MangoVine - Village Contributions to Chinese New Year celebrations

05 February, 2009
Thursday

During the course of the preparations for the Chinese New Year entertainment shows in Ting Kok village, a long horizontal sheet of red paper is put up at the back of the seating area in the performance space.

On this sheet, a list of all the people and families who have contributed to the New Year entertainment is (hand) written down for everyone to see.

People from outside the village can also come to watch the shows, which are free, but it seems that the intended principal audience are the village inhabitants themselves. Therefore, its seen to be proper etiquette to contribute some money in some form or other.

From what I've gathered, the amount is based on what you can afford, but I suspect the more affluent like to contribute alot to show off their wealth.

Dotted around the stage, there are also large bouquets of flowers, which are also bought by inhabitants, and which have their names marked on boards above each of them.

While I observed the writing and flowers, the preparations for the opera shows were taking place. I saw them hanging up layer upon layer of richly decorated backdrops for different scenes, which ranged from blue sky hill scenes to oriental interior walls.

This entry posted in : Culture. Hong Kong. New Territories.

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Village Contributions to Chinese New Year celebrations

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