HK36: Karen & Ricky Cheung – Reviving the old Mahjong craftsmanship with a modern twist

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬:

“𝐼 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝐻𝐾 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑢𝑝𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑎ℎ𝑗𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛. 𝑁𝑜𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑐𝑢𝑠 𝑜𝑛 𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛.”

𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬:

“𝐹𝑖𝑟𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑟𝑠. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝐶ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑎 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒𝑠.”

“𝐼𝑛 𝐻𝐾 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 [𝑀𝑎ℎ𝑗𝑜𝑛𝑔] 𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑡𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒. 𝐼𝑓 𝑀𝑎ℎ𝑗𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑠𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑑, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑒𝑟𝑙𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒.”

“𝐻𝐾 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑑𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔, ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑑, 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑐𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝.”

“𝐻𝐾 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑖𝑥 𝑜𝑓 𝐸𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑧𝑖𝑛𝑔.”

𝐆𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐟𝐢𝐥𝐞:

Master Ricky Cheung is a Mahjong craftsman with over 40 years of experience.  Ricky learnt the craft from his father while in secondary school.  Ricky’s father opened his first factory named ‘Fuk Hing Lung Mahjong Factory’ in Kowloon city.  Ricky expanded the factory multi-fold.  At one point, his factory was one of the largest in HK.  Ricky is also an innovator and developed machinery for the factory.

Although the business was unable to survive in 2009 due to severe competition with factory-produced tiles from mainland China, the spirit of Mahjong craftsmanship stays alive in HK.  Master Cheung retired in 2018 and is now fully engaged with artistic and creative mahjong craftmanship development inspired by her daughter – Karen – with a strong commitment to preserve such skills and culture.

Karen is an award-winning, self-taught illustrator based in Hong Kong specializing in sketching related to travel and cultural theme.  With a passion for art, she derives inspiration from everything she comes across by incorporating themes of energy, peace and happiness.  Her brand 𝓚𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓷 𝓐𝓻𝓾𝓫𝓪 𝓐𝓻𝓽  is inspired by the year she spent as a child in Aruba with her mother’s family. Aruba is a tiny Dutch Caribbean island known as ‘One Happy Island’, a cheerful island full of happiness and energy.