Hong Kong Morris

The Hong Kong Morris (Chinese: 香港莫利斯舞蹈團, Cantonese pronunciation: Heung Gong Mok Lee Si Mo Dou Tuen, literally the Hong Kong Morris Dance Platoon) is an English morris dancing team or side founded in Hong Kong in 1974. The side now has two chapters, the Hong Kong Morris 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 maintains that it 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 Road during the Second World War. The side met to practice at St John's Cathedral in Garden Road, Hong Kong Island. In the 1980s the side attracted 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. In 1985 the side was featured in the Morris Ring publication The Morris Tradition, as an example of the spread of morris dancing beyond its traditional home in England.¶

Notable events

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. 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. 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.¶

The Brackets

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 an 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.¶

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 subversion. 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.¶

Costume

The men's side of the Hong Kong Morris wear white trousers and shirts. Their baldricks, red and yellow with green highlights, are decorated with a badge, which was designed in 1976 by Sue King, representing a Chinese dragon behind a rapper sword knot. All three colours, but particularly red, are considered lucky in Chinese tradition, and drew attention away from the men's white shirts and trousers. White is the colour worn at funerals in China, and is considered inauspicious. This costume was lightly modified in 1984. The Hong Kong Morris colour palette (red, yellow and green) influenced the costume of the Vancouver Morris Men [1], one of Canada's most illustrious morris sides. Graham Baldwin, one of the earliest members of the Hong Kong Morris, founded the Vancouver Morris Men in 1982, and chose the same colours for the costume of the Vancouver side. The costume of the Hong Kong Morris women's side has undergone changes over the years. The first women's costume consisted of a white blouse and a skirt available in light green, russet brown, or pink.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Hong Kong Morris”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

Hong Kong Morris is Hong Kong organisation for morris dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶