As long as Paul Chan See-lik and Au-yeung Ping-chi have something to say about it, creating puppets and paper effigies will live on in Hong Kong. They're showcasing their craft at community events such as the Arts in the Park Mardi Gras.
Last month Chan, the puppet maker, and Au-yeung, the paper model master, joined students and performers in the annual two-day carnival of song, dance and arts in Victoria Park, organised by the Youth Arts Foundation.
The experience was a first for Au-yeung, who usually works in Sham Shui Po where his family sells traditional paper lanterns and funeral offerings.
Au-yeung and his father make many of the more elaborate offerings themselves - paper replicas of items from daily life, from smartphones to cars and even a giant racecourse complete with paper thoroughbreds, which are burned to ensure that the deceased are kept in comfort in the afterlife.
At the Mardi Gras parade (held in the dark in Victoria Park this year instead of the streets of Causeway Bay because of the Occupy protests), Au-yeung presented his take on the merlion, a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish.