So the best festival of the year (sorry Chinese New Year) has now been and gone. All those lanterns; all those lights. Tai Hang turned into a smoky vision of hell as the Fire Dragon wound around its streets. Victoria Park turned into a spectacle of burning candles, glowing ninjas, and … a massive yellow hedgehog thing. It was a rowdy, colourful and potentially flammable joy to behold.
Performed for well over 100 years in the Tai Hang area of Causeway Bay, the Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance has grown from a village ritual into one of the most popular events of Hong Kong’s mid-autumn festival celebrations. It is hard to imagine when you visit the area now, but Tai Hang was once no more than a small Hakka village. Situated much closer to the waterfront than present day Tai Hang, the village was home to farmers and fishermen which, it is said, suffered first a typhoon and then a plague in the autumn of 1880.
12km south west of Hong Kong island and at only 2.5km in length, Cheung Chau is relatively small when compared to its more amply proportioned neighbours, but this has by no means left it floating in obscurity. The island has seen human settlement for longer than most other parts of the territory and has a potted history that includes pirates, illegal immigrants and more recently, a spate of holiday home suicides that earned it the family-friendly moniker Death Island. Not exactly a tag the Hong Kong tourist board will be killing themselves to promote.