Terence Wong Kim-shan
Hong Kong Christmas wouldn’t be complete without the festive light displays lining the harbourfront. Terence Wong Kim-shan designs and installs the illuminations. He tells Yannie Chan about angry crowds and the perils of the job.
HK Magazine: It’s Christmas soon. You must be busy!
Terence Wong: We are actually quite free the few weeks around Christmas: all the displays needed to be ready by the first week of December. But this free time only lasts for a few weeks. After Christmas, we begin to work on Chinese New Year displays. And by the time we remove the CNY lights late February, I have to begin drawing up proposals for the upcoming holidays. Christmas never ends for me!
HK: How do you make such giant light displays?
TW: [At first] people were very skeptical about putting big light displays on the exterior of buildings. Nowhere else in the world has similar decorations, but I figured it out and people were surprised. Now, half of the Tsim Sha Tsui East display is done by my company. We go from the rooftop on suspended platforms and screw each bulb in. Our day usually begins at around 5am and finishes at about 8am. We try not to work at night: it’s dark and hard to see. One misstep will cost a life.
HK: Is the job dangerous?
TW: Obviously, because we work with light bulbs. As you screw in the light bulbs, there could be electric leakage. Once I was midair, and the entire line of light bulbs burst into flames one by one. I could see the fire coming my way. Thank goodness my colleagues shut down the electricity in time! Also, it is freezing and windy up high. A lot of people can’t take it, but I will work in lights for the rest of my life.
HK: How did Hong Kong’s Christmas lights display obsession began?
TW: Around 40 years ago, Tsim Sha Tsui East was like a wasteland: no one ever went there! So the buildings thought of putting up Christmas lights to attract visitors. The first years, there were 10,000 visitors. A couple of years later, the number jumped to 50,000. After some more years, the number became 1 million. Roads were closed off just so people could go there to admire the lights.
HK: Do you ever get bored of snowmen, Santa and reindeers?
TW: There are only so many Christmas visuals. Even for the 12 Chinese horoscopes, I’ve done all of them at least twice! I go to bookstores and read a lot to stay inspired. For example, I did the first moving lights display of a horse galloping.
HK: What is Christmas like for you?
TW: I used to have to remain in Tsim Sha Tsui during the Christmas holidays: I had to be on call in case there was an emergency with the lights. Now, my colleagues do that. But I still get pretty tense during the holidays, checking my phone constantly to make sure nothing has gone wrong.