For hundreds of years, pens have been an essential tool for writing, but now it may be more than that. Today, pen spinning has become a trendy pastime while some players spend hundreds of dollars for specialised pens for the game.

Beyond twiddling with pens between only two fingers, pen spinners spin pens through all five fingers, back and forth over all the knuckles, at a relatively high speed.

More people are learning to spin pens as more videos become available online, showing tricks like flicking pens from the little finger to other fingers, tossing and bouncing the pen off the thumb, then twirling it in the palm.

Ho Man-kit, spinning pen through his fingers, says pen spinning is an expensive hobby.

Ho Man-kit, 22, with four years pen-spinning experience, set up an online forum about pen spinning in 2004. In 2008, his forum merged with another pen spinning forum to form the Hong Kong Pen Spinning Association (HKPSA).

“Over ten thousand members joined my forum,” said Ho. It is beyond his expectations that so many people are interested in the topic. “Since then, pen spinning has become a new trend in Hong Kong,” he said.

However, the cost of taking up this game can be high. To Ho, pen spinning is an expensive hobby because pen spinners usually do not use normal pens, but pens specially designed for spinning which could be 100 times more expensive than normal ones.

Lee Siu-ting, 13, who started spinning pens for a year, frequently checks the prices of the specially designed pens. “The price of the pens ranges from HK$15 to over HK$400,” said Lee. He buys a new pen whenever one becomes available.

Nicky Lam, who has more than three years’ experience in pen spinning, also buys pens specifically for spinning. The most expensive pen he has bought costs more than HK$200. Lam said the pen was constructed from different parts of ten pens.

“I have spent altogether more than HK$2,000 on these specially designed pens,” Lam said. “I have about 50 to 60 special pens altogether.” He added that different models of pens are used for different spinning tricks.

The specially designed pens for spinning are mostly longer than ordinary pens and have adjustable weights on both ends. Removing the ink tube makes a pen better for spinning. Lam used to practise pen spinning about five to six hours a day, and now he can spin pens with both hands at the same time.

Lui Wing-on is demonstrating some pen -spinning tricks.

Lui Chun-nam, 15, one of the members of the HKPSA’s forum said that pens specifically for spinning are mainly imported from Japan and Korea. These pens could be found in Chan Sheung Kee Book Store in Mongkok and Wan Chai, or some City’super stores.

Although these pens may cost pen spinners a lot, Lui has spun pens for two years and is still dedicated to pen spinning. “It’s like an art form and I am attracted by the beauty of the coordination between the pen and the fingers,” Lui said.

Lui was also one of the organisers of the Asian Cup competition for pen spinning, which has attracted eight pen spinning associations from six places, including Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and Korea.

Six representatives of each association will send a video of their performance. A panel of adjudicators will judge the players’ creativity, degree of difficulty, as well as beauty and impressiveness of their pen spinning skills, according to Lui.

The competition’s results will be announced in December this year.

Pen spinning tricks
COURTESY PHOTO OF LAM CHUN-NAM MANDY CHI

Lui advised pen spinners that it is good to stand out from other spinners by participating in competitions. For beginners, he suggested they had better start with tricks like “thumbaround” and “sonic”.

Thumbaround involves spinning the pen around the thumb, and then catching it in between the thumb and index finger. Whereas for sonic, spinner will hold the pen between the middle and ring fingers and twirl it to make it rest between the middle and index fingers.

For more information, visit HKPSA’s website at http://hkpsa.com/forum/index.php. Sarah Yu