editorial

Words by James Louie December 22, 2024
These family-run businesses are preserving rich craft traditions and lifestyle habits passed down through the generations.
<figure id="attachment_141052" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141052" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-141052" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-1.jpg" alt="Choi Sang Long’s owner Wong Weng Sou holds up a qungua jacket; guangcai pieces at Fu On Porcelainwares Company." width="1200" height="894" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141052" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Choi Sang Long’s owner Wong Weng Sou holds up a qungua jacket; guangcai pieces at Fu On Porcelainwares Company. (Photos: Denzel Calangi; James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
<h2>CHOI SANG LONG EMBROIDERY </h2>
Behind a small storefront on the vibrant Rua dos Mercadores, one of Macau’s oldest commercial streets, Wong Weng Sou meticulously sews traditional Chinese bridal garments known as qungua. His elaborate tailor-made creations feature auspicious motifs like dragons and phoenixes, bats and peonies embroidered in gold and silver thread. Choi Sang Long, which has stood in the same location since the 1940s, was originally set up by Wong’s paternal grandfather as a cloth-dyeing operation more than a century ago; it began specializing in wedding attire during the seventies. Wong says it takes at least four months to complete a two-piece qungua outfit entirely by hand, with various components stitched together on a wooden rack. Along with the neighborhood’s Chinese-style cake shops and gold and jewelry stores, Choi Sang Long forms part of an established retail ecosystem for newlyweds-to-be (Rua Dos Mercadores, No. 10).
<h3>FU ON PORCELAINWARES COMPANY</h3>
This more than 90-year-old family business lies down the road from Choi Sang Long. Run by second-generation owners Lai Iu Hong and Lai Iu Chung, Fu On chiefly supplies Chinese restaurants with tableware in large quantities. But eagle-eyed visitors on the hunt for exuberantly painted guangcai porcelain—invented in Guangzhou during the reign of Qing emperor Kangxi—should pay a visit. Macau was a booming production center of export-oriented ceramics from the 1950s to ’70s, and Fu On’s trove of antique pieces include both the locally developed guangcai and its more traditional form, as well as exquisite mitong porcelain, named for a translucent motif of handcarved dimples shaped like rice grains (Rua dos Mercadores, No. 33A–B).
<figure id="attachment_141051" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141051" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141051 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Heritage-Businesses-Choi-Sang-Long-and-Rua-dos-Mercadores.jpg" alt="An embroidered pheonix and dragon at Choi Sang Long; looking down the Rua dos Mercadores toward Fu On." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Heritage-Businesses-Choi-Sang-Long-and-Rua-dos-Mercadores.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Heritage-Businesses-Choi-Sang-Long-and-Rua-dos-Mercadores-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Heritage-Businesses-Choi-Sang-Long-and-Rua-dos-Mercadores-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Heritage-Businesses-Choi-Sang-Long-and-Rua-dos-Mercadores-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141051" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: An embroidered pheonix and dragon at Choi Sang Long; looking down the Rua dos Mercadores toward Fu On. (Photos: James Louie; Denzel Calangi)</figcaption></figure>
<h4>IENG KEI TEA SHOP</h4>
Since opening its doors in the 1930s, Ieng Kei has never moved or left the hands of the Lou family. A gold-lacquered plaque spelling out its name in Chinese hangs proudly from a wall, while vintage timber-framed glass cabinets, tin caddies on the shelves, and cloth-wrapped discs of compressed tea add to the retro feel of the high-ceilinged store. It’s a trusted vendor for top-quality leaves sourced from tea-growing regions around China—think Yunnan’s prized pu’er, Longjing from Zhejiang province, and Fujian-grown cultivars including oolong, flowering tea, and amber-hued shui xian. The Lous say the most popular varieties among local residents are pu’er and tieguanyin as well as white shoumei tea. Red tea, too, has been in high demand these past few years (Rua de Cinco de Outubro, No. 115).
<h5>TAI CHEONG WOOD ENGRAVING</h5>
Brothers Tsang Tak Hang and Tsang Tak Weng are the third-generation proprietors of Tai Cheong, which their grandfather began in 1910 to carve small religious statues and ancestral tablets needed by Macau’s fishing community. The workshop turns out high-quality Buddhist statuary in Burmese teak, intended for places of worship not only in nearby Hong Kong but also throughout Southeast Asia and North America. The Tsang brothers concede that few of Macau’s younger generation want to enter the field nowadays; the process of becoming a well-rounded artisan often takes years, as the craft involves different techniques of carpentry, sculpting, painting, and finishing in gold leaf (Rua da Madeira, No. 19E).
<figure id="attachment_141053" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-141053" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-141053 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-2.jpg" alt="Joss-stick store Veng Heng Cheong; statues at Tai Cheong Wood Engraving." width="1200" height="894" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-2.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-2-300x224.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-2-1024x763.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Macau-Handcrafted-Heritage-2-768x572.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-141053" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: Joss-stick store Veng Heng Cheong; Buddhist statues at Tai Cheong Wood Engraving. (Photos: James Louie)</figcaption></figure>
<h6>VENG HENG CHEONG</h6>
On a narrow lane paved in Portuguese cobblestones, this joss-stick shop has operated continuously since 1968, when the incense-making parents of current owner Tam Kin Hong started renting the space. Tam himself learned the ropes as a child before apprenticing with a master craftsman in his late teens, at a time when Macau was home to more than 40 incense manufacturers. Veng Heng Cheong now relies on artisans in mainland China, who blend powdered sandalwood or agarwood with spices and sawdust to coat bamboo joss sticks. The shop also sells little conical incense pellets—a whiff of their medicinal aroma will instantly conjure up an old-school Chinese pharmacy (Rua dos Ervanários, No. 13).
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This article originally appeared in the <a href="https://subscription.destinasian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October/November 2024</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“In Good Hands”).

Where to Find Macau’s Handcrafted Heritage