Hong Kong Morris
Encyclopedia
The Hong Kong Morris is an English morris dancing side founded in Hong Kong
in 1974. The side now has two chapters, the Hong Kong Morris in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong (UK) Morris, colloquially known as The Brackets, in the United Kingdom. In its heyday, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Hong Kong Morris was one of the largest Cotswold morris sides in the world. The side is committed to the principles of multiculturalism and inclusivity, and has always encouraged a multicultural membership and mixed dancing. The return of the former British colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997 has had no effect on the side's activities, and it continues to flourish as a notable example of the resilience of Western cultural activity in postcolonial Hong Kong.
during the Second World War. The side met to practice on Wednesday evenings at St John’s Cathedral
in Garden Road, Hong Kong Island
, and practices were followed by drinking and singing sessions in the eleventh-floor bar of The Hermitage, a block of government service flats in Kennedy Road
that was redeveloped in the late 1990s. In the 1980s the side attracted a large number of British expatriates working in Hong Kong, teachers and engineers being particularly well represented. The side’s numbers reached a peak in the mid-1980s, at around 50 dancers and musicians.
Due to the increase in the team's numbers the practice venue was moved in the early 1980s to South Island School
. The Hermitage remained the side's default watering hole, though by the late 1980s a number of hardy spirits tended to continue the festivities into the early hours of the morning at the Godown in Wanchai. In 1985 the side was featured in the Morris Ring
publication The Morris Tradition, as a notable example of the spread of morris dancing beyond its traditional home in England. During the mid-1980s one member's government quarter in Gort Block, Victoria Barracks
, a location conveniently close to The Hermitage, became a venue for a final glass or two of port
to round off the evening. This agreeable custom came to an end when Victoria Barracks was converted into Hong Kong Park
. 'Port Block', as it had by then been christened, was demolished along with most of the other government quarters in the Barracks.
The side has typically danced either at open-air venues in Hong Kong such as fetes and festivals or in air-conditioned shopping malls. During the mid-1980s the Hong Kong Morris performed on most weekends, though in recent years performances have been less frequent. A number of events in the side’s history have been particularly memorable.
In 1987 the side danced on top of a decorated shipping container
swung out over Kwai Chung Creek on a crane to mark the opening of a new berth at Kwai Chung Container Terminals.
In 1988, in order to benefit from the waiver of fees granted by the Urban Council to charitable, religious and educational groups for the use of its premises, the Hong Kong Morris successfully argued that it was a religious group on the grounds that morris dancing was a survival of a pre-Christian fertility rite. This myth was exploded with the publication in 1999 of A History of Morris Dancing, John Forrest's magisterial study of the historical roots of morris dancing (no earlier than the fifteenth century), and is no longer an argument that the side could make with a good conscience.
In 1990 and 1991 three four-person teams from the Hong Kong Morris took part in the annual Trailwalker
competition, an event that involves walking the 100 kilometres of the Maclehose Trail within a period of 48 hours. On both occasions the walkers changed into morris kit near the end of the trail, danced across the finishing line, and took part in a vigorous display of morris dancing afterwards. The walkers' success was then celebrated with a hearty meal of roast goose and Tsingtao beer
in nearby Sham Tseng
.
In 1991 the side danced at Hei Ling Chau
refugee camp. Its audience consisted of several hundred Vietnamese boat people
who had fled from Vietnam and had been interned upon their arrival in Hong Kong.
In 1994 the side celebrated its twentieth anniversary in Hong Kong. A large number of former members returned to Hong Kong from the UK and Canada to take part in the celebrations.
In 1997, shortly before the handover of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Morris held The Last Ale of the Empire.
In 2004 the side celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Again, several former members returned to Hong Kong for the anniversary. The celebrations included dancing in Hong Kong Park, in Stanley, and outside the Cultural Centre
in Tsim Sha Tsui
.
In 2008 and 2009 the Hong Kong Morris celebrated May Morning
by dancing next to the Wishing Tree
in San Uk Tsai, a locally-celebrated banyan
tree believed to bring good fortune to its devotees.
In 1984 China and the United Kingdom issued a Joint Declaration providing for the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997. In the late 1980s, largely due to localisation policies implemented in preparation for the 1997 handover, many of the side’s members returned to the United Kingdom. These members met for a weekend of dance at Wimborne, Dorset
in 1991, at which the decision was taken to form the Hong Kong (UK) Morris, colloquially known as The Brackets. Initial Brackets gatherings took place at the annual Sidmouth Folk Festival in Devon, normally held at the end of July. In January 1993 a recently-returned Hong Kong Morris member organised a weekend of dance for The Brackets and the Brackley Morris Men in Northamptonshire
. The idea of a January gathering in addition to the July Sidmouth
reunion caught on, and The Brackets now regularly meet and dance together in the first week of January as well as at Sidmouth.
Many of the Brackets became members of local morris sides after their return to the UK, but all retain a deep-seated allegiance to the Hong Kong Morris. Throughout the 1990s members of the Hong Kong and UK sides met up annually at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, and links between the two sides remain strong. Many members of The Brackets returned to Hong Kong in 1994 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Hong Kong Morris, and several Brackets members also helped to celebrate the side's 30th anniversary in 2004.
A strong side of Brackets visited Hong Kong in October 2008, and the local and UK sides danced together in Stanley
, on Lamma Island
and in Macau.
. The ordinance allows the government to monitor the activities of political parties
, pressure groups and other potentially-undesirable combinations
, and under its provisions the side is required to furnish the government every year with copies of its accounts and the minutes of its annual general meeting.
As with many other morris sides, the officers of the Hong Kong Morris include a squire (president), a bagman (treasurer) and a foreman (dance teacher). In 1989, in recognition of the wish of the women members to develop their own dance traditions, the office of foreman was replaced with a men's foreman and a women's foreman.
behind a rapper sword
knot. The costume was lightly modified in 1984.
The costume of the women's side has undergone a number of changes over the years, and proposals for further change continue to generate lively discussion at annual general meetings. The first women's costume consisted of a white blouse and a skirt available in a choice of three colours (light green, russet brown and pink). In 1984 this early costume was replaced with a uniform costume consisting of a red skirt, a white blouse and a green waistcoat. At present many of the women dancers continue to wear the costume introduced in 1984, though some dancers prefer a modified open-neck version of the 1984-model white blouse. Other dancers wear the same costume as the men.
The sticks used by the side in its dances are wrapped in tape in three broad bands of colour: red, white and green. The green end of the stick is always held uppermost, so that any blood shed in an incautious stick clash is disguised by dripping onto the lower red band.
Many morris sides include one or more members dressed as animals, typically horses. The Hong Kong Morris has its own hobby horse
named Horace, normally represented by Martin Samson.
, garland dance
s, rapper dances
and mumming plays.
While the Hong Kong Morris has always regarded Lionel Bacon's classic work A Handbook of Morris Dances as a most valuable source of information on the form and historical development of particular morris tunes and morris dances, it has never felt the need to adhere slavishly to the particular form in which a dance or tune was collected several decades ago. The side has therefore contributed to the development of the morris tradition by adapting a number of existing dances to local circumstances. In the early 1980s the Hong Kong Morris developed a variant of the Lichfield Morris tradition, designed to be viewed from above when being danced on the circular ground-floor stage of the multi-storey shopping mall The Landmark
. Instead of the conventional set of eight dancers, the Hong Kong Morris danced Lichfield with twelve dancers arranged in a cross formation. This formation enabled spectacular effects to be achieved, particularly in the complex Lichfield Hey. Other dances similarly adapted include the Upton-on-Yangtze stick dance, a version of the Upton-on-Severn stick dance performed in traditional Chinese costume with chopsticks
, and Governor's Gallop, a dance developed in the early 1990s in honour of Chris Patten
, Hong Kong's last British governor.
s), and for the Brackets Steve Butler/Hall, John Bacon (both piano accordion
s), John Rowlands (button accordion
) and June Rowlands (fiddle). The squeezebox
and fiddle players normally carry the main burden of the tune, while attractive decorative effects are produced by supporting musicians with less powerful instruments. Bill Crump and Dave Ellis, for example, use the tin whistle
to counterpoint and harmonise with the main melody. While most of the side's musicians play traditional morris instruments (the piano accordion
, the button accordion
, the melodeon
, the concertina
, the fiddle
, the guitar
, the bodhran
and the tin whistle
), the Hong Kong Morris has never disdained less conventional instruments. The late Mike Cowley's inimitable performance on the trombone
(Mike passed away on 18 November 2010) will be particularly missed, as it gave the side’s music a depth and volume that considerably enhanced the performance of the dancers and at times reduced them to tears of laughter.
and the Turkish Knight. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the mumming play actors also included a display of rapper sword
dancing in their performance. The impact of these performances was considerably enhanced by the striking costumes produced for the actors by side member Chris Baldwin, a devotee of amateur dramatics.
Singing (mostly of English folk songs) has always played an important role in the apres-morris conviviality of the Hong Kong Morris. Jim Carter, Hilary Blythe and Phil Pimentil, three of the side's early members, were noted singers on the local folk scene as part of the group Mulled Ale, and launched a tradition of powerful singing. Several other regular singers have maintained this tradition, including Mary Read and Amy Hughes (romantic ballads), Mike Greenhalgh (sea shanties
), Dave Wilmshurst ('Death to the French' songs), Steve Ford (folksong parodies) and Dave Ellis (drinking songs). Kyoko Fukuda has recently widened the side's singing repertoire with two songs sung in Japanese: one about an elephant
, known as The Elephant Song, and one about something else, known jokingly as The Not-the-Elephant Song.
Phil Pimentil used to sing one of the few English folksongs known to have mentioned Hong Kong, about an Irish navvy who found work in the British colony in the late nineteenth century: 'I'm off to be a Chinaman, to Hong Kong I'm bound.' Another song with a China connection, The Chinese Bumboat
man Song, also known as The Ballad of Wing Chang Loo, has become a side favourite, and is sometimes delivered with 'an horrible oath' (as the song requires) in Cantonese, depending on the company.
Well-written and amusing tour logs have also been a source of enjoyment to the side's members, particularly those written by Tony Parry, formerly a journalist with Reuters
.
, but was asked to leave the Ring because of its inclusive policy on women’s dancing. It is now a member side of the Morris Federation
. Two of its members, John Bacon and Chris Butler/Hall, have played an influential role respectively in the development of the policies of the Morris Federation
and Open Morris
, two organisations in the United Kingdom committed to the principle of mixed dancing.
The side has also welcomed dancers and musicians of all nationalities. Although most of its members have been English, it has also had at various times in its history Hong Kong Chinese, Scottish, American, Australian, New Zealand, French, South African, Thai and Japanese members.
A number of traditions were invented by the Hong Kong Morris in the early 1980s, some of which have survived. These include an adaptation of the Oxford custom May Morning
, a ritual that includes dancing on The Peak at dawn followed by a hearty breakfast and still more dancing; Macau trips, including evenings of singing and dancing at the Pousada da Coloane hotel and lunch at Fernando's restaurant on Hac Sa Beach; junk trips to the Lamma Island
Wan Kee Seafood Restaurant; Boxing Day
dancing; and a send-off 'ale' for departing members of the side in which alcohol and tears flow freely. The last such 'farewell ale' was held on 25 September 2009 for two long-serving members of the side.
Two curious rituals that have stood the test of time include the singing of the English folk song Country Life (first line of chorus: 'I Like to Rise when the Sun She Rises') during group photographs, and the use of the phrase 'Yat for the Do' for the final round of beer of an evening (from Cantonese Yat (一), one, and Do (道), road). Many of these traditions were established under the leadership of Andy Houghton, a squire of the Hong Kong Morris in the first half of the 1980s.
in 1980. A highlight of this tour was the performance of a double jig on the catwalk of one of the bars in the city's Ermita
district by a member of the side and an obliging Filipina lady who added morris bells to her customary dance costume. In 1984 a strong Hong Kong Morris side visited Perth (Australia) and danced with the local ladies' side The Fair Maids of Perth.
Subsequent tours have included the 1986 Guangzhou
Tour, the 1987 North American Tour to Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver (a tour in which the side discovered the delights of hot-tubbing
and danced with the US sides MossyBacks and Misty City and the Canadian Victoria and Vancouver Morris sides); the 1988 Brisbane Tour to Maleny Folk Festival, at which the side's musician was asked to accompany an Australian women's side of practising witches; the 1989 Taiwan Tour, whose participants enjoyed the unfamiliar experience of being cultural ambassadors for British education; the 1990 Bangkok Tour (also known as the Tour of Shame), the less said about which the better; the 1995 Kuala Lumpur Tour, which doubled as a honeymoon for recently-married Steve and Myra Ford; and the 1997 Canberra Tour, where the Hong Kong Morris provided a visual history of morris dancing, in its varied styles, as a specially-invited side, and also performed its mumming play and led a session of chorus singing.
Several former members of the Hong Kong Morris now dance with other sides, and occasionally revisit their old haunts. Peter and Christine Baldwin, now with the Cyprus Morris, danced with the Hong Kong Morris in November 2010 in the village of Tai Hang in the Lam Tsuen valley.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
in 1974. The side now has two chapters, the Hong Kong Morris in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong (UK) Morris, colloquially known as The Brackets, in the United Kingdom. In its heyday, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Hong Kong Morris was one of the largest Cotswold morris sides in the world. The side is committed to the principles of multiculturalism and inclusivity, and has always encouraged a multicultural membership and mixed dancing. The return of the former British colony of Hong Kong to China in 1997 has had no effect on the side's activities, and it continues to flourish as a notable example of the resilience of Western cultural activity in postcolonial Hong Kong.
Early history
The Hong Kong Morris was founded by Jim Carter in 1974. Many of its early members were officers of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. One founding member, Tony Reynolds, was a Quaker who had driven ambulances along the Burma RoadBurma Road
The Burma Road is a road linking Burma with the southwest of China. Its terminals are Kunming, Yunnan, and Lashio, Burma. When it was built, Burma was a British colony.The road is long and runs through rough mountain country...
during the Second World War. The side met to practice on Wednesday evenings at St John’s Cathedral
St. John's Cathedral, Hong Kong
St. John's Cathedral , officially The Cathedral Church of St. John the Evangelist and located at 4 Garden Road, Central, is an Anglican cathedral in Hong Kong. It is the Diocesan cathedral of the...
in Garden Road, Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km², as of 2008...
, and practices were followed by drinking and singing sessions in the eleventh-floor bar of The Hermitage, a block of government service flats in Kennedy Road
Kennedy Road, Hong Kong
Kennedy Road is a road in the Mid-levels on the Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Starting from Garden Road in the west, it goes past St. Joseph's College, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong Park and Hopewell Centre and ends at the junction with Queen's Road East near Morrison Hill in Wan Chai.At...
that was redeveloped in the late 1990s. In the 1980s the side attracted a large number of British expatriates working in Hong Kong, teachers and engineers being particularly well represented. The side’s numbers reached a peak in the mid-1980s, at around 50 dancers and musicians.
Due to the increase in the team's numbers the practice venue was moved in the early 1980s to South Island School
South Island School
South Island School is an international school founded by the English Schools Foundation of Hong Kong, located at 50 Nam Fung Road, Aberdeen, Hong Kong...
. The Hermitage remained the side's default watering hole, though by the late 1980s a number of hardy spirits tended to continue the festivities into the early hours of the morning at the Godown in Wanchai. In 1985 the side was featured in the Morris Ring
Morris Ring
The Morris Ring is one of three umbrella groups for Morris dance sides in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1934 by 6 sides: Greensleeves, Cambridge, East Surrey, Letchworth, Oxford and Thaxted. They meet several times a year, each Ring Meeting being hosted by a different member side...
publication The Morris Tradition, as a notable example of the spread of morris dancing beyond its traditional home in England. During the mid-1980s one member's government quarter in Gort Block, Victoria Barracks
Victoria Barracks, Hong Kong
The Victoria Barracks were a barracks in the Admiralty district of Central on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The barracks were constructed between the 1840s and 1874, and situated within the area bounded by Cotton Tree Drive, Kennedy Road and Queensway, Hong Kong. The Barracks with Murray Barracks,...
, a location conveniently close to The Hermitage, became a venue for a final glass or two of port
Port wine
Port wine is a Portuguese fortified wine produced exclusively in the Douro Valley in the northern provinces of Portugal. It is typically a sweet, red wine, often served as a dessert wine, and comes in dry, semi-dry, and white varieties...
to round off the evening. This agreeable custom came to an end when Victoria Barracks was converted into Hong Kong Park
Hong Kong Park
The Hong Kong Park is a public park next to Cotton Tree Drive in Central, Hong Kong. Built at a cost of HK$398 million and opened in May 1991, it covers an area of 80,000 m² and is an example of modern design and facilities blending with natural landscape....
. 'Port Block', as it had by then been christened, was demolished along with most of the other government quarters in the Barracks.
Notable events
In 1987 the side danced on top of a decorated shipping container
Shipping container
A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes...
swung out over Kwai Chung Creek on a crane to mark the opening of a new berth at Kwai Chung Container Terminals.
In 1988, in order to benefit from the waiver of fees granted by the Urban Council to charitable, religious and educational groups for the use of its premises, the Hong Kong Morris successfully argued that it was a religious group on the grounds that morris dancing was a survival of a pre-Christian fertility rite. This myth was exploded with the publication in 1999 of A History of Morris Dancing, John Forrest's magisterial study of the historical roots of morris dancing (no earlier than the fifteenth century), and is no longer an argument that the side could make with a good conscience.
In 1990 and 1991 three four-person teams from the Hong Kong Morris took part in the annual Trailwalker
Trailwalker
Trailwalker or Oxfam Trailwalker and the related Trailtrekker are endurance walking events run across the world by Oxfam, in which teams of 4 competitors must complete a course of in a set time limit - typically between 24 and 48 hours...
competition, an event that involves walking the 100 kilometres of the Maclehose Trail within a period of 48 hours. On both occasions the walkers changed into morris kit near the end of the trail, danced across the finishing line, and took part in a vigorous display of morris dancing afterwards. The walkers' success was then celebrated with a hearty meal of roast goose and Tsingtao beer
Tsingtao Brewery
Tsingtao Brewery Co.,Ltd. is China's second largest brewery. It was founded in 1903 by German settlers and now claims about 15% of domestic market share. The beer is produced in Tsingtao/Qingdao in Shandong province , but the name of the beer uses the old École française d'Extrême-Orient...
in nearby Sham Tseng
Sham Tseng
Sham Tseng is a coastal area in Tsuen Wan District, Hong Kong, between Ting Kau and Tsing Lung Tau.In 1982, the Government launched a new town project for the area. There were proposals for a massive housing scheme, where the population of the village, then estimated at 6,000, was set to increase...
.
In 1991 the side danced at Hei Ling Chau
Hei Ling Chau
Hei Ling Chau , formerly Hayling Chau, is an island of Hong Kong, located east of Silver Mine Bay and Chi Ma Wan of Lantau Island. It is administratively part of the Islands District.-Geography:...
refugee camp. Its audience consisted of several hundred Vietnamese boat people
Boat people
Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees, illegal immigrants or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made...
who had fled from Vietnam and had been interned upon their arrival in Hong Kong.
In 1994 the side celebrated its twentieth anniversary in Hong Kong. A large number of former members returned to Hong Kong from the UK and Canada to take part in the celebrations.
In 1997, shortly before the handover of Hong Kong to China, the Hong Kong Morris held The Last Ale of the Empire.
In 2004 the side celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. Again, several former members returned to Hong Kong for the anniversary. The celebrations included dancing in Hong Kong Park, in Stanley, and outside the Cultural Centre
Hong Kong Cultural Centre
The Hong Kong Cultural Centre is a multipurpose performance facility in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong. Located at Salisbury Road, it was founded by the former Urban Council and, after 2000, is administered by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong Government...
in Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tsim Sha Tsui , often abbreviated as TST, is an urbanized area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hung Hom Bay now east of Tsim Sha Tsui...
.
In 2008 and 2009 the Hong Kong Morris celebrated May Morning
May Morning
May Morning is an annual event in Oxford, England, on May Day . It starts early at 6am with the Magdalen College Choir singing a hymn, the Hymnus Eucharisticus, from the top of Magdalen Tower, a tradition of over 500 years. Large crowds normally gather under the tower along the High Street and on...
by dancing next to the Wishing Tree
Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees
The Lam Tsuen Wishing Trees is one of the popular shrines in Hong Kong. They are located near the Tin Hau Temple in Fong Ma Po Village, in Lam Tsuen. The temple was built around 1768 or 1771, during the reign of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty .The two banyan trees are frequented by tourists and the...
in San Uk Tsai, a locally-celebrated banyan
Banyan
A banyan is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree...
tree believed to bring good fortune to its devotees.
The Brackets
Wimborne Minster
Wimborne Minster is a market town in the East Dorset district of Dorset in South West England, and the name of the Church of England church in that town...
in 1991, at which the decision was taken to form the Hong Kong (UK) Morris, colloquially known as The Brackets. Initial Brackets gatherings took place at the annual Sidmouth Folk Festival in Devon, normally held at the end of July. In January 1993 a recently-returned Hong Kong Morris member organised a weekend of dance for The Brackets and the Brackley Morris Men in Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census. It has boundaries with the ceremonial counties of Warwickshire to the west, Leicestershire and Rutland to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshire to the south-east,...
. The idea of a January gathering in addition to the July Sidmouth
Sidmouth
Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65....
reunion caught on, and The Brackets now regularly meet and dance together in the first week of January as well as at Sidmouth.
Many of the Brackets became members of local morris sides after their return to the UK, but all retain a deep-seated allegiance to the Hong Kong Morris. Throughout the 1990s members of the Hong Kong and UK sides met up annually at the Sidmouth Folk Festival, and links between the two sides remain strong. Many members of The Brackets returned to Hong Kong in 1994 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Hong Kong Morris, and several Brackets members also helped to celebrate the side's 30th anniversary in 2004.
A strong side of Brackets visited Hong Kong in October 2008, and the local and UK sides danced together in Stanley
Stanley, Hong Kong
Stanley is a town and a tourist attraction in Hong Kong. It located on a peninsula on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island. It is east of Repulse Bay and west of Shek O, adjacent to Chung Hom Kok...
, on Lamma Island
Lamma Island
Lamma Island , also known as Pok Liu Chau or simply Pok Liu , is the third largest island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District.-Name:...
and in Macau.
Constitution and offices
The Hong Kong Morris is registered under the Societies Ordinance (Cap. 151 of the Laws of Hong Kong), a local ordinance introduced by the Hong Kong Government to counter the threat of subversionSubversion (politics)
Subversion refers to an attempt to transform the established social order, its structures of power, authority, and hierarchy; examples of such structures include the State. In this context, a "subversive" is sometimes called a "traitor" with respect to the government in-power. A subversive is...
. The ordinance allows the government to monitor the activities of political parties
Political Parties
Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy is a book by sociologist Robert Michels, published in 1911 , and first introducing the concept of iron law of oligarchy...
, pressure groups and other potentially-undesirable combinations
Combination Act
The Combination Act 1799, titled An Act to prevent Unlawful Combinations of Workmen , prohibited trade unions and collective bargaining by British workers. An additional act was passed in 1800 ....
, and under its provisions the side is required to furnish the government every year with copies of its accounts and the minutes of its annual general meeting.
As with many other morris sides, the officers of the Hong Kong Morris include a squire (president), a bagman (treasurer) and a foreman (dance teacher). In 1989, in recognition of the wish of the women members to develop their own dance traditions, the office of foreman was replaced with a men's foreman and a women's foreman.
Costume
The men's side of the Hong Kong Morris have always worn white trousers and shirts. Their baldricks, red and yellow, are decorated with a badge representing a Chinese dragonChinese dragon
Chinese dragons are legendary creatures in Chinese mythology and folklore, with mythic counterparts among Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Bhutanese, Western and Turkic dragons. In Chinese art, dragons are typically portrayed as long, scaled, serpentine creatures with four legs...
behind a rapper sword
Rapper sword
Rapper sword is a kind of sword dance associated with the North-East of England.-History:The rapper sword tradition was traditionally performed in the mining villages of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield in North East England, especially in Tyneside...
knot. The costume was lightly modified in 1984.
The costume of the women's side has undergone a number of changes over the years, and proposals for further change continue to generate lively discussion at annual general meetings. The first women's costume consisted of a white blouse and a skirt available in a choice of three colours (light green, russet brown and pink). In 1984 this early costume was replaced with a uniform costume consisting of a red skirt, a white blouse and a green waistcoat. At present many of the women dancers continue to wear the costume introduced in 1984, though some dancers prefer a modified open-neck version of the 1984-model white blouse. Other dancers wear the same costume as the men.
The sticks used by the side in its dances are wrapped in tape in three broad bands of colour: red, white and green. The green end of the stick is always held uppermost, so that any blood shed in an incautious stick clash is disguised by dripping onto the lower red band.
Many morris sides include one or more members dressed as animals, typically horses. The Hong Kong Morris has its own hobby horse
Hobby horse
The term hobby horse is used, principally by folklorists, to refer to the costumed characters that feature in some traditional seasonal customs, processions and similar observances around the world. They are particularly associated with May Day celebrations, Mummers Plays and the Morris dance in...
named Horace, normally represented by Martin Samson.
Dancing traditions
Most of the dances performed by the Hong Kong Morris are from the Cotswold Morris tradition. Cotswold traditions danced at various periods in the side’s history include Adderbury, Ascot-under-Wychwood, Bampton, Bledington, Bucknell, Fieldtown, Headington, Lichfield, Stanton Harcourt and Upton-on-Severn. At various periods in its history the side has also performed longsword dancesLong Sword dance
right|YorkshireThe Long Sword dance is a hilt-and-point sword dance recorded mainly in Yorkshire, England. It is related to the rapper sword dance of Northumbria, but the character is fundamentally different as it uses rigid metal or wooden swords, rather than the flexible spring steel rappers used...
, garland dance
Garland dance
Garland dancing is an English dance tradition that began in the 19th century in North England's mill towns.The Industrial Revolution was centralizing people, bringing rural folk to factory work. As country girls moved to new industrial cities, they brought with them dancing traditions from many...
s, rapper dances
Rapper sword
Rapper sword is a kind of sword dance associated with the North-East of England.-History:The rapper sword tradition was traditionally performed in the mining villages of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield in North East England, especially in Tyneside...
and mumming plays.
While the Hong Kong Morris has always regarded Lionel Bacon's classic work A Handbook of Morris Dances as a most valuable source of information on the form and historical development of particular morris tunes and morris dances, it has never felt the need to adhere slavishly to the particular form in which a dance or tune was collected several decades ago. The side has therefore contributed to the development of the morris tradition by adapting a number of existing dances to local circumstances. In the early 1980s the Hong Kong Morris developed a variant of the Lichfield Morris tradition, designed to be viewed from above when being danced on the circular ground-floor stage of the multi-storey shopping mall The Landmark
The Landmark (Hong Kong)
The Landmark is an office and shopping development owned by Hong Kong Land in Central, Hong Kong. It is commonly known as the home of numerous prestigious international brands and the gathering place of well-heeled shoppers.-History:...
. Instead of the conventional set of eight dancers, the Hong Kong Morris danced Lichfield with twelve dancers arranged in a cross formation. This formation enabled spectacular effects to be achieved, particularly in the complex Lichfield Hey. Other dances similarly adapted include the Upton-on-Yangtze stick dance, a version of the Upton-on-Severn stick dance performed in traditional Chinese costume with chopsticks
Chopsticks
Chopsticks are small, often tapered, sticks used in pairs of equal length as the traditional eating utensils of China and its diaspora, Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Northern provinces of Laos, Thailand and Burma. Generally believed to have originated in ancient China, they can also be found in some...
, and Governor's Gallop, a dance developed in the early 1990s in honour of Chris Patten
Chris Patten
Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes, CH, PC , is the last Governor of British Hong Kong, a former British Conservative politician, and the current chairman of the BBC Trust....
, Hong Kong's last British governor.
Music
The side has had a large number of musicians during its history. At present the main musicians for the Hong Kong side are Sue Ellis and Sue Papper (melodeonMelodeon (organ)
A melodeon is a type of 19th century reed organ with a foot-operated vacuum bellows, and a piano keyboard. It differs from the related harmonium, which uses a pressure bellows. Melodeons were manufactured in the United States sometime after 1812 until the Civil War era...
s), and for the Brackets Steve Butler/Hall, John Bacon (both piano accordion
Piano accordion
A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...
s), John Rowlands (button accordion
Button accordion
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons rather than piano-style keys. There exists a wide variation in keyboard systems, tuning, action and construction of these instruments...
) and June Rowlands (fiddle). The squeezebox
Squeezebox
The term Squeezebox is a colloquial expression referring to any musical instrument of the general class of hand-held bellows-driven free reed aerophones such as the accordion and the concertina...
and fiddle players normally carry the main burden of the tune, while attractive decorative effects are produced by supporting musicians with less powerful instruments. Bill Crump and Dave Ellis, for example, use the tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
to counterpoint and harmonise with the main melody. While most of the side's musicians play traditional morris instruments (the piano accordion
Piano accordion
A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term "piano accordion"—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular...
, the button accordion
Button accordion
A button accordion is a type of accordion on which the melody-side keyboard consists of a series of buttons rather than piano-style keys. There exists a wide variation in keyboard systems, tuning, action and construction of these instruments...
, the melodeon
Diatonic button accordion
A diatonic button accordion or melodeon is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys...
, the concertina
Concertina
A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it...
, the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
, the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, the bodhran
Bodhrán
The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...
and the tin whistle
Tin whistle
The tin whistle, also called the penny whistle, English Flageolet, Scottish penny whistle, Tin Flageolet, Irish whistle and Clarke London Flageolet is a simple six-holed woodwind instrument. It is an end blown fipple flute, putting it in the same category as the recorder, American Indian flute, and...
), the Hong Kong Morris has never disdained less conventional instruments. The late Mike Cowley's inimitable performance on the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
(Mike passed away on 18 November 2010) will be particularly missed, as it gave the side’s music a depth and volume that considerably enhanced the performance of the dancers and at times reduced them to tears of laughter.
Mumming play and rapper dancing
The Hong Kong Morris has for many years performed an English mumming play. Texts of a large number of medieval mumming plays have survived, and the play performed by the side is in the mainstream mumming play tradition. It contains the characters Father Christmas, Saint GeorgeSaint George
Saint George was, according to tradition, a Roman soldier from Syria Palaestina and a priest in the Guard of Diocletian, who is venerated as a Christian martyr. In hagiography Saint George is one of the most venerated saints in the Catholic , Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and the Oriental Orthodox...
and the Turkish Knight. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the mumming play actors also included a display of rapper sword
Rapper sword
Rapper sword is a kind of sword dance associated with the North-East of England.-History:The rapper sword tradition was traditionally performed in the mining villages of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield in North East England, especially in Tyneside...
dancing in their performance. The impact of these performances was considerably enhanced by the striking costumes produced for the actors by side member Chris Baldwin, a devotee of amateur dramatics.
Singing
Sea Shanties
Sea Shanties is the debut album of Progressive Rock band High Tide. The cover artwork was drawn by Paul Whitehead.-Production:Denny Gerrard produced Sea Shanties in return for High Tide acting as the backing band on his solo album Sinister Morning...
), Dave Wilmshurst ('Death to the French' songs), Steve Ford (folksong parodies) and Dave Ellis (drinking songs). Kyoko Fukuda has recently widened the side's singing repertoire with two songs sung in Japanese: one about an elephant
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
, known as The Elephant Song, and one about something else, known jokingly as The Not-the-Elephant Song.
Phil Pimentil used to sing one of the few English folksongs known to have mentioned Hong Kong, about an Irish navvy who found work in the British colony in the late nineteenth century: 'I'm off to be a Chinaman, to Hong Kong I'm bound.' Another song with a China connection, The Chinese Bumboat
Bumboat
A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore. Originally referring to a scavenger's boat, the name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe - "boomschuit" , and "boat"....
man Song, also known as The Ballad of Wing Chang Loo, has become a side favourite, and is sometimes delivered with 'an horrible oath' (as the song requires) in Cantonese, depending on the company.
Oratory
The Hong Kong Morris has always contained a large number of forceful personalities, often in senior management positions and as such more than usually fond of airing their opinions. This rhetorical talent has been channelled into a productive direction. An important aspect of any morris side's performance is rapport with its audience, and good speakers can make all the difference to a side's reception. Good speeches at Ales and other formal occasions are also appreciated by the side's members. The late Jim Carter was one of the side's most effective orators in its early days, and his baton has been passed on to Roger Pope, who brings to his task the humour and gravitas won in his chosen career as a school headmaster. When dancing for Chinese audiences in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Morris always tries to make its announcements in Cantonese. Several of its expatriate members have enough Cantonese to make themselves understood on such occasions.Well-written and amusing tour logs have also been a source of enjoyment to the side's members, particularly those written by Tony Parry, formerly a journalist with Reuters
Reuters
Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
.
Inclusivity and multiculturalism
The Hong Kong Morris attracted its first women members in the late 1970s, at a time when there was considerable opposition to women’s morris dancing in the United Kingdom. Women and men have always danced together in the Hong Kong Morris, either in mixed sets or in separate sets. By the mid-1980s the side’s growing numbers enabled strong men’s and women’s sets to develop, and each set began to specialise in certain Cotswold traditions, while retaining a large common core of dances for mixed dancing. In 1989 a women’s foreman was added to the side’s officers. The Hong Kong Morris was briefly a member side of the Morris RingMorris Ring
The Morris Ring is one of three umbrella groups for Morris dance sides in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1934 by 6 sides: Greensleeves, Cambridge, East Surrey, Letchworth, Oxford and Thaxted. They meet several times a year, each Ring Meeting being hosted by a different member side...
, but was asked to leave the Ring because of its inclusive policy on women’s dancing. It is now a member side of the Morris Federation
Morris Federation
The Morris Federation is one of the three existing umbrella organisations for morris dancing sides in the United Kingdom. It was officially founded as the Women's Morris Federation in 1975 as a direct response to the long-existing Morris Ring which did not allow all-female or mixed sides to join...
. Two of its members, John Bacon and Chris Butler/Hall, have played an influential role respectively in the development of the policies of the Morris Federation
Morris Federation
The Morris Federation is one of the three existing umbrella organisations for morris dancing sides in the United Kingdom. It was officially founded as the Women's Morris Federation in 1975 as a direct response to the long-existing Morris Ring which did not allow all-female or mixed sides to join...
and Open Morris
Open Morris
Open Morris is one of the three umbrella groups for morris dance sides in England. It was formed primarily by members of Fenstanton Morris in the early 1980s as a response to the male-only policy of the Morris Ring and the female-only riposte of the Morris Federation Open Morris is one of the...
, two organisations in the United Kingdom committed to the principle of mixed dancing.
The side has also welcomed dancers and musicians of all nationalities. Although most of its members have been English, it has also had at various times in its history Hong Kong Chinese, Scottish, American, Australian, New Zealand, French, South African, Thai and Japanese members.
Invention of traditions
May Morning
May Morning is an annual event in Oxford, England, on May Day . It starts early at 6am with the Magdalen College Choir singing a hymn, the Hymnus Eucharisticus, from the top of Magdalen Tower, a tradition of over 500 years. Large crowds normally gather under the tower along the High Street and on...
, a ritual that includes dancing on The Peak at dawn followed by a hearty breakfast and still more dancing; Macau trips, including evenings of singing and dancing at the Pousada da Coloane hotel and lunch at Fernando's restaurant on Hac Sa Beach; junk trips to the Lamma Island
Lamma Island
Lamma Island , also known as Pok Liu Chau or simply Pok Liu , is the third largest island in Hong Kong. Administratively, it is part of the Islands District.-Name:...
Wan Kee Seafood Restaurant; Boxing Day
Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a bank or public holiday that occurs on 26 December, or the first or second weekday after Christmas Day, depending on national or regional laws. It is observed in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth nations. In Ireland, it is recognized as...
dancing; and a send-off 'ale' for departing members of the side in which alcohol and tears flow freely. The last such 'farewell ale' was held on 25 September 2009 for two long-serving members of the side.
Two curious rituals that have stood the test of time include the singing of the English folk song Country Life (first line of chorus: 'I Like to Rise when the Sun She Rises') during group photographs, and the use of the phrase 'Yat for the Do' for the final round of beer of an evening (from Cantonese Yat (一), one, and Do (道), road). Many of these traditions were established under the leadership of Andy Houghton, a squire of the Hong Kong Morris in the first half of the 1980s.
Overseas tours
The first overseas tour by the Hong Kong Morris was to ManilaManila
Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...
in 1980. A highlight of this tour was the performance of a double jig on the catwalk of one of the bars in the city's Ermita
Ermita, Manila
Ermita is a district of Manila, Philippines located halfway between Intramuros and Malate.-History:Ermita was founded in the late 16th century...
district by a member of the side and an obliging Filipina lady who added morris bells to her customary dance costume. In 1984 a strong Hong Kong Morris side visited Perth (Australia) and danced with the local ladies' side The Fair Maids of Perth.
Subsequent tours have included the 1986 Guangzhou
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
Tour, the 1987 North American Tour to Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver (a tour in which the side discovered the delights of hot-tubbing
Hot tub
A hot tub is a large tub or small pool full of heated water and used for soaking, relaxation, massage, or hydrotherapy. In most cases, they have jets for massage purposes. Hot tubs are usually located outdoors, and are often sheltered for protection from the elements, as well as for privacy....
and danced with the US sides MossyBacks and Misty City and the Canadian Victoria and Vancouver Morris sides); the 1988 Brisbane Tour to Maleny Folk Festival, at which the side's musician was asked to accompany an Australian women's side of practising witches; the 1989 Taiwan Tour, whose participants enjoyed the unfamiliar experience of being cultural ambassadors for British education; the 1990 Bangkok Tour (also known as the Tour of Shame), the less said about which the better; the 1995 Kuala Lumpur Tour, which doubled as a honeymoon for recently-married Steve and Myra Ford; and the 1997 Canberra Tour, where the Hong Kong Morris provided a visual history of morris dancing, in its varied styles, as a specially-invited side, and also performed its mumming play and led a session of chorus singing.
Visits to Hong Kong by overseas sides
The Hong Kong Morris is the only morris side in Hong Kong, and has therefore always welcomed visits from other morris sides. Teams that have danced in Hong Kong as guests of the Hong Kong Morris include the Australian side The Fair Maids of Perth (1985, in return for the 1984 Perth Tour), the American sides MossyBack Morris Men and Misty City (1988, in return for the 1987 North American Tour), and the UK clog dancing side Kettle Bridge Clogs (1989).Several former members of the Hong Kong Morris now dance with other sides, and occasionally revisit their old haunts. Peter and Christine Baldwin, now with the Cyprus Morris, danced with the Hong Kong Morris in November 2010 in the village of Tai Hang in the Lam Tsuen valley.
Further reading
- Bacon, L., A Handbook of Morris Dances (The Morris Ring, 1974)
- Forrest, J., The History of Morris Dancing, 1483-1750 (Cambridge, 1999)
External links
- Hong Kong Morris old website http://home.bre.polyu.edu.hk/~bsdscott/morris.htm
- Hong Kong Morris new website http://www.hkmorris.com
- Kettle Bridge Clogs web site