A website and a party every 60 years help Sheung Shui Heung villagers keep traditions alive
The 3,000 Liu clansmen of Sheung Shui Heung are having a party. They don't do it often, once every 60 years, and want to make certain it is a success.
Village representative Liu Tung-hoi and a committee of fellow residents have been planning the celebrations for two years. Their village, believed to be the largest in population in the New Territories with more than 5,500 residents, will play host to at least 1,000 expatriate clansmen.
The celebrations take place every 60 years, the same period as the five cycles of the 12 years of the Chinese calendar. In ancient tradition, this signified a lifetime. It is the longest gap of any regular village celebration in any New Territories community.
'The reasons for the celebration are so far in the past that nobody can trace the original cause,' said Mr Liu, a retired secondary school headmaster who devotes most of his time to helping make Sheung Shui Heung a pleasant place to live.
He works from what is the most imposing village office in Hong Kong, a sprawling mansion with green tiled roof, built in 1981 from village donations. Throughout the centre of the extensive community close to the skyscrapers of modern Sheung Shui, ancient trees are carefully preserved in huge concrete containers.