Dim sum is a favourite delicacy of many Hong Kong people. While bamboo steamer is an irreplaceable secret of preserving the original flavour of dim sum, steamer making technique has even been inscribed onto the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hong Kong.

Master LUI Ming, now 93, has been working with dedication in the bamboo steamer industry for more than 70 years. He earned his reputation in the market with his skilled craftsmanship and innovative products. Realising that the protruding slip of a traditional steamer was easily damaged when cleaning, Master LUI improved the slip with stainless steel to make the steamer more durable. However, due to the migration of local industrial operations to the Mainland, the handmade bamboo steamer industry in Hong Kong has gradually shrunk, and the craftsmanship has found no inheritors. Fortunately, Master LUI’s craftsmanship is given a new life in another form of art. Young artist Inkgo LAM, who hopes to integrate traditional craftsmanship into contemporary art, met Master LUI in an intangible cultural heritage inheritance programme. They collaborated to create a bamboo steamer in the shape of the Big Buddha. For a bamboo artist, in addition to creation, maintenance of the works is also important. Bamboo, the main material used in the works, is a natural material that is easily worn out. In addition, as the artist has to repair the works in accordance with the damages, more meticulous skills are needed and thus making it more challenging than creating a new art piece.

Inkgo likes to use bamboo in her creations, and hopes to show different features of bamboo in her works. Therefore, she combines bamboo art with contemporary art in her solo exhibition, so that visitors can appreciate various characteristics of bamboo while savouring the artistic enjoyment. She also organises bamboo steamer workshops to let the public better understand this traditional craftsmanship. Bamboo craftsmen from two different generations are as resilient as bamboo, with unswerving determination to pass down the bamboo artistry.

Producer: TSANG Chor-sun

Rice is the staple food for many people, and every grain of rice contains the traditional Chinese wisdom in cultivation. From soaking the seeds for germination, sowing, growing and transplanting of rice seedlings to harvesting, in addition to the effort and sweat devoted, farmers also have to carefully observe, analyse, plan, as well as apply different cultivation methods in each process. As such, farming actually involves sophisticated skills. In the past 9 years, Rachel CHAN has gone through countless attempts and researches with a group of farmers in Yi O, Lantau Island, hoping to reintroduce local rice varieties so as to recover the “Taste of Hong Kong”.

Rachel’s love in growing plants started with a mimosa. From pot plants to weeds, from rice to various crops, she is very knowledgeable about the properties of various plants. She believes that it is necessary to fully understand the growth characteristics of both the crops and the living things in their surroundings in order to grow healthy crops. She also considers that she can never learn enough in this topic. Therefore, even though she has already finished a course in sustainable agriculture, she still visits farms in Hong Kong in her spare time to observe and learn.

Summing up on her 9 years of farming experience, she thinks that it is in fact a practice. Despite of the difficulties during the process and the possibility of an unexpectedly low harvest, she has learnt that farming requires persistence, and one should never give up.

Producer: WONG Nga-yan, Karen