Our Disappearing Arts
As Hong Kong continues to modernize at an unrelenting speed, certain traditional art forms are becoming harder to find.
To say that Hong Kong's traditional crafts and pastimes are destined for extinction would be melodramatic, and false. But there are many elements of local culture—from sport to music to traditional craftsmanship—that are at risk due to rising rents, a lack of interest from consumers more interested in cheap prices than craftsmanship, and the allure that cheaper China poses for manufactuerers. Despite all the odds stacked against them, proponents of the five art forms we've highlighted here say that they can still survive—as long as there are a few committed practitioners and enough willing customers. Some devotees even say that some old-fashioned arts are experiencing a resurgence due to a riptide of appreciation for Chinese heritage. Read on to catch glimpses of a Hong Kong that might not be around forever.
Taking Aim at an Ancient Sport
A former government official hunts down the lost art of Chinese archery. By Hana R. Alberts
One of Stephen Selby’s claims to fame is that he speaks perfectly fluent Cantonese, with all the tones and inflections of a native Hongkonger. The other is that he is leading a revival of a sport and warfare tactic that hails from China’s dynastic eras, one described in texts dating all the way back to Confucius—traditional Chinese archery.
“An awful lot of people have shot arrows in the last 4,000 years,” Selby says. “Chinese archery is a martial art.”
It also differs from its westernized counterpart—the kind in the Olympics—because it isn’t static. For one, it is performed on horseback; secondly, it involves taking down a sly enemy, not a stationary target that doesn’t run away or fire back. Like in tai chi or karate, effective breathing is paramount, and clear thinking, a smooth rhythm and balance is as important as brute force.
It took a lot of digging to find out the roots of this ancient pastime. Selby, an athletic-looking 60-year-old who recently retired from his post as the head of Hong Kong’s intellectual property office, first tried archery at a summer camp. Given his interest in Chinese culture and language, he was keen to learn more.
“I started researching it from the point of view of history, and I found more and more stuff about how important it was,” he says. “Someone gave me a classical text from the Qing dynasty, and a lot of it referred to a text from the Ming dynasty. And then I found it in the Song dynasty and the Tang dynasty, and it was referring to the Han [dynasty], which was referring to Confucius. Confucius was an archery instructor.”