bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Shirley Zhao

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets in Cheung Chau on Saturday to view the Piu Sik “floating colours” parade, one of the highlights of the island’s famous bun festival.
The parade, which started at 2pm, saw children aged between five and eight dressed in colourful costumes, carried shoulder-high on metal structures or floats to appease wandering ghosts.
The parade is then followed by the Bun Scrambling Competition, which begins at 11.30pm.
Watch: How Cheung Chau prepares for the Piu Sik parade


Thirteen carts of children dressed as current affairs figures and television drama series characters participated in the parade, which started from the Pak Tai Temple Playground in north Cheung Chau, marching southward towards the Tin Hau Temple.
The carts marched together with dragon dance teams and bands drumming and performing with gongs. The loud, festive sound echoed through the little outlying island.
Heading the parade was a cart with three children. One girl, dressed in a bright red dress and holding a plastic lobster in her hand was meant to resemble Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s wife, who had been ridiculed as a lobster in the past. Another girl, in a white dress with a skull printed on and tousled long hair, resembled Leung’s daughter in her famous Halloween dress. A boy, dressed in an airport staff uniform, was seen “carrying” the two girls over his shoulder. The cart was supposed to remind people of the Leung family’s latest scandal, where his wife and daughter were accused of breaching airport security regulations over a forgotten piece of luggage.
Wong Sing-fook, 71, built the cart. He would not reveal the meaning of the cart, or its name ‘Traveling with C9’, to remind people of Leung’s name, CY.
“You need to think for yourself what this means,” Wong said.
Another cart saw one boy dressed in a police uniform, holding a baton, and another boy in a teenager’s outfit, holding a brick. They stood on a platform that looked like a pavement, with several bricks pryed out, to resemble the Mong Kok riot in February, where a group of young protesters clashed with police and attacking them with bricks pryed up from the road.
Yuen Chik-kwong, creator of the cart, said he did not want a repeat of the Mong Kok riot and hoped society could be more harmonious.
By 10am this morning, more than 100 people were already queuing up outside one of the bakeries on Pak She Street to buy the famous “lucky buns”, symbol of the bun festival.
Kwok Yu-tim, son of Kwok Kam Kee Cake Shop owner Kwok Kam-chuen, said he was expecting to sell about 60,000 buns this year – about the same as last year – but he had already seen better sales in the morning.
To speed up the bun-making process, the shop has finally introduced a food processor – doubling production to 20 buns a minute.
Man behind the bun: meet the Cheung Chau baker mass producing up to 10,000 iconic treats a day
“We were too slow in the past and we felt sorry for the customers, so this year we wanted to speed up the process,” said Kwok, 34.
Friends Kristy Chung Hiu-ying, 20, and Dora Lam Hiu-ting, 21, arrived on the island at 9am but still needed to wait in line for half an hour to buy the buns.
“It is our first time to join the festival this year,” said Chung. “The festival atmosphere is really good here, and you can’t feel the same elsewhere in Hong Kong.”
The blessed buns that helped scare off a plague on Cheung Chau
Ho Yau, 82, arrived at Cheung Chau from Yau Ma Tei at 9.30am and spent almost an hour queuing.
Ho said he came to offer his worship to Pak Tai, the festival’s main deity, and buy buns, which symbolise peace and safety – but would leave early to avoid the crowds for this afternoon’s Piu Sik “floating colours” parade.

No ferry priority for Cheung Chau residents during bun festival despite anticipated 60,000-strong crowd
Fatima Lo, owner of souvenir shop Fubo Selection, which had been operating on Pak She Praya Road for 17 years, said she expected up to 30 per cent more sales this year.
“It was raining last year so the business wasn’t very good,” said Lo.

Kwan Woon-ching, who operates a guesthouse on the same road, expected business to pick up by as much as 40 per cent this year.
The week-long festival began on May 11.



Business booming as bumper crowds flock to Cheung Chau for bun festival   

Visitor queue up for ‘lucky buns’ in Cheung Chau. Photo: Edward Wong

Scramble stars: the Cheung Chau bun festival. Graphic: Jodi Lai

Visitor are looking at some colourful bun related products around the island during the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau. The Bun Festival is a traditional Chinese festival on the island of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong. 14MAY16 SCMP/EDWARD WONG

A early traditional parade before the Floats parade during the Bun Festival in Cheung Chau. The Bun Festival is a traditional Chinese festival on the island of Cheung Chau in Hong Kong. 14MAY16 SCMP/EDWARD WONG

News

Hong Kong

Education