In 2017, a bamboo-shed theatre was built at Hang Hau Village in Tseung Kwan O for the Tin Hau Festival. Before the Cantonese opera, a Hakka unicorn dance in front of Tin Hau Temple invited the goddess to join a procession around the village. The temple management committee organized the thanksgiving performance that followed. The sequence joined a temporary stage to the festival’s village ritual.
From the journal
The Bamboo Theatre of Hang Hau: A Stage Built for a Festival
At Hang Hau’s Tin Hau Festival, a temporary bamboo theatre made space for opera, while a unicorn dance invited the goddess into the village procession.
In this district · Sai Kung ↗A stage for a local celebration
A roof of bamboo, fir and metal
The bamboo theatre technique uses bamboo poles and fir beams set into a framework, then covered with metal sheets to shelter performers and audience from sun and rain. The ICH Office notes that theatres can vary greatly in size according to need, from venues for a hundred or more people to structures capable of holding thousands. The size can be adapted to a festival site, allowing a community to assemble a roofed performance space outdoors. In Hang Hau, that construction made a place for opera to join the Tin Hau Festival and its procession.
A temporary building with a shared purpose
The theatre is temporary, but the building technique is recognized as intangible cultural heritage. At Hang Hau in 2017, a demonstration and talk introduced the craft alongside the procession and opera, letting visitors encounter the technique in its festival setting.