pushing me forward instead of blocking me. I kept swimming hard forward to the destination. Not only I did succeed in reaching the other side of the harbour, but I was also the very first one there. The swimmers were not able to catch up with me when I turned my head and watched from the shore. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, pp.10-11)
Grateful
Despite all the gold medals, trophies, and new records one after another, my aunt never forgot to appreciate her coaches and her swimming club, the South China Athletic Association of Hong Kong. She acknowledged each of her swimming coaches by their names in her memoir.
“My success was not just mine, but also the success of the South China Athletic Association. I am grateful to her for discovering my swimming talent, and nurturing me. I will never forget the encouragement I received from the coaches. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.6)
“Mr. Chan-Fai Yuen taught me a lot; Mr. Te-Sang Leung trained me step by step; and especially Mr. Ming-Chun Lo, who used various ways to encourage me, built up my self-confidence and develop my courage to never give up but to keep going forward. He was also the first coach to teach me the freestyle. He set firm my swimming foundation.” (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, pp.5, 11-12)
“Mr. Yee-Wo Wong, under his strategic coaching, I swam a new record in the 6th National Athletic Games in Shanghai, 1935. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.29)
Perceptive
Though she was just a young schoolgirl swimmer, my aunt had amazing insights on ways for swimmers to improve their performance in competitions.
“Swimmers themselves could not see their own improper techniques. They need coaches to observe and correct them. Without the corrections from the coaches, their improper swimming techniques would then become habits. They will be very difficult to be changed.” (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.5)
My aunt observed that all athletes of other countries had trainers who kept guiding and supervising them to prepare them for the competitions prior to the opening of the Berlin Olympic Games. But the Chinese athletes did not have that kind of preparation and support, especially the swimming athletes to who no one paid attention.
She also saw three reasons for the disappointed results of the China swimming team in the 1936 Berlin Olympic. Firstly, their physical endurance and nutrition were insufficient. Secondly, the team did not have long-term training in place. Thirdly, the team lacked in-the-field competitions experiences. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, pp.34, 38)
Kind-hearted
Aunt Sau-King was sitting under a tree with her teammate on the shore in Manila when she took a break after her preparation for the 10th Far Eastern Games in 1934. She saw a young boy knocked down by a strong wave but his friend didn’t go to pull him up. The wave started to sweep the boy away but the onlookers didn’t do anything to save him.
My aunt then took off her shoes, rushed from the shore and jumped into the water. She managed to grasp the neck of the boy, and with her backstroke, she brought the boy safe to the shore. On the next day, a Hong Kong reporter in the Philippines interviewed my aunt about the incident.
“It is just a common incident and doesn’t need to be broadcasted. People learn swimming in order to have an additional protection to their lives when they face danger in the water. Saving people from drowning is definitely a heavenly given responsibility to those who can swim.” (Chinese book: Yeung Sau-King the Mermaid, Wang Jiang Ming, Shanghai 1935, pp.67-72)
Personally, I am very grateful to my aunt Yvonne when she knew that I was short of funds to pay for my first-year tuition for my theological training in Philadelphia, USA. She said to me, “I will take care of your first-year tuition.”
Her kind-heartedness and generosity have ever since been engraved in my mind and heart.
Humble
Aunt Yvonne was a humble person. She never talked about her past swimming success and all the honours bestowed upon her. Besides, she listened to people and their suggestions.
One day, I overheard her talking with my father at her house about the need of a porch shade. I drew a sketch of a porch shade with a pencil on a piece of paper and showed it to her. She took a look and said, “This is very good!” I was surprised by her positive response. I was just a thirteen-year-old boy.
Inspiring
On 25th July 1934, my 15-year-old aunt Sau-King was invited to cut the ribbon at the opening of the new Nanchang swimming pool. She gave her blessings to the people of Nanchang at the end of her speech, saying
“I wish to pass on the athletic spirit of South China to Nanchang, and I will bring the spirit of New Life back to South China." (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.23)
Note: Nanchang, the capital Jiangxi province of China, was the birthplace of the New Life Movement of China in 1934.
After her trip to Nanchang, she wrote a Chinese article “My Account of the Early Swimming” in the inaugural issue of the magazine Swimming, May 1935.
“The giant spinning wheel of times keeps on turning, and my swimming life has already passed five years. My results have improved through the encouragement of my father and the guidance of my swimming predecessors. I was fortunate to be a champion and have set new records. Many people say that I am a swimming genius. This makes me feel ashamed. To me, whether you are a genius or not, the ultimate results are from diligent hard work.
In fact, am I a genius? How many failures had I experienced? It is only by the determination of hard and painful work that I have harvested today’s average results.
This is my deepest passion and I hope sisters of China will diligently promote swimming. Never be arrogant when one succeeds; never be discouraged when one fails. Arise and determine, endure hardship and work on it.” (Chinese book In Search of Yeung Sau-King the Mermaid, Wai Lin Pun, 2019, Hong Kong, pp.65-66)
A nine-year-old Hong Kong girl, Miss Shing Ying Flora Li, decided to learn to swim after she read the news that Yeung Sau-King, a local Hong Kong young girl dubbed the Baby Mermaid “beat all the other Chinese in a swimming competition …. Swimming became a rave, and children and grandparents alike flocked to the beaches.” (Journey Across the Four Seas: A Chinese Woman Search’s for Home, Veronica Li, 2007)
Patriotic
In my aunt's reflection of the disappointing results of the Chinese swimming team at the Berlin Olympics, she wrote in her memoir, “our main purpose of participating in the Olympics is to display our Chinese people’s spirit, and it does not matter if we win medals. But I took full responsibility for my failures. Yet seeing our China flag flying up high along with the flags of all those first world countries in the Olympics, it was a consolation that we deserved, wasn’t it?” (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.38)
On July 7, 1936 the Hong Kong English newspaper, the South China Morning Post wrote: Miss Yeung has been staunch to her principles. Her exotic beauty has drawn many offers from Hollywood and Chinese film companies. But she has declined them all.
“There are many women in China who are beautiful,’ she said, “but not many at present who can swim well. I can do more for my country by swimming than by trying to act in front of the camera.”
Charismatic
“To make a friend, you have to be friendly,” she says. “And I always ask questions.” (Chinatown News, Vancouver, September 3, 1982)
Aunt Yvonne has many friends. Her neighbours, golfers, priests, nuns, family doctor, nurses, customers are all her friends.
During her time at the Berlin Olympics, she made many new friends. Western media was very interested in her and they posted her happy and friendly pictures with athlete Hungarian swimmer Magda Lenkei and soccer athletes.
On the front cover, the German magazine Munchner Illustrierte Presse posted a picture of aunt Sau-King with Dorothy Poynton-Hill, an American two times Olympics diving champion (1932, 1936).
The French magazine Le Miroir du Monde also posted aunt Sau-King on their front cover with the headline Olympics Beauty: Chinese Swimmer Sau-King Yeung. (Chinese book In Search of Yeung Sau-King the Mermaid, Wai Lin Pun 2019 Hong Kong, pp.99-102)
The charisma of aunt Sau-King even influenced three of her fellow women Olympic Martial Art team who eagerly learned to swim in the swimming pool every day when they returned from the Berlin Olympic Games. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938 p.42)
Devoted
Aunt Yvonne Sau-King was a dedicated Roman Catholic. She was involved actively at the charitable ministry of the Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong after the Second World War.
I stayed at her house one Christmas. On Christmas Eve, she took the whole family and me to attend the Christmas Eve Mass. It was a very peaceful experience to an elementary school boy who attended a Christmas Eve Mass overnight for the first time.
She always put her team and her country first in all her competitions. Knowing the reputation of China had lacked behind other countries, her aim in the 1934 Manila 10th Far Eastern Games was to do her best to raise the reputation of China in women swimming when she was selected to represent China. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, p.17)
When my aunt Yvonne Sau-King saw the lack of female lifeguards in Hong Kong in 1960s, she took lifeguard examination and obtained her lifeguard license. She then founded the Ladies section of the Hong Kong Life Saving Society (the former Hong Kong Life Guards’ club) in 1962. She was the first chairwoman from 1962-1966, and the first woman chancellor of the Royal Life Saving Society, Hong Kong branch in 1966.
“Madam Yeung was an active promoter in women’s lifesaving activities in Hong Kong. She had set a good example in motivating Hong Kong people in water sports and lifesaving. She helped not only SCAA swimmers achieving excellent results over the years, but also the people of Hong Kong upgrading water safety standard and preventing loss of life.” (Testimonial, Kan Kin Fai, executive Committee Member of the South China Athletic Association in Hong Kong and an emeritus examiner of the Hong Kong Life Saving Society, November 9, 2021)
Her devotion to the lifesaving activities in Hong Kong from 1962-1966 gained the recognition from the Britain Royal Life Saving Society in 1966. Under her leadership, the Hong Kong Life Saving Society won and received the William Henry Memorial Trophy for the first time in 1966.
On July 10, 1966, the South China Morning Post wrote on the headline, “China Mermaid to meet the Queen. An invitation to attend an evening reception at Buckingham Palace on July 18 has been received by Mrs. Yvonne Tan, wife of Mr. T. K. Tan, and well-known her own right as “The China Mermaid.” Note: my aunt was known as Yvonne Tan after her marriage.
The Royal Life Saving Society of the United Kingdom awarded my aunt the Recognition Badge in 1967 in recognition of her invaluable services rendered to the Society by unremitting zeal in promoting its aims and objects. (Recognition Badge Plague, The Royal Life Saving Society of the United Kingdom, 1967)
But above all, aunt Yvonne devoted her life to love and to care for the well-being of her senior age father (deceased in 1962), her husband, and her four children. She even extended her care and love to her older sister and her family, her younger brother and his family.
Note: aunt Yvonne’s mother passed away in 1937, one year after 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Creative
In 1978, aunt Yvonne Sau-King Yeung Tan settled in Vancouver, Canada. She later opened a boutique gift shop Creation Boutique.
““Tan designed Creation Boutique, her shop’s interior decorations herself. “Decorating is my hobby, I do all my decorating at home too,” she says. “I love it.” Another of her hobbies is painting with watercolors on rice paper in the Chinese style. She also enjoys golfing and gardening. “I just love to be doing something even at home, I like to keep busy,” Tan says. “I can’t sit still.”” (Chinatown News, Vancouver, September 3, 1982)
Her gift shop is her creative way to “share the things she’s seen and done with her customers.” (Chinatown News, Vancouver, September 3, 1982)
She loved to travel, and traveling stimulated her creativity. “Travelling is very educational,” she says. “You must go everywhere yourself. Don’t go where the tourists go. I like to go places where the language is different, the dress is different, the customs are different,” she explained. (Chinatown News, Vancouver, September 3, 1982)
Epilogue
“Our grandaunt Yvonne was indeed a very cool, awesome and fascinated woman! Thanks dad for sharing her story with us,” exclaimed my children.
My aunt lived in an era when China was in a transition from monarchy to democracy, from foreign Manchu imperial rule of four hundred years to indigenous democratic governing of twenty years. My aunt and common Chinese people were living in unstable circumstances and constant new challenges in the new China from regional, national and international influences.
Moreover, women in China always hold a second-class status. They lived for their husbands and children. Home was where they should be. Women in swimming therefore were not popular. And women’s swimming competition was not fully encouraged by the male-dominant community.
My aunt Sau-King Yeung was only a twelve-year-old little schoolgirl when she first won the championship in the third Guangdong Province women’s swimming meets in Guangzhou, August 1930, and the Hong Kong Annual Harbour Race in October 1930. The Chinese community was caught in a huge, unexpected surprise.
Chinese people called her water monster. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938 p.9), though the Hong Kong English newspaper China Mail called her a young mermaid. (China Mail, Hong Kong, Oct 15, 1930)
Her continuous successes in the National women’s swimming competitions (1933, 1935) and especially in the Manila the 10th Far Eastern Games in Philippines 1934 created a heat wave of promoting women status in China. Many women started going out of the house and learned swimming.
Yes, my aunt won championship one after another, breaking her own records in each tournament from national to international. However, let us not forget. She was only a growing young teenage schoolgirl in her swimming life from 1930 to 1936. The competition challenges she had faced, the public criticism she had endured, the political and social pressures she had to take, the national and international reporters she had to handle must have been overwhelming.
Would any growing teenage girl from age 12 to 17 be able to do that in a New China? Yet she did it. How could she do it?
She mentioned that her mother, my late grandmother, was her greatest support and encouragement, besides her father. My grandmother accompanied her to all the competitions. My aunt lost her energy to compete after the sudden death of her mother in 1937. She and her whole family were in grief. She seemed to have lost her interest in swimming, and was not happy to compete in swimming. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938 p.49).
Then the Second World War came. My aunt's swimming life abruptly ended.
Did my aunt then stop? On the contrary, she kept serving her community and country during and after the Second World War in Hong Kong.
She was taken by the Japanese soldiers in Hong Kong on 1st May 1943 for her involvement with the China National Government. (Chinese book In Search of Yeung Sau-King the Mermaid, Wai Lin Pun 2019 Hong Kong, pp.126-132). I marveled at my aunt’s bravery to risk her life for her people and her country during the war.
After the Second World War, she initiated and actively involved in another water activity, lifesaving in Hong Kong, while she and her husband started a business in Hong Kong in 1950s.
She kept going on to new adventures. She opened her Vancouver Creative Boutique to share her interests with her customers when she moved to Vancouver, Canada in the 1970s.
My aunt Yvonne Sau-King had lived a full life. She worked hard in a changing and challenging world to benefit many Chinese girls and women with her legacy.
Indeed, she was the China Mermaid against all tides, the promise of the future Chinese women’s competitive swimmers to be realized. She was a remarkable woman with class in her times, an awesome person with excellent personal qualities, an inspiring model for people to follow.
I wish the legacy of my aunt Yvonne Sau-King Yeung Tan encourage our readers to live a full life in this ever changing and challenging world. I wish you pass on her legacy to benefit everyone, continue to promote women’s equality, and be the promise of the future peace.
Acknowledgements
I appreciate Ms. Pun Wai Lin, author of the Chinese book In Search of the Mermaid Yeung Sau-King, for her suggestion to me to write the story of my aunt in English. I thank her for providing me pictures of the original newspaper clips about my aunt from 1930 to 1936. Her diligent hard work of careful research to publish her findings of the accurate life story of my aunt in Chinese is very much appreciated.
I thank Mr. Kan Kin Fai, executive Committee Member of the South China Athletic Association in Hong Kong and an emeritus examiner of the Hong Kong Life Saving Society for writing the testimonial for my aunt in 2021.
I also thank my cousin Caroline, daughter of Yvonne Sau-King Tan and my friend Peter to edit and proofread my manuscript.
Appendix
Family of Origin and Education of Sau-King Yeung
Sau-King Yeung’s father was born in Dongguan and settled in Hong Kong when he was very young. Her mother was born in Hong Kong. She had one older sister and a younger brother, who was my father.
On the one hand, she was raised in a traditional Chinese family. On the other hand, she was educated in Hong Kong at the Jon Tack girl’s school where she learned general subjects and English for five years, and the French Convent School (today’s St. Paul's Convent School, Hong Kong) where she learned English for two years.
Besides English, she loved music, dancing, singing, Chinese calligraphy, painting of plum flowers. She rode a bicycle when she was ten years old, because riding bicycle to her was a sport. At home, her mother taught her many practical domestic skills like cooking, embroidery, bookkeeping, ironing, management, house cleaning etc. (Memoir Chinese text, Yeung Sau-King, Hong Kong, 1938, pp.1, 3)
Gold Medals and New Records of Sau-King Yeung
50 m freestyle:
1933 5th National 50 m freestyle: 38.2 sec
1934 10th Far Eastern Games, Philippines 50 m freestyle: 36.9 sec
1935 6th National 50 m freestyle: 36 sec
1937 Hong Kong South China Athletic Association Meets 50 m freestyle: 33 sec
100 m freestyle:
1933 5th National 100 m freestyle: 1 min 29.6 sec
1934 10th Far Eastern Games, Philippines 100 m freestyle: 1 min 27.5 sec
1935 6th National 100 m freestyle: 1 min 23 sec
(1936 Berlin Olympics 100 m freestyle: 1 min 22.2 sec, her own new record)
100 m backstroke:
1933 5th National 100 m backstroke: 1 min 45.2 sec
1934 10th Far Eastern Games, Philippines 100 m backstroke: 1 min 38 sec
1935 6th National 100 m backstroke: 1 min 37.4 sec
(1936 Berlin Olympics 100 m backstroke: 1 min 36.4 sec, her own new record)
Trophies and Awards
1930 Hong Kong Annual Harbour Race Women Championship Cup, Hong Kong.
1934 Women Swimming Championship Trophy, the Far Eastern Games, Philippines.
1966 Golf Tournament Trophies, Royal Golf Club, Hong Kong.
1968, Recognition Badge and Certification, the Royal Life Saving Society, United Kingdom. It was in recognition of valuable services rendered to the Royal Life Saving Society for unremitting zeal in promoting its aims and objects. The certificate was signed by Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1967.
Resources
Yeung, Sau-King. Memoir (Chinese text), Hong Kong 1938.
Pun, Wai Lin. In Search of the Mermaid Yeung Sau-King (Chinese text) Hong Kong 2019.
Wang, Jiang-Ming. Yeung Sau-King the Mermaid, (Chinese text) Shanghai 1935.
Li, Veronica. Journey Across the Four Seas: A Chinese Woman Search’s for Home, 2007.
Kan, Kin Fai. Testimonial, Hong Kong 2021.
Recognition Badge Plague, the Royal Life Saving Society of United Kingdom, 1967.
Olympics Official Results. https://olympics.com/en/olympic-games/olympic-results
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