Cheongsam makers strive to pass on craftsmanship

Hong Kong had over 2,000 cheongsam makers in the 1960s when the city's tailoring industry was booming. That number has fallen to around five today, according to Lau On-hing, a master cheongsam maker with 60 years under his belt.

Lau, in an interview in 2022, said that Hong Kong is the only place where the traditional technique of hand-sewing cheongsam is still being inherited. However, that is about to change as the city's youngest cheongsam master is already in his 70s and the number of serving masters who are proficient in men's and women's cheongsam can be counted on one hand.

Haze Ng Kwok-hei, a committee member of the Hong Kong Cheongsam Association, said the craftsmanship of cheongsam, especially in the production of men's cheongsam, is at risk of being lost.

"What academia is doing now is to preserve the master skills as soon as possible," he said.

"We are engaged in a salvage effort by recording the production techniques of cheongsam and the stories of the older generation of inheritors through videos, books and other forms," Ng added.

In the race to rescue the traditional crafts, Ng said Hong Kong needs to build a supporting system for craftsmen of intangible cultural heritage in the special administrative region, taking reference from the mainland.

China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism released a regulation on Dec 10, 2019, on improving the identification and management of representative inheritors of national-level intangible cultural heritage.

With such a system of preservation for intangible cultural heritage with financial support provided by the government, the preservers have the responsibility to pass on the skills to the next generation, Ng said.

In addition, Ng proposed several solutions, including documenting traditional craftsmanship, innovating the inheritance model, applying digital design and connecting with society in order to promote the inheritance of the traditional techniques.