Ng Chiu Ying was born in Hong Kong in 1956 and is one of the 26th generation of the Ng Clan in Nga Tsin Wai. Part of the Ng Fung Ko Tso descent line of the fourth branch Ng Yat Un Tso, he is the sixth of his seven siblings and is the youngest boy in the family. Ng Chiu Ying’s family were indigenous inhabitant owners of four ancestral houses in Nga Tsin Wai. As his father was a government school teacher, Ng Chiu Ying spent his childhood in Happy Valley, only returning to his home village with his father to pay his respect to his ancestors at each year’s Spring and Chung Yeung festivals. He also regularly accompanied his mother back to Nga Tsin Wai to collect rent on the family’s houses. Ng Chiu Ying received his secondary education at St. Joseph’s College before studying at the University of Hong Kong, where he majored in science. After graduation, he engaged in commercial lending in the banking sector before emigrating to Canada in the mid-1990s. Ng Chiu Ying was greatly influenced by his parents and regarded Nga Tsin Wai as his home village. After emigration, he frequently returned to Hong Kong to participate in the affairs of the village and his Clan. He attended the meetings and activities of the Nga Tsin Wai Village Committee and Ng Clan Ancestral Trust. As a child, Ng Chiu Ying often visited Siu Lek Yuen where his older aunt had married. In comparing Nga Tsin Wai with other New Territories villages, he felt that urban villages were not only overcrowded and unhygienic, but also had less greenery and space than their New Territories counterparts.