Hong Kong Tong Lau: Crafts on Peel

We’re peeking inside some of Hong Kong’s last remaining tong laus to see how they embody Hong Kong’s past — as well as its creative present.

Growing up as the daughter of a seamstress, Penelope Luk remembers a childhood shaped by craft. Her clothes, bags and even hair ribbons were handmade, stitch by stitch. Outside, neon signs, bamboo scaffolding and galvanised iron objects were woven into the fabric of everyday Hong Kong.

Even as industrialisation and technological advances transformed production, many everyday objects were still made by hand, with skills passed from master craftspeople to apprentices. As production methods evolved, traditional trades gradually faded from view. In Hong Kong, the shift has been rapid. Rising rents, a lack of successors and changing markets have pushed many traditional craft businesses to close.

Many people living through these changes may not have realised what it meant to lose once-ubiquitous elements of Hong Kong. But Luk understood the cost all too well. In 2017, that concern prompted her to join Crafts on Peel, a creative venue and charitable organisation that supports craftsmanship.

“Almost all of them are closely tied to our ritual folklore and daily practices,” says the creative director, describing craft as an important “carrier of culture.” For her, Hong Kong craft is defined by “hyper-pragmatism,” which means it has to be useful with adaptability.

With that understanding in mind, Luk and Crafts on Peel founder Yama Chan believe traditional craft should be more than something to preserve: it should be capable of evolving with the times. “We were born out of the urgency to stop viewing traditional crafts as relics, dying practices or something nostalgic,” says Luk. “Instead, we wanted to reframe them as active, modern design languages capable of evolving.”

Tong lau as craft

Crafts on Peel’s mission is rooted in the building it calls home. Set along steep Peel Street in Central, the creative venue occupies a restored four-storey tong lau that blends quietly into the neighbourhood. It is marked only by a neon sign above the façade bearing its name and logo. The logo features the Chinese character for “I,” 我 (ngo5), formed from two mirrored 手 (sau2, hands). It reflects the spirit of craft, where each piece carries a personal story and knowledge passed down through generations.

“It’s the best ground for our mission in physical local heritage, because it speaks about Hong Kong,” says Luk. Peel Street is one of the city’s earliest thoroughfares, built in the 1840s and named after British prime minister Robert Peel. The building itself is a tong lau built in 1948, featuring the typical layout of commercial spaces on the ground floor and residential units upstairs. 

Despite standing in the neighbourhood for decades, the tong lau — much like the crafts it now celebrates — had long been overlooked and remained unlisted as a historic building. Its fate changed in 2017, when Crafts on Peel gave it a new purpose.

The team spent more than a year carefully restoring and revitalising the historic walk-up, from structural reinforcement to interior fit-out. Its original features, including terrazzo finishes, revolving timber windows, narrow proportions, staircases and brick walls, were preserved. At the same time, the tong lau was discreetly upgraded with modern climate control, lighting, audio and display facilities that met museum-grade standards at the time.

“We hope to prove that heritage architecture and contemporary design can mutually sustain each other,” says Luk. The result is what the creative director describes as a “multi-purpose creative venue”: the two lower floors house exhibition spaces, while the upper floors are dedicated to a library and event spaces. “We’re here to promote the appreciation of crafts and celebrate our shared cultural heritage through exhibitions, workshops and artisan-in-residence programmes,” she says. 

And the tong lau on Peel Street is where this mission comes to life: “It gives local crafts a permanent home here in Central, instead of [being part of] roving exhibitions or pop-ups, proving that traditional skills still belong in the heart of our city.”

A matchmaker of craft

Crafts on Peel acts as a matchmaker, pairing experienced craftspeople with a new generation of creatives. Drawing on the traditional apprenticeship model, it encourages them to bring traditional skills into contemporary designs.

With few connections or resources, Chan and Luk turned to Sunset Survivors, a book by Lindsay Varty, with photographs by Gary Jones, published in 2019 and documenting Hong Kong’s disappearing tradespeople. Luk describes their early efforts as “grassroots fieldwork” — knocking on the doors of people featured in the book. “I went and then people said, ‘go away.’ We received a thousand of ‘no’ before having one ‘yes’,” she recalls with a bitter smile.

That very first “yes” came from Chan Lok-choi, one of Hong Kong’s last birdcage craftsmen, who had spent more than seven decades mastering the intricate bamboo craft of birdcage-making. “Master Chan said to us, ‘It [this craft] has nothing to see, what are you doing?’ and a lot of sifus replied, ‘You can do your art, but leave me alone,’” recalls Luk.

Luk takes the same approach when connecting with young artisans and makers from overseas. Although social media has made it easier to discover potential collaborators and their work, she believes face-to-face encounters remain essential. “I need to visit them to appreciate and understand. Everything we do starts with understanding first,” she says.

After years of research and visits, Crafts on Peel opened its doors in January 2020 with its inaugural exhibition, Crafts Interwoven: Past and Present, pairing six contemporary artisans with experienced sifus in traditional crafts ranging from bamboo framework crafting and birdcage-making to copperware and Canton porcelain painting.

Despite the pandemic bringing many events and visits to a halt, the creative venue continued to grow. Over the past six years, it has hosted eight exhibitions celebrating craft techniques, materials and culture. Its network of craft fellows, most of whom are based in Hong Kong, has expanded across Asia and Europe, including Japan, the Netherlands, the UK, Czechia, mainland China and Taiwan.

They now have 25 traditional craftsmen, each with at least 30 years of experience, such as Tuck Chong Sum Kee, a Hong Kong bamboo steamer maker with roots dating back to the early 1900s, and calligrapher Fung Siu Wah, better known as Wah Gor.

Alongside them are 56 contemporary artisans working across different media, including neon artist Jive Lau, founder of Kowloon Neon who is now part of WestK’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence Pilot Programme, and Elaine Yan Ling Ng, a contemporary textile artist and designer who founded The Fabrick Lab. 

Based on the materials and techniques practised by each craftsperson, Luk looks for pairings that offer both common ground and differences that can create room for exchange and innovation. Each pair takes part in an 80-hour craft fellowship programme, a timeframe Luk developed after several attempts, taking into account the time and patience needed for meaningful collaboration.

The future of craft

By pairing artisans across generations and giving them a space to thrive, Crafts on Peel explores where craft is heading in its latest exhibition, Creative Cross-Pollination: The Future of Crafts. 

“It’s the concept of hybridisation — hybrid in action,” explains Luk, the curator. “By colliding traditional techniques with contemporary artistic visions across regions, time and generations, things that seem so irrelevant could ignite innovation. That is how we believe in the future of crafts.” 

Following its successful showcase at London Craft Week 2026, the exhibition returns to Hong Kong with works by seven groups of local and international artisans. Compared with its first Hong Kong presentation earlier this year, the latest edition features two additional pieces introduced in London: “Summer Blossoms,” a pair of gold filigree flowers by contemporary goldsmith Huimin Zhang; and “The Big Ben,” a set of square bamboo steamers inspired by the British landmark, created by Hong Kong bamboo artisan Inkgo Lam. 

For Luk, the response has been unexpected and shows a clear shift in perception: audiences are moving beyond nostalgia to engage with crafts through curiosity, appreciation, questions and even criticism. She sees these conversations as the “fruit” of their work and believes they are “healthy” for the evolution of craft.

The renewed appreciation from the public has also transformed how craftspeople view themselves. “The crafts fellows and sifus have started to see themselves as custodians of artistic knowledge with renewed pride in their capabilities,” Luk observes. “Maybe deep inside their hearts, they have been waiting for this day to come, but they have been really discouraged by society.”

Looking ahead to the next five years, Luk sees Crafts on Peel continuing its role in bringing local craftsmanship into international conversations. In Hong Kong, craft is still largely viewed as intangible cultural heritage, with a focus on preserving traditional skills. Elsewhere, particularly in the West, there have already been events exploring and celebrating the future of craft. 

Major events include London Craft Week, the Finnish Craft & Design Fair, the Florence International Crafts Fair and Venice’s biennial Homo Faber exhibition. On 18 September, Luk spoke on a panel about the future of heritage at the Homo Faber Summit on behalf of Crafts on Peel.

But to bring the city’s craft forward, the creative director believes that it cannot rest on one organisation alone. The key, she says, is education. Unlike Hong Kong, where learning arts and crafts is often seen as a way to strengthen students’ profiles, craft in Europe has been more deeply integrated into education as a way to appreciate traditions while encouraging creativity. In Finland, for example, craft is part of compulsory education.

There are also a number of craft institutions offering formal education that connects heritage with contemporary applications, such as the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, the Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in Sweden and the School of Crafts of ÚĽUV in Slovakia. 

In Asia, craft is also offered as a field of study at universities, with dedicated departments and degree programmes at institutions including Tokyo University of the Arts, Korea National University of Cultural Heritage in South Korea and Tiangong University in China.

“We are far beyond seeing a glimpse of this happening. We haven’t really got a craft-dedicated education institution [in Hong Kong],” says Luk, who describes the goal of establishing one as an “ambitious hope.” By integrating craftsmanship into mainstream art education, modern architecture and the creative industries, she hopes craft can one day become a thriving, sustainable career path for this generation.

Creative Cross-Pollination: The Future of Crafts is on view at Crafts on Peel until 10 October 2026.

Crafts on Peel, 11 Peel Street, Central. Open Tuesday to Saturday 11:00–18:00.