Hong Kong's famous bamboo scaffolding is still hanging on, despite call to move to metal

Straits Times

4 days ago

Ms Daisy Pak is one of a small number of women in Hong Kong's bamboo scaffolding industry. PHOTO: LAM YIK FEI/NYTIMES
Hong Kong's famous bamboo scaffolding is still hanging on, despite call to move to metal
HONG KONG – As a truckload of bamboo poles pulled into a narrow street, Ms Daisy Pak pulled a safety harness over her paint-streaked leggings and began blasting Prince from a Bluetooth speaker.
After manoeuvring a loaded cart into a lift , she opened a tiny window on the ninth floor and ducked out onto a narrow pipe, a bunch of zip ties sashaying behind her back like a bushy tail. She called for mid-length bamboo poles that she tied into a latticework clinging to the outside of the building.
Ms Pak, 31, is one of the few female bamboo scaffolding workers in Hong Kong, using an ancient Chinese practice that is synonymous with the city even as its use has faded elsewhere in China.
She turned to the industry for a fresh start in 2021, after a hardscrabble upbringing and a fall into drug addiction and debt. There was a demand for skilled construction workers, it paid relatively well and she had a passion for the time-honoured craft.
'It's so special, to build something completely all out of bamboo,' she said.
Traditionally, workers learn their craft by shadowing one master with knowledge passed down through generations. But Ms Pak learnt any way she could, working with different bosses to broaden her skills and techniques, and overcoming taunts about her ability as a novice and her 1.55m stature.
While dismantling a scaffold, a colleague once tossed her poles to catch instead of passing them downwards. Contractors have tried to pay her less than she was promised. Her arms and legs were constantly bruised. But she carried on.
'I was born with the will to prove people wrong, to do things that they say cannot be done,' she said.
Ms Pak working on a bamboo scaffolding project in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: LAM YIK FEI/NYTIMES
But the industry that helped transform her life now faces its own uncertain future. Some, including Ms Pak, are worried after Hong Kong's development bureau issued a memo in March requiring at least half of government projects to use metal scaffolding, in an effort to gradually widen its use to keep pace with modern industry practices and improve safety.
The city is one of the last bastions of an art – and later industry – that was first depicted in scroll paintings from the Han Dynasty around 2,000 years ago, and it has thrived in bamboo-rich regions in China. But in the past two decades, the rest of China pivoted towards metal amid an overproduction of steel.
Lattices of bamboo poles bound together by intricate knots regularly rise across the city to build and renovate apartment blocks and commercial skyscrapers that can be dozens of storeys high.
A temporary theatre of bamboo scaffolding built around a cliffside temple on Po Toi Island in Hong Kong on April 19.
PHOTO: LAM YIK FEI/NYTIMES
Advocates of the material, including Ms Pak, say it is lighter and cheaper than metal to transport and carry in Hong Kong's tight urban spaces. Builders particularly favour the material when erecting platforms that support workers who patch up building exteriors and replace old pipes and window sills.
The government development bureau wrote in a statement that metal scaffolds offered better fire resistance and were more rigid and durable. But it added that it had no intention of phasing out bamboo scaffolds entirely, 'particularly in special circumstances including limited working space on site'.
Mr Tony Za, former chair of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers' building division, said a spate of industrial accidents involving bamboo structures had raised safety concerns. Metal scaffolds are more suitable for large-scale construction projects as skyscrapers grow taller and building materials change to include more glass, he added.
For metal scaffolding, engineers can make decisions such as how thick a pole to use and how far apart to space the ringlocks based on calculations accounting for load and extreme weather, he said .
That cannot be done for bamboo scaffolds because the poles do not come in uniform shapes, requiring the discretion of bamboo masters.
Ms Pak had the foresight to get licensed to work with metal scaffolds in 2024 , saying she already used some metal components, such as platforms. 'They reinforce one another, like brothers scaling a mountain together,' she added.
Bamboo scaffolding is a common sight in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: LAM YIK FEI/NYTIMES
But her love for bamboo has only grown. 'The material is so dynamic and resilient,' she said. 'It's just like the spirit of Hong Kong.'
Passers-by often do a double take when they watch her haul a bundle of 2.1m bamboo poles with ease.
Raised by a single mother, Ms Pak worked in a seedy nightclub for a while, but moved into construction during the Covid-19 pandemic. The daily rate was about US $90 (S$115) for novices and could go up to US$250 for a skilled worker.
With no connections in the industry, she trawled scaffolding groups on Facebook, asking if anyone would hire a female worker. Many contractors responded out of curiosity, she said.
For the first year, she stayed on the ground, passing tools and bamboo poles several times her height to more seasoned workers dangling from rooftops and balconies.
She said she earned greater acceptance as she became more experienced. She amassed several qualifications in the industry, including what is nicknamed the 'master license'.
'I am now respected,' she said. NYTIMES
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