In 1981, Sunny Im Shun-lee worked on a soaring structure that rose in the market square in Tai Po. For a week, thousands of people packed it daily to watch the highly vocal actors who are the mainstay of Cantonese opera. Then Sunny pulled the building down.
In the 25 years since then, he has erected that identical structure hundreds of times and torn it down just as often. Now aged 49, he is a master builder of the spacious temporary opera houses that rise like immense bamboo and tin mushrooms in village squares and car parks.
Each is a temporary work of art, a monument to the skills of the rural scaffold worker. Putting up the intricate network of poles, beams and roofing materials is like composing an enormous, three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. 'You've got to get every piece right every time, or the whole structure becomes unsafe,' he said. Sunny left school at the age of 15 to 'climb the bamboo'. He and his team of 10 scaffolders are now between 40 and 60 years old.
'It's a trade that is dying,' he laments. 'The work is too tough for young people. They don't have the stamina to work 12-hour days lugging heavy bamboo poles and climbing up and down to lash the timbers into place.
'When I was a kid, I always thought the job was great. I imagined I was like a monkey climbing the bamboo and swinging off the poles. To me, it was the best job, the most fun.
'It's hard, unrelenting work, but I love it. It gives me a lot of satisfaction when the opera house is constructed, the stage and chairs are in place, the musical instruments and sound equipment are all set up and the musicians and actors start their performances.'