Hong Kong neon master Wong Kin-wah holds a glass tube over a burner’s flame, bending it and occasionally blowing into it with the finesse that comes from decades of honing his craft.
Speed and precision are needed to mould the tube into shape before it is filled with noble gases such as neon and argon to create its distinctive glow.
“I modified this burner myself so I could get a more intense flame,” Wong says at his studio in the Kowloon neighbourhood of Mong Kok, where he has worked for the past 50 years.
Wong, 84, is one of the city’s last neon craftsmen. He began learning his craft at 17 years old, after moving to Hong Kong from mainland China’s Guangdong province in 1957.
Like many, Wong was seeking a better life after China’s civil war (1927-1949). He found it in neon.
Next to Wong is his grandson Jerry Loo, a 22-year-old artist with a flair for animation and a deep desire to learn from his grandfather.