{"id":24647,"date":"2024-11-12T23:06:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T15:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=24647"},"modified":"2024-11-20T10:54:30","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T02:54:30","slug":"the-mahjong-carver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2024\/11\/the-mahjong-carver\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Handmade Mahjong Alive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A mahjong maker insists on making hand-carved mahjong.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Kathy Yee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheung Shun-king is one of the remaining three artisan mahjong tile carvers in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 70-year-old master only takes a day off once a year, dedicating the rest of his time to the art of hand-carving mahjong. The store opens at 10 a.m. daily and he works until late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I have become accustomed to sleeping as late as 3 a.m. I will continue working until nobody buys it anymore. I will not retire,\u201d Cheung says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe hand-carved mahjong we used to enjoy playing with have gradually been replaced by machine-carved ones. As time goes by, this traditional skill that was once popular is now fading out,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cheung Shun-king, one of the mahjong tile carvers in Hong Kong.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cheung has been working in Biu Kee MahJong, a family business founded around 60 years ago by his grandfather. He inherited it from his father when he was in secondary school. \u201cBiu\u201d is his father\u2019s name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheung started learning carving mahjong when he was in secondary school and he has been doing this job his whole life. When he was younger, he tried working part-time for a day or two, but later his family called him back home to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI followed the old mahjong\u2019s footsteps and became skilled at making it. Now I can make it without even looking at tiles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A mahjong set takes one month to a year to be completed. It is usually used as decorations so the customers are not in a hurry to receive their orders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand-carved mahjong seems to be less attractive to Hong Kong people but more and more foreigners are buying them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHalf of my customers are from China and the other half are from foreign countries like the United States and Britain. Most of the customers were from Hong Kong, but those who wanted to buy hand-carved mahjong had already bought them,\u201d Cheung says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An online ordering system is available on Facebook for foreign customers. Biu Kee MahJong provides overseas shipments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach hand-carved mahjong is unique. The style of each artisan mahjong tile carver is different. You can spot the differences if you are familiar with their style. But for the machine-carved ones, the machines have been adjusted to produce a specific size to ensure the uniformity in the output,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tailor-made tiles featuring characters and cartoons.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To attract more customers, Cheung creates tailor-made tiles featuring characters or cartoons. He charges one hundred dollars per character. The most popular characters are \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d and \u201cGet rich\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the verge of disappearing, Cheung wants to pass down the culture. He teaches people the background of hand-carved mahjong and the making process by working with social enterprises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore COVID-19, many people were interested in hand-carved mahjong, especially foreigners, but now fewer are interested. The hand-carved mahjong culture depends on the media to spread awareness and promote it these days,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Cheung does not plan to train apprentices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is actually bad for newcomers to join the industry, especially when it is hard to make a good living. It takes years of practice to master the skills,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheung is optimistic about the current situation as he believes there are advantages when hand-carved mahjong is less popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith fewer customers, I have more time to create. I don\u2019t need to rush and can focus on being more meticulous and produce high-quality mahjong,\u201d  he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sub-edited by Cynthia Chan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A mahjong maker devotes his whole life to hand-carved mahjong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[33,205,861,40],"class_list":["post-24647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","category-uncategorized","tag-culture","tag-hong-kong","tag-mahjong","tag-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24647"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24753,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24647\/revisions\/24753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}