Concentrated, frowning, Cheung Shun-king, 70, engraves with the application of images and Chinese characters on mahjong tiles.
He is one of the last such artisans in Hong Kong.
Handcrafting tiles for the popular Chinese game was once a source of income for many people.
But the introduction of much cheaper machine-produced games has reduced their clientele, and made their craft a rarity.
Cheung Shun-king's family alone owned four workshops, in which he learned the trade when he was a teenager.
Only one remains today.
“I gave everything for it,”
he says of his work.
"I don't know if I will have the energy to continue in a few years, but for now, I will continue
. "
“
Learning is not a matter of a month or two.
It doesn't work if you're not ready to invest in it for two or three years
,” said Cheung Shun-king.
YAN ZHAO / AFP
His store is located in a street lined with mah-jong parlors.
But none of them buy his tiles from him.
“My mahjong sets are expensive,”
he admits.
A complete set of handmade tiles costs 5,500 Hong Kong dollars (690 euros), he explains.
While the price of a machine-made game is only around 2000 dollars (250 euros).
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Uncertain future
The difference between the time required for manufacturing explains this discrepancy.
An industrial machine takes an hour to release a mah-jong game.
Cheung Shun-king spends five days carving and painting his tiles.
Many of his customers buy his games as souvenirs, and often request personalized images on the tiles.
Recently, his clientele has increased.
But Cheung Shun-king fears that this recent resurgence of interest in old traditions is only a passing phenomenon.
"It's only been a few years since people have felt a sense of nostalgia,"
he says.
“But what if, in a few more years, no one is nostalgic anymore?”
But he says he is determined to work until demand dries up.
Although he sometimes organizes workshops for young people, his pessimism about the future of his profession dissuades him from hiring apprentices.
“Learning is not a matter of a month or two.
It doesn't work if you're not ready to invest in it for two or three years
,” says Cheung Shun-king.
“And if, after all this time, handmade mahjong tiles are no longer in fashion, this skill will be useless”
.
For nearly 60 years, Cheung Shun-king has been decorating tiles;
but he does not know how to play mah-jong himself.
YAN ZHAO / AFP
Cheung Shun-king does not know how to play mahjong himself.
He is only interested in making the tiles.
He doesn't really consider himself an artist, even if he says he is “
very flattered
” when he is called such.
“
If people say it's art, then it's art.
For me, it's my job and my livelihood
,” he says.
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