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Polly Hui

Government considers request by festival organisers

The government will consider lifting the ban on 'bun scrambling' - the highlight of the annual Cheung Chau Bun Festival before the practice was brought to an abrupt end by a spectacular accident 26 years ago.

The Leisure and Cultural Services Department said yesterday it had received an application from the festival's organising committee to stage the event this year. It said it supported traditional cultural events but its primary concern was public safety.

In the scramble, villagers climb bun towers set up during the festival to grab and eat the top buns, which are said to bring good luck and health.

But in 1978, the bun towers collapsed under the weight of too many climbers and more than 100 people were injured. The event has been banned ever since.

The department said it had asked the committee to provide documents certifying that the bun towers were 'structurally sound' and that other safety measures would be taken. The department will also require the committee to purchase public liability insurance.

'Hong Kong has no cultural attraction in May [other than the Bun Festival]. It will be a pity if our plan for the bun scrambling game has to be shelved for some political or unnecessary reason,' Michael Li Hon-shing, chairman of the event's organising committee, told the South China Morning Post.

Mr Li, also executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners, has criticised the government for being bureaucratic and not supporting an idea which he said would boost tourism.

If approved, the bun scramble will take place at midnight on May 26, the first day of the festival which is meant to appease the spirits of those who died in a 19th-century plague which swept the island, killing large numbers. It features parades, lion dances, Chinese opera and religious rituals.

Yung Chi-ming, chairman of the island's rural committee and vice-president of the organising committee, said they wanted the bun tower climb to be a performance rather than a public competition. Climbers would be pre-selected.

'There will be three bun towers set up for 60 men to climb. The one who can snatch the largest number of buns within the shortest time will be the winner,' he said, adding that bamboo structures would be built around the towers and a mat placed underneath to ensure the safety of the climbers.



Ban on bun-tower scrambling may be lifted after 26 years