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Observer
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Traditional culture, fancy dress meet at Hong Kong's raucous bun festival
Kids dressed as real and fantasy heroes, drummers pounding a beat and sweet treats offered to powerful gods -- thousands of visitors poured onto a small island in Hong Kong for its annual Bun Festival on Monday. Held on the Chinese city's outlying Cheung Chau, the raucous five-day festival transforms the usually quiet fishing community into an explosion of colour and noise that blends Cantonese traditions with modern culture and draws locals and tourists alike. Monday's three-hour parade -- known as "Piu Sik", meaning floating colours -- traditionally saw locals march through town with statues of local gods. These days, local children dress up as both real and imaginary figures, including Olympic fencing champion Cheung Ka Long, Ne Zha from a recent Chinese blockbuster animation, and the legendary Monkey King, Sun Wukong. The five-day Bun Festival is said to date back to the 1800s, when fisherfolk drove away pirates and the plague by parading a statue of Taoist sea deity Pak Tai. "It's my first time to visit the island and this showed me a new Hong Kong, completely different from downtown," Cedric Linet, a 49-year-old French banker, told AFP. The buns represent good fortune, holding sweet bean paste in a crumbly pastry marked with Chinese characters for "peace" and "safety". Crowds queued all day to get hold of the buns, used to make offerings to traditional deities and sacrifices to the souls of the dead. The climax of the festival comes at midnight, when contestants climb a 14-metre high tower covered in buns -- hoping to be crowned "King of Kings" or "Queen of Queens". Among those gathered were tourists from Communist Party-ruled mainland China, keen to get a glimpse of traditional Chinese culture not often seen back home. Chinese students studying in Hong Kong, Gao Yidan and Cheng Qi, said they learnt about the festival on Xiaohongshu, an app similar to Instagram. "The atmosphere of traditional culture is very strong here," Gao told AFP. Another visitor from China's southwestern Sichuan province said she appreciated Hong Kong's celebrations of Buddha's birthday, which fell on Monday. "We love the crowded atmosphere here, even though today's very hot," Huang Dan, a 42-year-old housewife, told AFP. —AFP
Nahar Net
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Nahar Net
Crowds flock to celebrate the century-old Bun Festival in Hong Kong
by Naharnet Newsdesk 06 May 2025, 12:57 Crowds flocked to the outlying Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong to celebrate the Bun Festival, held each year in a century-old tradition to ward off evil and pray for peace and blessings. The festivities began with a parade of children in costumes, called "Piu Sik," which translates as "floating color." Children dressed as legendary deities or historic characters are carried on stands above the gathered crowds, meandering through the island's narrow lanes. The highlight of the festival comes at midnight with a "bun-scrambling" competition, where climbers race up a tower covered with plastic buns. Whoever gets the most buns of greatest value wins the race. Buns near the top have higher value. The competition was suspended for decades after an accident in 1978 when a bun tower collapsed and caused injuries. The tradition resumed in 2005. Legend has it that the colorful custom began after a deadly plague devastated the island of Cheung Chau. Residents followed the local Taoist tradition of imploring the deities for help and used white steamed buns as offerings to drive away the evil spirits. Nowadays, residents and visitors to the island eat the white steamed buns as part of the celebrations. They are called "Ping On Bao" in Cantonese, meaning "peace" buns, and are stamped with two red Chinese characters meaning "peace" and "safety."
HKFP
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- HKFP
HKFP Lens: Hong Kong's Cheung Chau bun festival returns – with fewer visitors than last year
Hong Kong's iconic bun festival on Cheung Chau Island attracted tens of thousands of people on Monday, but visitor numbers were lower compared with last year. Held annually on the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, which coincides with Buddha's Birthday, the Jiao Festival features a parade, lion dance, Chinese opera performances, and concludes with the late-night bun scramble competition. Islands District Councillor Kwok Wai-man told an RTHK programme on Tuesday that around 40,000 people flocked to this year's festival – down from 51,000 revellers last year. According to Sun Ferry, which operates the ferry service between Central and Cheung Chau, there were around 44,200 passenger trips as of 9pm on Monday – a 19 per cent drop from last year. The festival, said to date back to the 1800s, attracts both local residents and foreign tourists. The government downsized the scale of the festival in 2020 to 2022, when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. It returned to full scale in 2023, attracting 43,000 people to the island. One of the festival's highlights was the Piu Sik, which translates as 'Floating Colours' – during which children in fancy dress are held up on towering poles and paraded through the winding streets of the outlying island. Traditionally, they dress up in satirical costumes mimicking top government officials and lawmakers. This year, some were spotted dressed as Finance Secretary Paul Chan. In the evening, the island held Cantonese opera performances for deities, known as 'Sun Kung Hei.' The festival culminated in a late-night scramble by competitors up a precipitous 18-metre 'bun tower' made from imitation buns. Around 1,650 spectators watched 12 finalists – nine men and three women – collect as many buns as possible within a three-minute time limit. Ice climber Janet Kung and firefighter Jason Kwok won the competition this year. Kwok, a 10-time champion, defended the 'Bun King' title, while Kung, a three-time winner, claimed the 'Bun Queen' title.
San Francisco Chronicle
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Crowds flock to celebrate the century-old Bun Festival in Hong Kong
HONG KONG (AP) — Crowds flocked to the outlying Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong to celebrate the Bun Festival, held each year in a century-old tradition to ward off evil and pray for peace and blessings. The festivities began with a parade of children in costumes, called 'Piu Sik,' which translates as 'floating color.' Children dressed as legendary deities or historic characters are carried on stands above the gathered crowds, meandering through the island's narrow lanes. The highlight of the festival comes at midnight with a 'bun-scrambling' competition, where climbers race up a tower covered with plastic buns. Whoever gets the most buns of greatest value wins the race. Buns near the top have higher value. The competition was suspended for decades after an accident in 1978 when a bun tower collapsed and caused injuries. The tradition resumed in 2005. Legend has it that the colorful custom began after a deadly plague devastated the island of Cheung Chau. Residents followed the local Taoist tradition of imploring the deities for help and used white steamed buns as offerings to drive away the evil spirits. Nowadays, residents and visitors to the island eat the white steamed buns as part of the celebrations. They are called 'Ping On Bao' in Cantonese, meaning 'peace' buns, and are stamped with two red Chinese characters meaning 'peace' and 'safety.' — This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Crowds flock to celebrate the century-old Bun Festival in Hong Kong
HONG KONG (AP) — Crowds flocked to the outlying Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong to celebrate the Bun Festival, held each year in a century-old tradition to ward off evil and pray for peace and blessings. The festivities began with a parade of children in costumes, called 'Piu Sik,' which translates as 'floating color.' Children dressed as legendary deities or historic characters are carried on stands above the gathered crowds, meandering through the island's narrow lanes. The highlight of the festival comes at midnight with a 'bun-scrambling' competition, where climbers race up a tower covered with plastic buns. Whoever gets the most buns of greatest value wins the race. Buns near the top have higher value. The competition was suspended for decades after an accident in 1978 when a bun tower collapsed and caused injuries. The tradition resumed in 2005. Legend has it that the colorful custom began after a deadly plague devastated the island of Cheung Chau. Residents followed the local Taoist tradition of imploring the deities for help and used white steamed buns as offerings to drive away the evil spirits. Nowadays, residents and visitors to the island eat the white steamed buns as part of the celebrations. They are called 'Ping On Bao' in Cantonese, meaning 'peace' buns, and are stamped with two red Chinese characters meaning 'peace' and 'safety.' — This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.
