Cheung Bo Yin - Chinese Knot Artist
August 2016

Can you recount your experience of doing live demonstrations of Chinese knots?

Hong Kong has held international conferences and many foreign participants came. The organizers set up some booths to promote Chinese crafts and they invited me to introduce Chinese knots. I really liked the fact that the participants were looking at me finishing one knot in three minutes. I felt like I was performing. They were very shocked at my skills and speed. I would not have such great satisfaction if they just chose the knots they wanted and walked away. I would have been a working machine instead.

When I first joined this kind of functions, I did practise my skills and think about which kinds of knots I should make. I saw the functions as a chance to train my speed. To guarantee both the quality and efficiency, I decided to make traditional knots only and brought samples for the participants to choose.

Ru Yi knot was the audience favourite but it did take time. For this reason, I created a modified version. Ru Yi knot had four knots forming a triangle. I moved the positions of the knots and made them form a vertical line. I thought up a new name “Chuan Chuan Xing Yun” (implies bringing a lot of luck in Chinese).

When I finished one knot and gave it to participants, I would say a wish to them because the act of giving knots is a blessing. If I made a Panchang knot, I would say “Good health”. Panchang knot has a Buddhist message behind it but not everyone understands it, so I used the more common expression of "Good Health". The foreigners would not understand the Chinese explanation behind the “Chuan Chuan Xing Yun” knot, but they were very happy if they heard me say it represents “Happiness”. I would wish people “All the best” with Shi Quan knot (“perfect” in Chinese).

My English is not very good so I used translation machines to translate the names into English and asked others to proofread. I printed the Chinese and English names out so that the foreigners could take a look.