A Tsing Yi Story: Luk Gor
June 7, 2023
This is Luk Gor, he was in charge of the Chun Kwan section of the Bamboo Theatre in Tsing Yi.
Days before their opening date, final inspections had to made to ensure the safety of the structure and environmental concerns were met and that’s when I met him.
I was walking around the stage of the theatre taking pictures when he startled me from the other end of the theatre. He shouted at me asking who I was and who let me onto the grounds. I was startled but after calming the situation down and telling him what I was all about, he started talking to me about history and troubles of organising the bamboo theatre after it had been stopped for 3 years.
“People have changed,” he tells me. The government inspectors were breathing down his neck about ending the shows an hour earlier. “They have always ended at 11pm, and now they want us to end at 10pm. We are already starting the shows at 7pm (earlier than previous years) and we can’t start earlier than that,” he said frustratingly with a look of defeat. With growing concerns about noise and hygiene, the shows which have historically started at 8pm to ensure everyone has had their dinners first before coming to the theatre had to be pushed back.
Times have changed, but there’s good and there’s bad. He tells me of a time when their people (Hoklo immigrants) used to feud with indigenous Hakka villagers of the island. In the past, the relationship between the two groups had been tense and even violent. As such, they used to separately build their own bamboo theatres in honour of their deities’ birthday’s despite being only a week apart incurring a huge cost to both parties.
By the 70’s they had put their differences aside and started to work together in the construction of the Tsing Yi bamboo theatre annually. He tells me it is impossible not to work together: the younger generations are less and less interested in picking up the mantle of responsibility and as a result working together is pretty much all they have. I got the impression he felt attacked by the government officials.
The inspector showed up as we were talking and I was introduced to him. He told me he understood the aspect of tradition but also had to balance voices of the urban dwellers. “As you know society has been quite sensitive lately,” he told me in a hushed tone, as I nodded assuming he meant between villagers and the urbanites. “We can’t let the shows run too late just because of tradition, people have to work, but we also want to maintain a balance. You understand right?” Again, I nodded but this time with an “mmhmm”. He then turned back to Luk Gor and their negotiation about time kicked off, I didn’t stay to listen but could not help but to think that living in the New Territories will always be about finding the right balance with tradition and urbanisation. One one hand, you have people who have lived here for decades, if not centuries, practicing their traditions unscathed by the scrutiny of the government or urban people till recently, and on the other hand you have the needs of people who have moved in as the land gets developed who call this island their home too.
A few days later, I caught wind of the news that they were able to negotiate the end time to be 10:30pm with the help of the Rural Committee, the chairman of who is a Hakka villager.
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