Cover Peep x Her x Yuet Tung China Works porcelain painting workshop (Photo: Yuet Tung China Works / Instagram)

Need an escape from making the rounds to family and friends? Tatler has gathered a list of alternative workshops and events where you can unleash your inner child for the holidays

There is more to do over Chinese New Year than getting into a nian gao, turnip cake or pun choi-induced food coma. Whether you’re looking to get crafty with flowers, ceramic art or cooking workshops, or keen to just chillax at an exhibition showcasing bunny-themed art, there is something for you to enjoy with your family, lover and friends.

1/ Bunny and stitch

Hokkaido-based embroidery artist Mayuka Morimoto, whose work draws inspiration from wildlife, has created six embroidered designs for Harbour City’s lai see packets this year, each featuring an adorable and life-like hare in different poses and with various props, such as carrots, mushrooms and flowers. The artist is known for using stitches and fabric to make faux animal fur look realistic, and her designs for these red envelopes are further embossed for texture. Visitors to Ocean Terminal can see her original embroidery designs up-close at her exhibition.

Until January 27, 2023. Level 2 Entrance, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui

2/ Try Chinese floral art

Waa Faa Chi specialises in Chinese floral art that, when compared to European styles that usually arrange flowers in a mass, assumes a style that mimics calligraphic lines instead. Besides flowers, twigs, branches, leaves, trunks and stones are also common motifs in Chinese floral art. The studio recently offered CNY-themed flower workshops, but new flower arrangement workshops are available every two weeks throughout the year.

S503, Block A, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central

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3/ Make your own flower

Flowers' impermanent beauty was what motivated ceramic artist and landscape designer Leo Wong to turn to ceramic art in the first place ten years ago. He believes that ceramic is a great way to make life-like blossoms that can, in a sense, last forever.

This year, he will lead a series of peony making workshops at the Peninsula where  participants will get to make their own peonies that come with a dish. Peonies are a symbol of elegance, wealth and luck and are a common subject in Chinese ink paintings, and the final product will be a great gift for your loved ones.

Suite guests who have purchased the “Auspicious Blossom” staycation can sign up for the workshops. Members of the public can check out Wong’s exhibition at The Verandah on the first floor where 38 of his peony sculptures are on display.

Until February 14, 2023. The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon

Tatler Asia
Above Leo Wong making a ceramic peony (Photo: The Peninsula Hong Kong)

4/ Pick a hand-painted candy tray

Tucked away in a factory building in Kowloon Bay, Yuet Tung China Works, which opened in 1928, is the first—and last surviving—large-scale hand-painted porcelain factory in Hong Kong. As well as teacups created during the Qing dynasty and a wide selection of crockery and figurines to choose from, the factory has also created Chinese New Year candy trays with all sorts of patterns that come in different sizes and designs.

This factory introduced Guangzhou’s Guangcai, a regional skill of hand painting porcelain, to Hong Kong and combined local styles and subjects into the designs. The famous Hogarth floral design that one still commonly see in local porcelain products came from this factory, when Lady MacLehose, the wife of Murray MacLehose, Hong Kong's longest-serving governor, commissioned the factory’s artists to make a set of cutlery with the British pattern in 1975. Today, you can still find painters hand painting and repairing porcelain works there.

Unit 1-3, 3/F, 15 Wang Hoi Road Kowloon Bay Industrial Centre, Kowloon Bay

5/ Bake off

Impress your guests by making and serving homemade festive snacks, pastries and desserts. Harry’s Kitchen is offering a series of baking workshops for children to make bunny-shaped gingerbread cookies, lucky cat cookies, CNY macarons with buttercream and jam, New Year cakes and rabbit-shaped Taiwanese pineapple jam pastries. As for more traditional snacks, Alice’s Dream Kitchen has a series of adult workshops that focus on lucky cat-shaped peanut candies, koi-shaped nian gao and goldfish and tangerine-shaped glutinous rice balls.

Harry’s Kitchen, Unit #B245A, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui; Alice’s Dream Kitchen, 3/F, Bulkin Centre, 332-334 Portland Street, Mong Kok

6/ Draw out some luck

As well as running a calligraphy supply business and creating calligraphy art for corporates and brands, artist Kalo Chu set up her own calligraphy studio in 2015 where she offers dip pen, brush pen and watercolour classes. This CNY, she is also offering a special online dip pen class for those who want to paint Chinese bamboos, cherry blossoms and chrysanthemums and add some good spirits to their homes.

January 21, 2023

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