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Straits Times
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
‘Is this the end?': Asian students bound for US anxious about visa freeze
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security told Harvard University that it can no longer enrol international students. PHOTO: SOPHIE PARK/NYTIMES 'Is this the end?': Asian students bound for US anxious about visa freeze – Mr Devraj was until recently stressed about securing part-funding for a humanities master's programme at Columbia University, New York. But though the Delhi-based 26-year-old has secured a scholarship that will cover 85 per cent of his tuition, he is unsure if he will get to go to the United States at all. Millions of students across the globe are in a similar bind, now that a new US policy has effectively frozen new student visa applications. A US State Department directive on May 27 ordered embassies to suspend scheduling appointments for student and foreign visitor visas as it prepares to expand social media vetting of such applicants to enhance national security. Issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the memo directed US embassies to remove any unfilled appointments from their calendars for students seeking visas, but said those with appointments already scheduled could go ahead. Mr Rubio said the pause would last 'until further guidance is issued'. The move escalates a series of restrictions on international students, amid the US government's wider pressure campaign against top universities in the US. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security told Harvard University that it can no longer enrol international students. This was purportedly to hold the Ivy League school accountable 'for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus'. A judge blocked the policy. In a twist of the knife for international students, the latest policy change could delay visa processing and disrupt enrolment timelines at American universities. Several student applicants in Asia declined The Straits Times' request for comment, citing a 'fear of any consequence s' impacting their visa eligibility. 'A suspension could mean weeks or months, and things may not be resolved before my classes start in August,' said Mr Devraj, whose name has been changed to protect his identity. He was unsure if he should confirm his enrolment by May 31, by paying the university a non-refundable US$1,000 (S$1,290) which is around 83,000 rupees – not a small amount for the middle-class young Indian. Only then would the university issue him an I-20 certificate, which is a prerequisite for student visa application. India is the largest source of international students in the US, with 331,602 studying there in the academic year 2023-24. China comes a close second, with 277,398. These Asian giants together account for a third of foreign students in the US. They are followed by South Korea with 43,149 students, Canada with 28,998, Taiwan with 23,157, and Vietnam with 22,066. Chinese students ask if it is the end In China, students and officials alike were confused and disappointed. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV inquired with the US Embassy in Beijing on May 2 8 , but a staff member said that they have 'yet to receive relevant information', and visa processing was proceeding as usual. Others reported on Chinese social media that slots for student visa interviewees were not available for June and July, although it is unclear whether this was due to the latest development. A higher education career counsellor in an international school in Beijing, who declined to be named, told ST: 'Since early this morning, students have barged into my office and exclaimed: 'Teacher, is this the end for us? What does this policy mean?'' She has students who paid deposits of a few hundred US dollars in May to secure their places in American universities, before they can apply for visas. If they do not get their visa s, they would have to squabble with the universities on whether the deposits can be refunded, she said. While most Chinese students still prefer to pursue their higher education in the US, some of them have already chosen to go to Canada or the United Kingdom instead, she said. 'Those who have shortlisted only American universities can only wait for further information,' she added. China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said on May 28: 'China has always believed that normal educational cooperation and academic exchanges should not be disrupted. 'We urge the US side to earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of students from all countries, including Chinese students.' Social media vetting The introduction of stringent social media checks have raised concerns among prospective students and their families. Mr Rubio had foreshadowed social media restrictions in March after the police arrested Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk over an op-ed she wrote on Gazans. She was later freed on bail as she fights possible deportation. At the time Mr Rubio had said: 'If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalising universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus – we're not going to give you a visa.' Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk is fighting possible deportation. PHOTO: AFP A leaked US State Department diplomatic cable dated March 25 describes a new standard for visa denials based on a broad definition of what constitutes support for 'terrorist activity'. It mandated comprehensive reviews of the social media profiles of all applicants seeking F (academic students), M (vocational students), and J (exchange visitors) visas. Officers must take screenshots of any 'potentially derogatory' content found during these reviews, even if such content is later deleted or altered. These records will be stored in the applicant's case file and may serve as grounds for visa denial. Many like Mr Devraj are hurrying to make their social media accounts private. 'I have no other option. The US government could apply its whims and fancies under vague and broad parameters to deem any of my posts a threat to national security,' said Mr Devraj, adding that he might look to Europe if 'things remain this bad in the US'. China-based consultancies who provide overseas educational application services have also advised Chinese students to remove 'sensitive content' on their social media, including phrases such as 'Gulf of Mexico', 'LGBTQ', 'gender diversity' and 'anti-Semitism'. A prospective Taiwanese student to the US, who declined to be named, told ST that she has yet to secure a visa appointment slot and is now 'very worried' that her application would be affected. The 28-year-old had been looking forward to starting a master's programme in law this August in Texas, where her boyfriend is already studying engineering. However, she is not concerned about the vetting of her social media accounts as she said she is rarely active online. 'If I post anything, which is rare, they're just pictures of food – nothing politically sensitive,' she said. Applicants uncertain, officials try to help On a Korean internet community group of more than 40,000 called Jaws Mom, set up to dispense free advice for parents looking to send their children to the US, the group administrator Kim Seong-jun called the suspension of visa interviews 'shocking news'. He advised the group members to stay calm and wait to see what happens, as the start of the US schools' fall semester is still more than two months away. He also urged members to refrain from criticising the US government on its policies on social media platforms, and to delete such comments if already made. A parent member, in response to Mr Kim's post, shared that her child was supposed to start school in autumn , and had already received the I-20 certificat e . She had not seen the urgency in scheduling a visa appointment with the embassy, and now regrets her decision. 'I have no choice but to wait and see how things progress, but I'm anxious,' she wrote. The South Korean Embassy in the US created an emergency contact network for international students and held several meetings to share the current situation. Earlier, on May 22, the embassy posted a notice regarding the strengthening of US immigration policies and entry screening. In particular, it warned international students residing on student visas that 'if caught engaging in illegal employment or labour activities, it can be considered a serious violation of immigration law'. The Indonesian embassy on May 27 conveyed to the US its 'deep concern over the negative effect' the policy has on Indonesian and other foreign students. The US Embassy in Jakarta reported 8,348 Indonesian students in the US for 2023-2024. Mr Rolliansyah Soemirat, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement on the sidelines of the Asean Summit on May 27 that 'Indonesian missions in the US are prepared to provide consular assistance to affected Indonesian students'. Dr Sidrotun Naim, a member of the Jakarta-based alumni association Harvard Club of Indonesia, told ST: 'Indonesian students in Harvard face two options in dealing with this situation: They can transfer to another campus in order to retain their legal status in the US, or return to Indonesia. But the situation remains fluid.' Asian universities open doors Since the ban on Harvard enrolment of new international students, some territories are moving swiftly to attract the run-off of top students from the US. The Hong Kong Education Bureau (EDB) called on all universities in Hong Kong 'to introduce facilitation measures for those eligible with a view to safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of students and scholars' , and to attract top talent in accordance with each institution's diverse admissions and recruitment policies. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has invited affected students from any foreign university to make use of its 'robust transfer policies and admission protocols' , streamlined credit transfers and seamless transitions into its programmes, including accommodation arrangements and scholarships. 'On the day the foreign student ban was announced, we were approached by graduating students, alumni, and prospective students currently bound for Harvard – many from Hong Kong and mainland China – who are grappling with profound anxiety about the disruption of their academic journeys,' a HKUST spokesman told ST. Japan has also indicated its willingness to support visa applications for those who may find themselves stranded by US policy directives. Tokyo on May 27 called on its domestic institutions of higher learning to open their doors to students who plan to or have enrolled in US. The top three public universities – University of Tokyo, Kyoto University and Osaka University – have said they are considering the acceptance of students and young researchers of US universities who may be displaced. The only hitch: the Japanese academic year began in April, making it out of step with the US. University of Tokyo president Teruo Fujii told the Nikkei newspaper that the stagnation of higher learning in the US marked a 'crisis for the global academic community'. He added: 'We will work towards expanding, within the year, our acceptance of international students who have difficulty studying or researching overseas due to political interference.' Wait and watch Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi declined comment at a regular news briefing on May 28, saying Tokyo would respond after it gains a 'full understanding' of the matter, including how long appointments for student visa screenings would be paused. Japan is not a top source of foreign students to the US. The weak yen and sluggish economy make costs prohibitive. Still, 13,959 Japanese students and researchers enrolled in US universities for the 2023-24 academic year, including 260 at Harvard. Mr Yusuke Matsuda, the Japan representative of prep school Crimson Education and an adviser to the Education Ministry, urged students who have secured appointments with the US Embassy not to cancel or reschedule their interviews, and to carefully review their public profiles. 'If your interview isn't scheduled, this suspension may cause anxiety, but it is recommended that you wait a few days to a week and see how things go,' he wrote on the online portal Newspicks. Mr Matsuda said it was likely for US universities to eventually band together and seek a class action lawsuit to halt policies that would hurt their enrolment of foreign students , citing precedent in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic . Mr Trump, in his first term in office, sought to implement a policy that would have forced international students to leave the US if their classes were held entirely online. The authorities rescinded the policy after Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology sued the Trump administration. Mr Andrew Siow, 19, a student enrolled in an American Degree Transfer Programme in Sunway University in Malaysia, had planned to finish his third and fourth year in science engineering at Western Michigan University in the US. 'If this continues, I guess I will have to finish my studies in Malaysia. I really wanted to go there and see the US, maybe visit parts of the country during my semester break. I've always wanted to visit California. I just hope the American government will stop this soon,' said Mr Siow. Some have given up on the US. Indonesian Niwa R Dwitama, 33, told ST that he is considering pursuing his doctoral studies in Britain. Mr Niwa , who holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia Universit y , was accepted into Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC, for his doctoral studies in March. 'With the current US immigration policy and economic uncertainties, being a foreign student in the US poses greater risks and hardships. After all, I will be bringing my family with me during my studies,' he said. In Malaysia, the new directive was the final nail in the coffin for Mrs Liyana Ariff, whose 19-year-old daughter is planning to study data analytics in the US. The 48-year-old engineer told ST that she may send her daughter, a computer science student, to study elsewhere, though 'I know my daughter will be disappointed'. Mrs Liyana had already been 'quite concerned and wary of how the US has been deporting people out of the country'. 'I've read about that lady from Wales who was detained for three weeks even though she was flying out to Canada from Seattle. And she's white. They're also arresting their own citizens. If that can happen to these people, they could do a lot worse to my daughter.' Additional reporting by Stania Puspawardhani, Jakarta Correspondent; Walter Sim, Japan Correspondent; Wendy Teo, South Korea Correspondent; Magdalene Fung, Hong Kong Correspondent; Yip Wai Yee, Taiwan Correspondent and Azril Annuar, Malaysia Correspondent. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
South Africa's Ramaphosa recalls his bemusement at Trump Oval Office encounter
President Cyril Ramaphosa (left) of South Africa and President Donald Trump meet in the Oval Office in the White House in Washington on May 21. PHOTO: ERIC LEE/NYTIMES CAPE TOWN - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa laughed off US President Donald Trump's Oval Office ambush, in his first direct comments since returning from the encounter with his American counterpart last week. The lights were dimmed as Mr Ramaphosa entered an infrastructure conference in Cape Town on May 27, evoking the US president's call to turn the lights down in the Oval Office to cue up a video montage that amplified his false claims of a white genocide in South Africa. 'When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark,' Mr Ramaphosa told the audience. 'For a moment, I wondered what is this? Is it happening to me again?' Mr Ramaphosa visited Washington last week to persuade Mr Trump to spare South Africa from the full brunt of his sweeping trade tariffs. The US is the country's second-largest trading partner after China. While the meeting between the two leaders began with pleasantries, Mr Trump surprised his visitor with the video after a few minutes. 'At that point, I was seated very nicely. I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting with this man, and I suddenly hear him say, 'dim the lights',' Mr Ramaphosa recalled, reliving the moment for his Cape Town audience. 'Some people have said this was an ambush. I was bemused. I was there thinking, what is happening?' The face-to-face Oval Office meeting marked the first between the leaders following months of tension, after Mr Trump froze aid to South Africa over his claims about attacks on white farmers. He has also criticised Pretoria's genocide case against Israel – a key US ally – at the International Court of Justice. The encounter also took place after 49 South Africans of Afrikaner descent were flown to the US on a plane charted by Washington and granted refugee status on the back of Mr Trump's claim that white Afrikaner farmers are victims of a genocide and the state is seizing their land. There have been no official land seizures in South Africa since apartheid ended in 1994, while police statistics show young black men bear the brunt of violent crime. Notwithstanding the video, Mr Ramaphosa declared the visit a success for opening a path to consider a new trade deal between the two countries. He also voiced confidence that Mr Trump will attend the Group of 20 summit in November in Johannesburg, which South Africa is hosting before it hands the leadership of the global forum to the US. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Apple to debut dedicated gaming app within days of Nintendo Switch 2's arrival
Apple will preinstall the app on the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV set-top box later in 2025, according to sources. PHOTO: JUAN ARREDODO/NYTIMES SAN FRANCISCO – Apple is planning a dedicated app for video games on its devices, seeking to sell gamers and developers on the idea that it's a leader in the market. The company will preinstall the app on the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV set-top box later in 2025, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The app will serve as a launcher for titles and centralise in-game achievements, leaderboards, communications and other activity, said the people. The move is meant to enhance the experience on Apple devices at a time when gamers have plenty of alternatives, including cloud services and consoles. Nintendo is preparing to roll out its much-anticipated Switch 2 device just days before Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 9, when the new app will be introduced. The new app will feature editorial content from Apple about new titles, offer access to the App Store's game section and promote Arcade, the company's US$6.99 (S$9)-a-month subscription offering. And it will replace Game Center, an existing social network dedicated to this category that debuted in 2010 but never gathered serious momentum. Apple is also planning a Mac version of the app that can tap into games downloaded outside of the App Store. A spokesperson for Apple declined to comment. 9to5Mac reported in 2024 that the company was working on a new games app for a future software update. As part of its gaming push, Apple has acquired RAC7 Games, a two-person studio behind the popular Sneaky Sasquatch title. By market share, the iPhone remains one of the world's most used devices for gaming – a category that has been central to the App Store since 2008. In recent years, developers have added high-end games like Resident Evil, Death Stranding and Assassin's Creed. About two-thirds of Apple's App Store revenue currently comes from games and in-app purchases. That includes tokens, levels and other upgrades bought within the titles themselves. The Mac platform has made strides in recent years as well. Speedier chips have allowed better graphics, and the company released tools that make it easier for developers to port existing games over to the Mac. But Apple isn't generally seen as a gaming giant, and many developers and players say that the Mac in particular leaves a lot to be desired compared with Windows computers. While the new app will likely make Apple products easier to use for gaming – and make the category more prominent – testers of the software say it probably won't change the perception among players and makers of high-end titles. The app is one of several features planned for the next version of iOS, which will be released to users in September – around the same time as the next iPhone lineup. Apple is also planning a revamped user interface code-named Solarium, which will make the interface more cohesive across different devices and more similar to the Vision Pro's operating system. Other new features include AI-powered battery management and health capabilities, a revamped Translate app, and live translation of conversations via AirPods and the Siri voice assistant. The company is also expected to announce a new bidirectional Arabic and English keyboard, a virtual calligraphy pen for Apple Pencil users and a new system for syncing hotel Wi-Fi login details across devices. The Vision Pro, for its part, is getting a new eye-scrolling feature. BLOOMBERG Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
At Amazon, some programmers say their jobs have begun to resemble warehouse work
At Amazon, which is making big investments in generative AI, the culture of coding is changing rapidly. PHOTO: DAVIDE BONAZZI/NYTIMES NEW YORK - Since at least the industrial revolution, workers have worried that machines would replace them. But when technology transformed automaking and even secretarial work, the response typically wasn't to slash jobs and reduce the number of workers. It was to 'degrade' the jobs, breaking them into simpler tasks to be performed over and over at a rapid clip. Small shops of skilled mechanics gave way to hundreds of workers spread across an assembly line. The personal secretary gave way to pools of typists and data-entry clerks. The workers 'complained of speedup, work intensification and work degradation,' as labour historian Jason Resnikoff described it. Something similar appears to be happening with artificial intelligence in one of the fields where it has been most widely adopted: coding. As AI spreads through the labour force, many white-collar workers have expressed concern that it will lead to mass unemployment. Joblessness has ticked up and widespread layoffs might eventually come, but the more immediate downside for software engineers appears to be a change in the quality of their work. Some say it is becoming more routine, less thoughtful and, crucially, much faster paced. Companies seem to be convinced that, like assembly lines of old, AI can increase productivity. A recent paper by researchers at Microsoft and three universities found that programmers' use of an AI coding assistant called Copilot, which proposes snippets of code that they can accept or reject, increased a key measure of output more than 25 per cent. At Amazon, which is making big investments in generative AI, the culture of coding is changing rapidly. In his recent letter to shareholders, chief executive Andy Jassy wrote that generative AI was yielding big returns for companies that use it for 'productivity and cost avoidance.' He said working faster was essential because competitors would gain ground if Amazon doesn't give customers what they want 'as quickly as possible' and cited coding as an activity where AI would 'change the norms.' Those changing norms have not always been eagerly embraced. Three Amazon engineers said managers had increasingly pushed them to use AI in their work over the past year. The engineers said the company had raised output goals and had become less forgiving about deadlines. It has even encouraged coders to gin up new AI productivity tools at an upcoming hackathon, an internal coding competition. One Amazon engineer said his team was roughly half the size it was in 2024, but it was expected to produce roughly the same amount of code by using AI. Amazon said it conducts regular reviews to make sure teams are adequately staffed and may increase their size if necessary. Other tech companies are moving in the same direction. In a memo to employees in April, the CEO of Shopify, a company that helps entrepreneurs build and manage e-commerce websites, announced that 'AI usage is now a baseline expectation' and that the company would 'add AI usage questions' to performance reviews. Google recently told employees that it would soon hold a companywide hackathon in which one category would be creating AI tools that could 'enhance their overall daily productivity,' according to an internal announcement. Winning teams will receive US$10,000 (S$12,800). A Google spokesperson noted that more than 30 per cent of the company's code is now suggested by AI and accepted by developers. The shift has not been all negative for workers. At Amazon and other companies, managers argue that AI can relieve employees of tedious tasks and enable them to perform more interesting work. Mr Jassy wrote last year that the company had saved 'the equivalent of 4,500 developer-years' by using AI to do the thankless work of upgrading old software. Eliminating such tedious work may benefit a subset of accomplished programmers, said Lawrence Katz, a labour economist at Harvard University. But for inexperienced programmers, the result of introducing AI can resemble the shift from artisanal work to factory work in the 19th and 20th centuries. The automation of coding has special resonance for Amazon engineers, who have watched their blue-collar counterparts undergo a similar transition. For years, many workers at Amazon warehouses walked miles each day to track down inventory. But over the past decade, Amazon has increasingly relied on so-called robotics warehouses, where pickers stand in one spot and pull inventory off shelves delivered to them by lawn-mower-like robots, no walking necessary. The robots generally haven't displaced humans; Amazon said it has hired hundreds of thousands of warehouse workers since their introduction, while creating many new skilled roles. But the robots have increased the number of items each worker can pick from dozens an hour to hundreds. Some workers complain that the robots have also made the job hyper-repetitive and physically taxing. Amazon says it provides regular breaks and cites positive feedback from workers about its cutting-edge robots. The Amazon engineers said this transition was on their minds as the company urged them to rely more on AI. They said that while doing so was technically optional, they had little choice if they wanted to keep up with their output goals, which affect their performance reviews. One Amazon engineer said that building a feature for the website used to take a few weeks; now it must frequently be done within a few days. He said this is possible only by using AI to help automate the coding and by cutting down on meetings to solicit feedback and explore alternative ideas. The new approach to coding at many companies has, in effect, eliminated much of the time the developer spends reflecting on his or her work. 'It used to be that you had a lot of slack because you were doing a complicated project – it would maybe take a month, maybe take two months, and no one could monitor it,' Mr Katz said. 'Now, you have the whole thing monitored, and it can be done quickly.' Amid their frustration, many Amazon engineers have joined a group called Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, which is pressuring the company to reduce its carbon footprint and has become a clearinghouse for workers' anxieties about other issues, like return-to-office mandates. The group's organisers say they are in touch with several hundred Amazon employees on a regular basis and that the workers increasingly discuss the stress of using AI on the job, in addition to the effect that the technology has on the climate. The complaints have centered around 'what their careers are going to look like,' said Eliza Pan, a former Amazon employee who is a representative for the group. 'And not just their careers but the quality of the work.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
3 days ago
- General
- Straits Times
Hong Kong's famous bamboo scaffolding is still hanging on, despite call to move to metal
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 Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
