Hammering out a dying tradition

The Lunar New Year is not often associated with physical beatings, unless you're a maker of mochi rice cakes in Japan. There, such beatings are a sign of good health and prosperity. For the holiday, Sha Tin's New Town Plaza has invited over Mitsuo Nakatami (left), who holds the world record for pounding mochi, with a record of 60 forceful hits in 30 seconds. The Japanese master demonstrated his prowess yesterday morning at the mall, pitting himself against former Mr Hong Kong contestant Bill Chan Kwun-pui (right) doing arm curls - and easily defeating him. As a witness, we can say the 47-year-old mochi master was a blur with his rice hammer.

'Rice cakes are usually steamed, so the faster you pound it, the more the heat is trapped inside the cake and the more you pound it, the more chewy it gets and tastier it is,' Nakatami, who can pound up to 2,000 rice cakes a day, said.

He has practised the family craft since he was 18. However, Nakatami lamented the tradition is fading, as the next generation finds the process too tedious to learn. 'We used to make rice cakes in every household and it was a lot of fun to pound the rice cake with your neighbours and relatives during the New Year, but now they find it too exhausting and have stopped. It is quite sad.' Before the craft disappears completely, you can catch another round of mochi-pounding at the shopping mall at 1pm today.