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PEOPLE & ARTS Monday 29 april 2019

Hand-carved mahjong tiles are a dying craft in Hong Kong

By YOYO CHOW you can see each of them how he engraves the tiles,
ALICE FUNG is different," he said inside so the participants can
Associated Press his shop, a 100-square-foot learn basic skills such as the
HONG KONG (AP) — Just (9-square-meter) space proper posture to sit and
opposite the entrance to a on the ground-floor of an hold a carving knife. Then,
neon-lit night market, one old-style shop-house. "It is he went around the room
of Hong Kong's few remain- because I carve them one teaching them one-on-
ing carvers of mahjong tiles after another, complete one.
engraves the two Chinese them one by one instead of "Once you tried, you know,
characters for the number using a mold. Sometimes, hacking your way with one
8,000 on a piece of acrylic. the strength I apply may be of these, then you can see
With a knife in his right different if I just have had the intense skill it takes just
hand, Cheung Shun-king a meal or chat while carv- to make a few strokes and
turns the tile with the other ing." In this April 18, 2019, photo, Cheung Shun-king, 65-year-old to get something so beau-
to cut into it. From time to Played at Lunar New Year mahjong game tile maker, poses with his tiles in his shop in Kow- tiful out of it," said one stu-
time, he gently blows away and other gatherings, mah- loon's old neighborhood of Hong Kong. dent, Adrian O'Sullivan, a
the shavings. jong has become a sym- Associated Press 28-year-old elementary
His is a dying craft in an era bol of friendship and fam- school teacher.
of mass-produced tiles for ily bonds. Chinese restau- sticks. The four players sit serving customers and run- Cheung doesn't expect
the table-top game, popu- rants provide tables and around a square table and ning errands. After carv- them to become master
lar in southern China, Hong mahjong sets to customers shuffle the tiles face-down. ing the tiles, he cleans and carvers. At the end of the
Kong and Taiwan. The who host wedding or birth- Each arranges a set of tiles, paints them in three colors: class, he retouches the tiles
65-year-old artisan believes day banquets. Hong Kong like a hand of cards, before green, blue and red. The fi- made by the students so
there are only three or four once was dotted with mah- the game starts. They then nal step is to rub and wipe they have a good-looking
carvers left in Hong Kong. jong parlors, where people take turns drawing and dis- away the excess dried one to take home.
Cheung is trying to revive could play against strang- carding the tiles until one paint. "There used to be more
interest in the tradition by ers for money, but few are player forms a winning A set of his tiles sells for at than 10 mahjong stores
holding workshops to dem- left. combination. least $400, nearly tenfold along this street," he said.
onstrate how the tiles are Each mahjong set has 144 It takes Cheung nearly a the price of factory-made "Before when it was a flour-
made. tiles with designs that in- week to make one set, tiles. ishing business, it wasn't a
"For hand-carved mahjong clude Chinese characters, because he usually carves He started a recent work- problem even if there were
tiles, when you look closely, dots, flowers and bamboo only at night, when he isn't shop by demonstrating many of us. q