Hong Kong Morris facts for kids
The Hong Kong Morris (Chinese: 香港古代英國舞團, pronounced Heung Gong Gwoo Doi Ying Gwok Mo Tuen in Cantonese) is an English morris dancing group. It was started in Hong Kong in 1974.
This dance group now has two parts: the Hong Kong Morris and the Hong Kong (UK) Morris. The UK group is often called "The Brackets." Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Hong Kong Morris was one of the biggest Cotswold morris dance groups in the world.
The group believes in welcoming everyone, no matter their background. They have always encouraged people from different cultures to join and dance together. When Hong Kong became part of China again in 1997, it didn't stop the group's activities. They continue to be a great example of Western culture thriving in Hong Kong.
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How It Started
The Hong Kong Morris was started by Jim Carter in 1974. Many of the first members were police officers in Hong Kong. One of the founders, Tony Reynolds, was a Quaker who drove ambulances during the Second World War.
The group used to practice at St John's Cathedral on Hong Kong Island. In the 1980s, many British people living and working in Hong Kong joined, especially teachers and engineers. The group grew to about 50 dancers and musicians in the mid-1980s.
Because the team got so big, they moved their practice place to South Island School in the early 1980s. In 1985, the group was even featured in a special book called The Morris Tradition. It showed how morris dancing was spreading beyond England, its original home.
Fun Events and Performances
The Hong Kong Morris often dances outdoors at events like festivals. They also perform in air-conditioned shopping malls. In the mid-1980s, they danced almost every weekend. Nowadays, they perform less often.
In 1987, the group did a very unusual dance. They performed on top of a decorated shipping container. This container was hanging in the air from a crane at the opening of a new shipping area in Kwai Chung.
In 1988, the Hong Kong Morris wanted to use public places for free. They successfully argued that they were a cultural group. This allowed them to use venues without paying fees.
In 1990 and 1991, three teams from the Hong Kong Morris took part in the annual Trailwalker competition. This event involves walking 100 kilometers in less than 48 hours. Near the end of the walk, the dancers would change into their morris costumes. They would then dance across the finish line and put on a lively show!
In 1991, the group danced at the Hei Ling Chau refugee camp. Their audience was hundreds of Vietnamese people who had come to Hong Kong seeking safety.
The group celebrated its 20th anniversary in Hong Kong in 1994. Many former members came back from the UK and Canada to join the party.
In 1997, just before Hong Kong was returned to China, the Hong Kong Morris held a special event called "The Last Ale of the Empire."
In 2004, they celebrated their 30th anniversary. Again, many old members returned for the celebration. They danced in places like Hong Kong Park, 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. This special banyan tree is believed to bring good luck.
The Brackets: A UK Chapter
In 1984, China and the United Kingdom agreed that Hong Kong would return to China in 1997. In the late 1980s, many members of the Hong Kong Morris moved back to the United Kingdom. This was partly because of new policies before the 1997 handover.
These members met for a dance weekend in Wimborne, Dorset, in 1991. There, they decided to form the Hong Kong (UK) Morris, also known as The Brackets. At first, The Brackets met at the annual Sidmouth Folk Festival in Devon. Later, they also started meeting in January for another dance weekend.
Many Brackets members joined local morris dance groups in the UK. But they all still feel connected to the Hong Kong Morris. Throughout the 1990s, members from both the Hong Kong and UK groups met every year at the Sidmouth Folk Festival. The connection between the two groups remains very strong. Many Brackets members returned to Hong Kong for the 20th and 30th anniversaries of the Hong Kong Morris.
In October 2008, a large group of Brackets members visited Hong Kong. The local and UK groups danced together in Stanley, on Lamma Island, and in Macau.
Group Structure and Roles
The Hong Kong Morris is officially registered in Hong Kong. This means they need to share their financial records and meeting notes with the government each year.
Like many morris dance groups, the Hong Kong Morris has special roles. These include a squire (who is like the president), a bagman (who handles the money), and a foreman (who teaches the dances). In 1989, women members wanted to develop their own dances. So, the role of foreman was split into a men's foreman and a women's foreman.
Costumes
The men in the Hong Kong Morris wear white trousers and shirts. Their sashes, called baldricks, are red and yellow with green parts. They have a special badge designed in 1976 by Sue King. This badge shows a Chinese dragon behind a special knot from a rapper sword.
Red, yellow, and green are considered lucky colors in Chinese culture, especially red. White is usually worn at funerals in China, so it's seen as unlucky. The colorful sashes helped to draw attention away from the white shirts and trousers. This costume was slightly changed in 1984.
The colors of the Hong Kong Morris (red, yellow, and green) even influenced another famous morris group in Canada, the Vancouver Morris Men. Graham Baldwin, one of the first members of the Hong Kong Morris, started the Vancouver group in 1982. He chose the same colors for their costumes.
The women's costumes have changed over the years. The first women's costume was a white blouse and a skirt in light green, brown, or pink. In 1984, this was replaced with a uniform designed by Annette Frizell. It had a red skirt, a white blouse, and a green waistcoat. Today, many women still wear this 1984 costume. Some prefer a modified blouse. Other women dancers wear the same costume as the men.
The sticks used in their dances are wrapped with red, white, and green tape. The green end is always held at the top. This way, if anyone gets a small cut from a stick clash, the blood drips onto the red part and is less noticeable.
Many morris groups have a member dressed as an animal, often a horse. The Hong Kong Morris has its own hobby horse named Horace. Martin Samson usually plays Horace.
Dance Styles
Most of the dances performed by the Hong Kong Morris come from the Cotswold Morris tradition. Over the years, they have danced many different Cotswold styles. These include Adderbury, Bampton, Headington, and Upton-on-Severn. Sometimes, they have also performed longsword dances, garland dances, rapper dances, and mumming plays.
The Hong Kong Morris has always used a classic book called A Handbook of Morris Dances for information. However, they don't follow it strictly. They like to adapt dances to fit local situations. For example, in the early 1980s, they changed a Lichfield Morris dance. They performed it with twelve dancers in a cross shape instead of the usual eight. This was designed to look amazing when viewed from above, like on the circular stage of The Landmark shopping mall.
Other adapted dances include the Upton-on-Yangtze stick dance. This is a version of the Upton-on-Severn stick dance performed in traditional Chinese costume with chopsticks. They also created "Governor's Gallop" in the early 1990s. This dance honored Chris Patten, Hong Kong's last British governor.
Music
The main musicians for the Hong Kong group are Sue Ellis and Sue Papper, who play the melodeon. For The Brackets, Steve Butler/Hall and John Bacon play piano accordions, John Rowlands plays the button accordion, and June Rowlands plays the fiddle. These musicians usually play the main tune. Other musicians add decorative sounds with instruments like the tin whistle.
Most of the group's musicians play traditional morris instruments. These include the piano accordion, button accordion, melodeon, concertina, fiddle, guitar, bodhran, and tin whistle. However, the Hong Kong Morris has also welcomed less common instruments. Mike Cowley, who passed away in 2010, was known for his unique trombone playing. It added a lot of depth and fun to the music.
Mumming Plays and Rapper Dancing
For many years, the Hong Kong Morris has performed an English mumming play. These plays are very old, with many texts surviving from medieval times. The play they perform includes characters like Father Christmas, Saint George, and the Turkish Knight. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the actors in the mumming play also included a display of rapper sword dancing. These performances were even more impressive thanks to the amazing costumes made by group member Chris Baldwin.
Singing
Singing has always been a big part of the Hong Kong Morris's social gatherings after dancing. They mostly sing English folk songs. Jim Carter, Hilary Blythe, and Phil Pimentil were early members known for their powerful singing as part of a group called Mulled Ale. This started a tradition of strong singing in the group.
Other regular singers have kept this tradition going. Mary Read and Amy Hughes sing romantic ballads. Mike Greenhalgh sings sea shanties. Dave Wilmshurst sings "Death to the French" songs. Steve Ford sings folk song parodies, and Dave Ellis sings drinking songs. Recently, Kyoko Fukuda has added Japanese songs to their repertoire. One is about an elephant, and another is jokingly called "The Not-the-Elephant Song."
Phil Pimentil used to sing one of the few English folk songs that mentions Hong Kong. It's about an Irish worker who found a job in Hong Kong in the late 1800s. Another favorite song with a China connection is "The Chinese Bumboatman Song." It's sometimes sung with a "horrible oath" in Cantonese, as the song requires.
Public Speaking
Connecting with the audience is an important part of any morris dance performance. Good speakers can make a big difference in how the group is received. Jim Carter was one of the best speakers in the early days. Now, Roger Pope continues this role. He uses his humor and serious nature, gained from being a school headmaster, to entertain the audience. When dancing for Chinese audiences in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Morris always tries to make announcements in Cantonese. Several of their members from other countries can speak enough Cantonese to be understood.
Welcoming Everyone
The Hong Kong Morris welcomed its first women members in the late 1970s. At that time, there was some opposition to women's morris dancing in the United Kingdom. In the Hong Kong Morris, women and men have always danced together. They dance either in mixed groups or in separate groups. By the mid-1980s, the group had enough members to form strong men's and women's groups. Each group started to focus on certain dance styles, while still having many common dances for mixed performances. In 1989, a women's foreman was added to the group's leadership.
The Hong Kong Morris was briefly a member of the Morris Ring, a UK organization. But they were asked to leave because they allowed women to dance. (The Morris Ring has since changed its rules and now allows women.) The Hong Kong Morris is now a member of the Morris Federation. Two of its members, John Bacon and Chris Butler/Hall, have helped shape the policies of the Morris Federation and Open Morris. These are two UK organizations that support mixed-gender dancing.
The group has also welcomed dancers and musicians from all over the world. Most members have been English, but they have also had members from Hong Kong, Scotland, America, Australia, New Zealand, France, South Africa, Thailand, Ukraine, and Japan.
Special Traditions
The Hong Kong Morris created some of its own traditions in the early 1980s, and some of them are still around today. These include:
- An adaptation of the Oxford custom of May Morning. This involves dancing on The Peak at dawn, followed by a big breakfast and more dancing.
- Trips to Macau, with evenings of singing and dancing at the Pousada da Coloane hotel and lunch at Fernando's restaurant on Hac Sa Beach.
- Boat trips to the Wan Kee Seafood Restaurant on Lamma Island.
- Boxing Day dancing.
- A special farewell party, called an "ale," for members who are leaving the group.
Dancing Around the World
The first time the Hong Kong Morris traveled overseas to dance was to Manila in 1980. In 1984, a strong group visited Perth, Australia, and danced with a local women's group called The Fair Maids of Perth.
Other trips have included:
- The 1986 Guangzhou Tour.
- The 1987 North American Tour to Seattle, Victoria, and Vancouver. On this tour, they danced with US groups MossyBacks and Misty City, and Canadian groups Victoria and Vancouver Morris.
- The 1988 Brisbane Tour to Maleny Folk Festival. Here, the group's musician was asked to play for an Australian women's group.
- The 1989 Taiwan Tour. The dancers enjoyed being cultural ambassadors for British education.
- The 1990 Bangkok Tour.
- The 1995 Kuala Lumpur Tour, which was also a honeymoon for Steve and Myra Ford.
- The 1997 Canberra Tour. The Hong Kong Morris was specially invited to show the history of morris dancing. They performed their mumming play and led a singing session.
Visitors to Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Morris is the only morris dance group in Hong Kong. So, they have always welcomed visits from other groups. Teams that have danced in Hong Kong as guests include:
- The Australian group The Fair Maids of Perth (in 1985, returning the visit from 1984).
- The American groups MossyBack Morris Men and Misty City (in 1988, returning the visit from 1987).
- The UK clog dancing group Kettle Bridge Clogs (in 1989).
Several former members of the Hong Kong Morris now dance with other groups. They sometimes come back to visit their old friends. Peter and Christine Baldwin, who now dance with the Cyprus Morris, danced with the Hong Kong Morris in November 2010 in the village of Tai Hang.
