The Sydney Morning Herald from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia • Page 39

I Hm SyJnty Moniag IteaU, Ant 22, 1931 A FUNMY tMna happened to JEFFERSON PEN3ERTHY on tho way to moot Mlcrtool Luoy ox-rMttikiratour ami Chinatown aupormarkot Ho found Michaol luey's wife Inatoad; lUitda Wong Luey is tho wife of one of Chlnatown'a moat retiring personalities. and tho idaughtar of Its most visible character, Stanley Wong. tt LINDA WONG LUEY, the glamorous chatelaine of Sydney a 'Chinatown, flashes around ihe fringes of Dixon Stnict'uJ a bright metallic 280B Mercedes, Hi roof vm-dowjopen to the eariy springs skies. daw one. shoulder, and brilliant ewif tower mrw dark ham Her red-tipped fingers, diamond and ruby encrutjed, flutter (gainst the steering wheriu the drive.

Mad if tho 36-year-old third daughter of BtukhniUwnain rettau- rateur and. racehorao owner Stanley MBE, and her fathp'a constant companion orTiow) functions. A' feM. off GhiMtowi V'jV'Ha 4 a i a- Mkhaet Luey were married at St Catherine's Anglican Church in Broadway only 16 months later, in. June.

1962. i- Member of the fanuTy followed-' and Mr Stanley Wong came to Australia in 196S. He returned to Hong Kong for a couple of years to establish what probably the world's largest nightclub; the Metropole, at North Point on Hong Kong Island, before returning to Sydney to settle permanently 1 ytfrf jt' Michael Luey's brother Joseph and sisters Jenny and Jocelyn also moved to Sydney from New Zea- land, "where his grandfather had gone for1 the 1880 gold rush. Joseph-Luey runs a Chinese restaurant the Cronulla-Sutherland Leagues' Club, and sister. Jenny's hus-' band, Jack Wong, is one of hh partners.

Michael Lues contacts range 'right through Sydney's political, business, betting and entertainment worlds. Entrepreneur Michael Ed- gjey is a friend of the family. At the restaurant, 'which tfecame an imoffidai Sydney Iseaclquarters of the Labor Party and Sydney's racing identities. In those days Michael Lney wouVI greet a8 the Labor movemera leaden and their followers whh the standard party greeting: "How are you, com rede?" But now Linda Wong Luey 1 has taken over the Lueyfamirs public role. Michael Luey says that he just, wants to live quietly, "like a priest" How then, can one explain to him a Chinese opera scene that I have just gone through in his father-in-; law's restaurant-up the road? It begins, when I am greeted at the door by Linda's sister, Alice Wong Long, followed by her large brother Ronald who runs his father's New' Tai.

Yuen restaurant on Dixon Street in that bouncing, con-frontatkmist style of meeting that the Chinese have. Alice mischievously tells me she is Linda Wong Luey's but in a minute I am ushered into lavish restaurant where at least half of the family a beaming Mr Stan-ley Wong and his wife, three of his" four' daughters, Alice, Linda, and Una (the fourth, Julia Wong Cu- mines is absent) and Ronald is into a late Chinese lunch. Then Linda is at the table beside followed by Tina, who owns an al mine in Coober Pedy and runs irecKMis stone export-import busi- ks, and they are discussing tne. "Abmours" around Linda's mar- nai wniie tne irrepiessiDie Auce is poi (ring me cups of Chinese tea, then coft fee with after-dinner mints. Libda ts giving me a quick rundown on the time Michael gets home every evening, and now Alice Wong Long 'is behind me poring over my notebc tok, laughing and saying: "I want y.

ou to put in the first line that they a.W the happiest family and Michaei 1 is dedicated to his business and espi feially his little son John." She is slipping a napkin-wrapped Chinese cake into my jacket pocket while sa) ing this, as a kind of inducement i I am more of a mind to Bunking that only fa Chinatown an innocent get into the Tuesday afternoon. Poor lucky Michael Luey, a idedl-cated bHsinrssman who wants to live quietly. He is married into the wonderful Wongs, a family of fullblown, firing-ort-all-pistons human beings. "Michael so old-fashioned about publicity, but don't worry, you can come back and I will give you all the information, arid some nice photographs of my family," says Linda Wong Luey. "1 want to respect Michael's wishes; but for 12 years he wanted me to stay at home, and now I am working so hard in my businesses and I want to enjoy Linda and Michael live in a.

huge modern; three-storey house overlooking Maroubra's Arthur Byrnes Park and the ocean, with their chil-: dren and a housekeeper. The house-is near Mr Stanley Wong's' residence and was built by Michael Luey for his wife as a surprise when she was in Hong Kong; and Japan on an. extended "Michael had an interior decora-. tor come in and do everything, even the beds and pillows, and he wouldn't let me see it until was all finished," Linda said happily. Their children attend' two of Sydney's ex-' elusive private church schools, The Wong.

family come from Shanghai, but fled, to Hong Kong after the Communist takeover. Linda 'was the first of the family to arrive in as a 16-year-old student in 1961,. fl I Her fast call on arrival in' Sydney was the "old" Taiping restaurant in Hay Street (now her father's "old" Tai Yuen), which was then owned by the recently arrived young New Zealand-Chinese immigrant Michael Luey. "I went there because Taiping means peaceful and 1 needed that feel- ing in a new country," Linda recalls. It was on mat first day that she met Michael.

She boarded with an Australian family at Bexley North and went to St George High School, but Linda and taiping, Michael Luey gave a private party for Gciugh Whitlam and- Labor people before Mr Whidam's first visit to China in 1971. The' well-known racing identity and 1979 gunshot victim George Freeman is also a dose friend and, in his younger used to drive Michael Luey's car for him. l' But the difference between Linda Wong Luey's metallic red Mercedes and Michael's anonymous Toyota possibly sums up the difference 'in character between these two public and private people. 1 But apparently he sometimes puts his foot down. He stopped her from getting an LWL initials number plate for her metallic red Mercedes, so she opted for a "lucky" number 700 instead.

1 Linda Wong Luey with the golden dragon in the Tai CI 43, studious, with vast nese books lining We ucveat tardea. He be writing aboat efforts of the 'boat people 'who. themselves in the stead of "greedy nothing for the comraunity, "I am not important I i vn just a little man who runs a cornet grocery store," he said. This is actually 'the big i Chinese supermarket in the famUyVV Burr lington Centre building on tf, next corner. Some of Michael lUiey's: companies, Taiping Trading and.

Four Seas Food Distributor jPry: Ltd, are reputed to supply fair' share of Sydney's Chinese res urn- Linda Wong Luey says tvWt through their family property development company, John Al Pw Ltd (named after their childretV. John, 12, and Alice, 13), she am Michael have built blocks of home I units in Manly, Auburn and Camp erdown. ane currently supervising the construction of 16 home units at i uee wny on uw Monnem Deacnes, and they have properties at Pyr- mont, Moore Park, Beuevtw HuV I Mnn rVwe. HiiHctnn ParV mini Homsby awaiting devekspment With her father in another company, LWL Pty Ltd, Linda Wong Luey has been awarded a multi-million dollar tender by Syd- ney City Council to redevelop the old ACTU-Solo service station she and the adjoining car park at the north end of Dixon Street They have plans for an 11-storey Chinese-style residential, office and. shopping arcade building, with a.

three-storey car park linked by foot-' bridge to the $40 million Sydney Entertainment Centre going up across the road. Linda says that Michael has taught her how to be a good businesswoman. But he does not want to talk about any of that A genial hu-' manist, Michael has put behind him the public days when he ran the Linda and which Mktael Luey had run in Hay Street; to some it was The New Taiping. There was also a tendency for people to confuse the issue by caning it The Four Seasons. Not that the name much ma-tend.

It was Michael Luey who. held it together. Bustling, anx- a good memory for names and an even better memory for faces, Michael Luey presided over what appeared to be chaos on the peak Friday and Saturday nights and devised order. Luey was bom in China 43 years ago, but his family had been in Auckland, New Zealand, for two generations. He came to Sydney in 1961 and had made his name managing the Old Taiping.

The Four Seas, which opened on January 24, .1971, came at the right time for a Sydney moving towards more up-market type Chinese restaurants. It was a cut. above the old faithful laminex table style. The Four Seas also marked the final victory of good CMntoe food ever the pressures of Australian bad taste. In the 1950s, for most Australians, the greatest adrentare in Chinese eat-ing was sweet and sour pork England provid a melancholy example of where the local barbarian culture has prevailed and succeeded in making the Chrnese adapt A few months ago fat a town on Hadrian's Wall ki the North of England I saw a menu carry Chop Suey, Chips.

a dish which would nssu rwoMwiaK mm rwafnnj; eta eq.ifceabpvethe. tsariUwasbouU fiW gallant SOtlMMai osooUSdo 2i 'fifr Yuen Palace restaurant. world-wide" r)T Mr Wong. 67, 4he unofficial mayor of Chinatown, it the pre-aidenit of the Australian Chinese -1 United Welfare Association, chair man. of the Chinatown amowns a fair slice of the property; in that district Linda runs one of his three big restaurants, the "old" Tai Yuen in theC.

family's Covent Garden Hotel' building on Hay Street She is also the wife of Michael Luer, the forrrier owner of the fatuous Taiping restaurant in the old Four Seas Hotel on Elizabeth Street (noy the Consulate-General of the Peoples Republic of China). But hereby hangs a tale. The Chinese love gossip, and false' rumours have taken off like a nlame of locusts within their close-knit conynunity that Linda and Michael have, separated. Spice is added by claims the $50,000 diamoijd 'rock glittering on Linda's long index finger is part of a property set- tlement, jf it seems, is an outbreak of catty jealousy among the other Chinatown seem to be a centre of envy of all the Chinese fenujles in the Chinese community, but think like that," said Linda brightly. "Michael and I are so happy," she said.

She is aware, that the stories have spread far and wide and wamjs them publicly corrected. Why, justijecently she went to her Chinese doctor who immediately con-' gratiilated her on "being single again." and Linda had to tell the mis-guided acupuncturist with spirit: "Well you can just go POOF! like a firecracker and disappear." This information is passed on at Mr eStanley Wong's massive Tai Yuen Palace restaurant in Sussex Street, where I have dropped in hav- ing arrived early for an appointment nearby with Michael Luey to talk about his current business interests. AJittle, later Michael Luey is to. confirm that the talk of a separation is a lot of nonsense, but he doesn't want to talk about that or his businesses By RICHARD HALL )NDAV, settling day, is appy day for bookies. any putter can tell you, usually collect That.

boekks are-the big spenders, and hence-big-men in their favoured res-, Only once have I seen bookies flee a restamrant on a Monday night It was perhaps six or seven yean ago fat the Four Seas of happy' memory, Michael Luey's restaurant in Elizabeth Street, now more soberly the she of the Chinese Consalite-General. That night the restaurant was down' to four occupied tables. Th bookies survived the singing of Faith of Our Fathers: that aggressive Irish battle hymn, written characteristically by an Englishman. They flinched noticeably at the. singing of Hail Glorious St Patrick.

Whether they; were appalled at the sacrilegious aspects' of the levity with which the heroic, and quite poobaHy mythical, -figure was treateel or whether the singing was just bad was not dear. But the rendition by Austra-' lie's Ambassador and Plenipotentiary to the Peoples 1 Republic of Chinaiof The East is Red in fluent Mimdarin in the baritone style of la" nineteenth century drawing-oom finally cracked the. bookies and-they fled. 1 Even though the bookies disapproved, the staff overdue for finishing tune -wemitirred to un-' Chinese applause. Chiefs and kitchen hands poured hi to the rcstau-tart to can for encoiM.

The Ambassador obliged with Sailing the Seas Depends on the: Helmsman, a rather brisker Mao) tune. Then came Taking Tiger nfcuntam by Storm, an appropriate! revolutionary opera, with a I tune that aeunded like ping-pong exchanges. It could only have fclppened at the Four Seas, or nosti the Four Seas? One of the old things about the restaurant was that people called it by dtffcr(nt names. To many it was simply jthe Tah lag, this transferring. name of the oM Tafptng' Michael Luey I occasion In more ways than one.

To the Labor Party on a winning streak it was a. vindication of hs long-standing policy to recognise China and for many of the Chinese community in Sydney fe was a symbol of how patri-' otfam about die mainland, even if 1 not about communism, was re spectable. In the bar at the front of the restaurant you could hear conversation on any topic from politics to the rag trade of Surry Hills; from punting to property values, or the merits of die new Nimrod seats compared to the hard boards of the old Nimrod. Theatricals liked the place and took: their visiting colleagues there. Sammy Davis junior and Shirley MacLaine, sans Andrew Peacock, dropped fat There were always plenty of detectives, formidable trenchermen anywhere, and, as a restaurant serves anyone, some figures from the other side of the law.

When the illegal casino owners once- wanted to talk about the politics of then-future they hired a room of the participants smuggled in a tape recorder and thought-' fully supplied a record of the proceedings to the Crime Intelligence tJnit But all of that ended on New Year's Eve, 1978. Michael Luey sold the building to the Chinese Government for its Consulate-' General offices and residence. The figure was never disclosed but he admitted to more than SI million and leas than $10 million. There have been attempts to apply the magic of Michael Luey's name to other Chinese restaurants since. Michael is too poHte to ever dissent when his old staff from the Four Seas go out on their own and claim the inheritance of the Elizabeth Street tradJtJoti.

Privately he has not always been happy, but it is not the Chinese way to engage fat open disputes. (Perhaps the closest to the' tradition fat Lee's Fortuna Court at Grows Nest, co-partnered by Stanley Lee, the head waiter from the Four Seas.) On Friday and Saturday nights the lights are out early in. the old restaurant The resident diplomats don't keep late hours. Come to that, probably nobody smgs The East is Red in 539' Elisabeth Street Certainty one. csa be sure no Australian ambassador ever will again.

On transfer? On the move? Consider these facts: have made even a Ronaia legionary quail. i The Four Seas was the first major success in the City outside Dixon Street, although it had been a gamble to choose a she in, Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, almost at Cleveland Street. Michael Luey had ritualised it perhaps as much a motel as a restaurant, but over the years the' restaurant came to encroach on the moteL As crowds grew, motel suites were converted to private dining rooms. The main nail seated 150, but at the end there were more than 300 upstairs in (he private dining roenat In a big restaurant every group comes to think the restaurant its own and the Four Seas was- no exception. For Labor Party pollticiais through the yean to victory in government it was the Rstamtant Sydney.

But it was also 4he favourite res- -taurant of Jack Rene, the DLP survivor. Bob Aitkin had been there and Nerian Wran came snore frequently, rfflly Sneddon, fat Us pra-knightheod days, came when Sydney. 1 But it was faaslcahy a Labor Party and trade-union hangout Michael Luey Uiud to call the guests Clyde could actuaBj' be seen to smile there. The mot spectacular night still recalled iy old hands was the -occasion ithen Cough Whitlam fat 1972, Iresh from a meeting with Chou n-Lai entertained the visiting Clifaiese ping-pong team. It was symbolic i' I Phone 638.6000 for an obligation free quote or send coupon to: Movements International Movers Limited, P.O.

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