It may have rained on Macau Music Arts Space’s (MMAS) Lantern Festival celebration on Friday, but that didn’t stop the performers putting on some of the programme on the balcony of 10 Fantasia’s building for the members of the public that had turned up to watch the first of two evenings of Chinese culture.
Despite the whole of Saturday being grey and overcast, a fairly large crowd turned up to join in the fun in the evening. Apart from the music, people could try traditional maltose filled biscuits, Chinese tea, Chinese wine, and Chinese cuisine.
The Macau Post Daily was on hand in the garden of 10 Fantasia in São Lázaro district on Saturday evening to speak to some of the local companies that were showcasing their products and services and members of the public that had dressed up in Hanfu for the evening.
Fun to wear Hanfu
A few members of the Taipa-Macau Hash Harriers had got into the swing of the event by wearing traditional Chinese Hanfu. Brit Russell Chalon said that he loved the costume and it was “nice to dress up and be part of it [the event]”.
American Eric Oliver said, “It was fun to dress up and celebrate Chinese culture”.
Australian Alan Duffy said, “I came to the last event, [MMAS’ Music-Culture Journeys – Christmas and New Year Carnival last December] which was good, so I came along tonight. I love Macau and met my now wife here.”
The show must go on
MMAS co-founder and local violinist Anthony Cheong Wai Leong performed a new piece written for the evening all about love, fitting for the Lantern Festival, with Abby Chao Ka In on keyboards and poet Jessie Ng Iat I.
After the set The Macau Post Daily asked Cheong about Friday’s rain-shortened event and how he felt about Saturday’s turnout.
“Yesterday, [Friday] we were very unlucky, before the event it was just raining a little so we decided to continue, The MC came out and had just finished his speech when it started raining really heavily. We decided to try our best not to make the evening end so suddenly so we did a short performance on the balcony of the building here to give the audience some enjoyment before they left. The [Kun] opera singer [Ally Li Hui Yin] performed on the balcony, it was beautiful with the trio [Debbie Ka Pou Cheong on the yang qin [dulcimer], Kelvin Chan Ho Kuan on the dizi, [transverse flute] and dongxiao [vertical end-blown flute] and Chak Yuen Ting on the pipa [Chinese lute]] and the Sekong drummers”.
When asked how difficult it had been to decide whether to go ahead with Saturday’s event, Cheong said, “We were up until one [o’clock] in the morning [Saturday] talking about what to do, so we came up with a plan B on what we could put on on the balcony, thankfully, we didn’t have to use it.”
He went on to say, “It has been great to see the people enjoying today’s [Saturday’s] concert, the kids loved dressing up for the fashion show and were really having fun. As you can see now people are really enjoying themselves.”
Traditional sweets & tea making showcased
The Macau Post Daily spoke to the Mr Chu owner of Veng Cheong Long, a local company that has been making sweet treats for Macau residents for over 60 years.
He said, “The maltose biscuits are a childhood memory for every citizen in Macau, we have been making these biscuits for 20 years and are now importing freeze dried durian snacks from Malaysia, tinned food from Portugal and instant noodles from Indonesia. We are looking for international food to import after seeing what our customers want.”
Tea Art Professional Association of Macau Chairman Andrew U had a wide variety of teas for people to sample both hot and cold. U is the champion of the 2018 Chinese Tea Sommelier Competition and has a shop in Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro where they sell traditional Chinese teas with a European twist like using black tea with European roses. The teas can be made using a coffee filter drip machine.
U said, “I hold workshops to promote tea, we have Song Dynasty tea drinking evenings and have a training course for Macau students to train for tea performance competitions.”
He added, “Macau is a good platform to show Macau’s Western and Chinese cultures and introduce modern culture. Look at this place [10 Fantasia’s premises]; there is an old style Portuguese house as the backdrop to a Chinese culture event.”
Modern tech sponsors traditional culture
Another local company at the event was Digital Dinosaur run by two young locals, Fish Kuan Ka U and Ieong Wai Hin, who started the company in 2017. They have their own studio and cover local events which are either live streamed or recorded for future use.
Kuan said, “We work with local associations, universities, middle schools and local companies to promote themselves, we also make special programmes for local photographers.” He added, “We have been joining events since last year to promote the event and ourselves.”
Echo Chan Keng Hong, co-founder of MMAS said, “I am so proud of Macau’s young generation. These boys [Kuan and Ieong] are dedicated to their work, they serve society and help events. They sponsored our event tonight [Saturday night].”
Russell Chalon (from left to right) Alan Choi, Alan Duffy and Eric Oliver pose dressed in Hanfu at the Macau Music Arts Space’s (MMAS) Lantern Festival in 10 Fantasia on Saturday night. Photo: Lesley Wells
