Flower plaque

Bamboos used in the Chinese Flower Plaque.

The back of the Chinese Flower Plaque.

The height and width of Chinese flower plaques depends on the space of site. It ranges from 10 metres tall and 40 metres wide. They are made of highly reusable and easily assembled materials such as bamboo, tins, wire meshes, colourful papers, fabrics and plastics. They are usually in red tone, since red represents luck. There are neatly handwritten words on the plaques. However, printed words replaced handwritten words for reducing cost and time in nowadays. Flower plaques have a parallel, symmetrical and geometric pattern in red to draw attention of passers-by. Some of them have light bulbs to glow at night.

Making a huge Chinese flower plaques usually takes 15–20 days. The duration of making it depends on its complexity and size. It includes Chinese calligraphy, painting, paper artwork and sophisticated skills of putting all decorations on a bamboo frame. The first step of making it is to build a stable frame by using bamboos, wire meshes and metallic foils. Artists write Chinese congratulatory couplets in the middle of it. They also add propitious animals like dragons and phoenixes in a separate process.[6] Decorative accessories on the flower plaque are made of colourful papers and foils. The most difficult part is making the dragon and phoenixes vividly with metal wires.

The Chinese flower plaques are mostly located in Hong Kong's rural villages in the New Territories[7] as there are more open areas and less high density buildings. People can rarely find flower plaques in Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, as it is impossible to build flower plaques in shopping malls.

Hungry Ghost Festival is used to thank gods. Villagers and their relatives have gatherings and rituals. They hope gods can protect them from ghosts. Chinese flower plaques are of utmost importance in the rituals. Names of relatives and organizations are written on it as a traditional custom.

Chinese Flower plaques are used to thank gods for the peace of nation. One thing differs from Hungry Ghosts Festival is that it prays for good weather, as Cheung Chau residents fished for living in the past.

In Cheung Chau, Chinese flower plaques are used in different ways. They are used for notification. For example, residents in Cheung Chau use flower plaques to inform others on travelling and weddings instead of decoration and promotion. The flower plaques in Cheung Chau are made of papers in fluorescent color; they are different from the normal one which use red papers.[9]