Woody Heritage

The post of yesterday naturally brings us to the admire the bamboo art form in this city once more. Previously, we dug into the story behind bamboo scaffoldings in some sequential posts.

One of the way to see a city is by walking around it, especially true for a packed city like Hong Kong. When you stroll in the street here, the sighting of bamboo structures cannot be missed. They may be in the form of a ladder, platform, scaffold, wall and whatnots.

Even better is if you run into the workers building something with the bamboo sticks. Otherwise, watching them climbing from one corner to another on the bamboo structure is simply entertaining, if I can put it this way.

The bamboo structures are flexible, seemingly flimsy, but unyieding to strong winds. They in a way reflect an traditional aspect of the Chinese culture: modesty. This nature is still obvious in some common conversations in which the Chinese dutifully refuses to be credited for a job well done. Maybe it also has a bearing on why the Chinese will not open a gift until the giver leaves.

The men working and carrying on with this historical craft have actually been passing on a heritage without knowing it. They should collectively been given a recognition in public.

Looking at the maze-like bamboo scaffolding, I can't help marvelling at the wits of those who invent and improve it.