The white tiger festival is a ritual in which clients take revenge on their enemies by beating a paper effigy in the shape of a tiger.
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Madam Siu has worked for five years in a tiny space on Canal Road, near Times
Square in Causeway Bay. This space is famous for the White Tiger ritual.
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Causeway Bay pavements are always crowded with people praying for good luck and cursing their enemies by "beating the devil" during the White Tiger Festival in March and the Hungry Ghost Festival in August.
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Sometimes dozens of ritual performers are beating the devil as they hammered paper
effigies of their clients' enemies and shouted curses.
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In Hong Kong, this White Tiger ritual is known as "da siu jen", i.e. beating the devil, which is performed by a male or female religious practitioner for his or her client who suffers misfortune or bad luck.
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Customers come to pray for good luck and curse their enemies.
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Charges for the ritual range from 20 and 50 HKD. Most of customer come to curse people they hate or who have offended them. Many workers asked to curse their bosses who have fired them.
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The practice began among rural women who worshipped the mythical White Tiger and kept
paper images of it at home to keep out rats, snakes and squirrels.
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Elderly devil beaters are located under the flyover on Canal Road in Wan Chai and curse patron's enemy in an ancient ritual traditionally carried out during the White Tiger Festival.
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Customers ask to beat and curse detestable colleagues.
Bosses and co-workers are particularly popular.
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Workplace enemies and foolish business partners are a staple of the practice but there are also housewives come to take revenge on their husbands' mistresses.
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It's usually done with an old shoe slammed into a piece of paper containing a victim's
name and birth date. Performers supposedly cast spells on their customers' intended victims
during the stomping.
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Whenever a theatre, whether temporary or permanent, is built on a piece of land that has never been used for such a purpose, the performing stage is called a "sen toi" and the traditional White Tiger ritual has to be performed for the protection of members of the troupe and the community which hires the troupe.
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Mrs Kam has been working as a ritual performer for five years since losing her job.
She is accompanied by her daughters, who helped prepare incense and paper images.
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