Sammy Tang
Hung Wins owner saying farewell to Katanning after 30 years running church-turned-restaurant
ABC Great Southern
By Jamie Thannoo
9 December 2023
Sammy Tang took over the Chinese restaurant Hung Wins during 1992. (ABC Great Southern: Jamie Thannoo)
The year was 1986 and Sammy Tang was 20 when his dad came up with a crazy idea. The local Baptist community of Katanning in Western Australia’s Great Southern region was moving to a new building and its historic church was up for sale.
The Tang family had previously moved from Hong Kong and opened the town’s first Chinese restaurant, Hung Wins. Having rented for six years, Mr Tang’s father David fancied a more permanent location for the business. The exterior of a small church Katanning’s church-turned-restaurant has been a local landmark for decades.
Katanning’s church-turned-restaurant has been a local landmark for decades. (ABC Great Southern: Jamie Thannoo)
The Tang family bought the church, gave the interior a classic Chinese restaurant makeover, and it became a much-loved eatery for more than 30 years. Now that Mr Tang is getting older, he is moving on and the church is once again up for sale, but he says he will always be grateful to the town who accepted his family and their bold idea.
“Katanning has offered me a very good lifestyle. The people have been very good to me,” he said.
A roll of the dice
Mr Tang recalls that Katanning was still an old-fashioned, traditional place in the 1980s, and the church’s new ownership had raised many eyebrows. “They were actually shocked. That church had been built in 1890,” he said. “You tell the older generation that church is going to become a Chinese restaurant. I don’t think they were too comfortable. “There was a debate. Some people accepted it; some people didn’t.”
The interior of Mr Tang’s restaurant. (ABC Great Southern: Jamie Thannoo)
But the way to the heart of the community was through its stomach, and the classic Chinese staples spoke for themselves. “We told everyone, ‘Come take a look. You’ll still enjoy the finished product’,” Mr Tang said. “People kept coming after that.”
Eating surrounded by history
The church, which had been a central part of many lives in Katanning, became a community hub of a different kind. Mr Tang said many enjoyed having a meal in the same room that hosted some of their most cherished memories. “A lot of my customers got married here, baptised here,” he said.
“People would tell me, ‘When I was a kid I used to sit there’ or ‘I had Sunday school in that room’.”
Hung Wins is located in the centre of Katanning. (ABC Great Southern: Jamie Thannoo)
It was not just locals who yielded to the cooking over the years. Many tourists stopped in Katanning to make a pilgrimage of a different sort after the restaurant appeared in a Lonely Planet guide.
His family took a risk, Mr Tang said, but after more than 30 years of success, it clearly paid off. “If you can think outside the circle, your chances of success are better, but you need a lot of family support too,” he said.
New home in a changing town
After spending a year travelling the world, Mr Tang decided to take over Hung Wins from his parents in 1992. “I didn’t speak much English when I came to Australia,” he said. “Coming from Hong Kong, I wasn’t used to small towns. “But they accepted me. I was very fortunate.”
While the community seemed insular and shy at first, Mr Tang recalled how his love for sport helped break the ice. With a passion for tennis, badminton and rifle-shooting (even representing Australia at an international level), Mr Tang soon became a well-known face.
“Country people are down-to-earth people, farmers are hard workers, and I learned a lot from them,” he said. “Once you open up, they get to know you. They get to understand you.”
Mr Tang is selling the building after running his business for more than 30 years. (ABC News: Jamie Thannoo )
While there were not many families like the Tangs in Katanning when they arrived in the 1980s, the town has since become one of the most multicultural communities in regional Australia. Mr Tang has seen that transformation firsthand.
“You look at all the religions in Katanning. It is amazing,” he said. “We are all the same. Most people just want to feed their family, give their kids good education, hope their kids can do better than them.”
Turning the page
After running the business for more than 30 years, Mr Tang is now 60 years old. The restaurant was temporarily closed during the pandemic, and the time off led him to decide it was time to move on so he could spend more time with his wife and children in Perth.
Mr Tang with the food truck that became part of his business. (Supplied)
Mr Tang hopes someone will take over the church and add another chapter to its rich history. “Maybe they will take over the business, or maybe they will do something else,” he said. “Hopefully, I can find someone who likes the country life as much as I do too. “I’ve been very fortunate.”
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11/12/2023
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