Tai Kwun Conversations: Bridal Laments – The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Lung Yeuk Tau

A special programme in celebration of the “Heritage Vogue · Hollywood Road” organized by the Commissioner for Heritage's Office of the Development Bureau in collaboration with the Antiquities and Monuments Office, Tai Kwun, and other institutions. This programme features the folk tradition of bridal laments performed by women villagers, now preserved as a form of Hong Kong intangible cultural heritage.

Old ladies of Weitou villages in Lung Yeuk Tau, Fanling, still sing the bridal laments to connect to their wedding-day memories as well as the ritual practice that enabled women to express their voices as they married into the husbands’ families. Traditionally, women villagers worked at home and in the fields, and they also knitted summer hats and patterned bands to dress themselves and earn some extra income. Caritas Lung Yeuk Tau Community Development Project has been working for three decades with the women villagers to research, preserve, and transmit this tradition to the younger generations. This session of Tai Kwun Conversations will combine the talk and the performance to honor this living tradition.

The event will be conducted in Cantonese and local dialects, with simultaneous interpretation from Cantonese to English onsite.

Speakers:  Ng Lok Chi, Chong Wai Ki, Caritas Lung Yeuk Tau Community Development Project

Performers: Mung Kun Hoop, Mung Foon Kun, Leung Siu Ha, Li Guum Lang, Man Kun Lin, Yuen Yu Po