The Bun Festival in Cheung Chau

Cheung Chau is an outlying island situated to the southwest of Hong Kong Island. It is recognized as city dwellers’ paradise, with no skyscrapers, no vehicles.  Hardly would it be disturbed by too fast life pace or congestion characterized in modern cities. However, this tranquil island is transformed into a hive of activity when the fascinating Bun Festival takes place in the fourth lunar month each year. The festival is Cheung Chau’s main claim to fame. Although it takes about an hour to get there by ferry, visitors are soaked in the atmosphere of a typical fishing village during the Bun Festival.

 The festive activities of the Taiping Qingjiao ceremony has been held annually since the 19^th century in Cheung Chau, including the bun mountains, the Cantonese Opera theatre, the colorful parade, the lion dance, and the Taoist altar, all combining to capture the colorful and bustling atmosphere of the ceremony.

During the festival, there is a tradition that the residents stop slaughtering and give up meat for three days. Most of the restaurants on the island serve only vegetarian foods in this period of fasting.

Watching videos of the grand festival, what impresses most is the big and small bun towers made of lucky buns, which are located in the playground outside the Pak Tai Temple. They are made to thank the deities and bring good luck to everyone. The race of snatching buns on the bun towers is really interesting and usually the most eye-catching. Tourists are also attracted to obtain the buns distributed for their implications of peacefulness. Nowadays, the ‘lucky bun’ has become the symbol of the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival.

The Cheung Chau Jiao Festival is inscribed onto the Third National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage. More new elements are constantly infused into the festive activities by communities and groups. It’s really a wonderful way to deepen people’s interaction with nature and their history.

The fundamental religious rituals of the Hailufeng region are carried on, thus providing a sense of identity and continuity. On the other hand, it can also adapt to social and economic changes and unite different ethnic groups on the island. Taking in various cultural elements, such as Cantonese operas, lion dance, color floats, it brings into full play its creativity, and turns the traditions of Huizhou and Chaozhou people in Cheung Chau into an outstanding heritage.

 Then we see the significance of preservation of this natural heritage. After watching the interview of the paper craft masters about the heritage of skills in making the folk craft, and interview of historians and experts about the need and ways of cultural conservation, we have a knowledge of means of conservation, including evaluation of videos, proposal of cultural heritage conservation, and design of pamphlet, through which we have access to introducing the Cheung Chau Jiao Festival, selecting a theme which shows the characteristics of the festival and its nature as an “intangible cultural heritage”, and describing the related cultural experiences during the Festival, altogether to reveal its nature as an intangible cultural heritage.