There’s a certain indescribable quality to handcrafted products that make their new replacements churned out from mass production lines a bit “inhuman”, say young people who see business opportunities in bringing old-time crafts back to life.
Be it the uneven inking on paper left by the lead types of a letterpress machine or the slightly unpredictable final colour when dyeing a piece of cloth using natural indigo, they say it is the human touch and story behind a product for which people yearn – at least for some products.
One such young craftsmen is Max To Hok-chi, 29, who has made a dye house out of the unused piggery behind his family home in Tai Long Wan Tsuen, an idyllic village in south Lantau Island not connected by any public transport.
Since 2013, To has been running a workshop which gives participants a taste of dyeing textile products in a pot of natural indigo.
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“What people are after is the texture of imperfection which feels more real,” he said.
“The reason why we’ve decided to run a workshop is because we feel this is the best way to introduce people to this age-old craftsmanship.
“After you’ve tried to do it yourself, you would understand better the value of workmanship and why it still deserves respect in this age of mass production.”
WATCH: Making the blues: Hong Kong indigo dye workshop brings traditional craft to you
And even among handcrafted products, not all are created equal. One can make a statement of identity by buying a work of craft made in Hong Kong, as it is told to many customers of a local specialist glasses frame maker.
“Quite a few [of my clients], many of them moved overseas long ago, support us also because [our products] are made in Hong Kong,” said Rif Lau Kin-tik, who has, since 2011, been making tailor-made spectacle frames – a process which usually takes a month, with the help of three partners, and a machine he spent two years inventing, which reinforces the arms of a pair of glasses.
Confident in the business potential of its niche of making specialised glasses for customers whose needs are not catered for by mainstream brands, Lau said he believed the growing Hong Kong identity would translate into concrete gains for burgeoning local craftsmen.
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“If the price is not much higher than something comparable made in, say Japan, many [Hongkongers] are willing to opt for something made in their hometown,” he said.
Like many fellow craftsmen, Lau cited Taiwan as a source of inspiration that has convinced many in Hong Kong that craftsmanship can be a viable business.
With Taiwan being a pioneer in this area, Lau’s colleague Twiggy Wong Tik-ping, who like Lau used to be a frame designer working for major brands, said there would be great room for collaboration between both places, and both places could complement the other.
“While Taiwan has an edge in making almost anything inspired by the nature, Hong Kong usually has more fun and original ideas – and more experience in packaging something for the global market,” she said.
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Ada Wong Ying-kay, director of The Good Lab, a non-profit working for social innovation, said it is individual autonomy that the younger generation is after.
“This is not just a fad,” said the solicitor-turned-arts-advocate and adviser to the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority.
“This is a choice in life that the new generation has made, and they prefer difference rather than having something identical.
“As long as the element of aesthetics is involved, no matter how advanced AI [artificial intelligence] becomes, it can never replace us humans.”
WATCH: How traditional letterpress printing works
This growing attitude, which dismisses products churned out from the production lines, has now made the handmade industry a viable business, said Wong.
“Now we are living in the age of meaning, [young people] are not only looking for money, but also meaning – and preferably both of course.
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“That can be something meaningful to both themselves and the society they live in,” she said, referring to many of the young generation that question the way of life for their parents’ generation sacrificing their prime of life saving up for a flat.
“Shouldn’t those of us, who are in middle age, try to see these young people from a new perspective, instead of judging them against our own benchmark of success and dismissing what they do as trivial and worthless?”