an odd coincidence

In describing a newly discovered mural in my last post, I included photographs of two other murals nearby to suggest that such displays weren’t that unusual, but I omitted any mention of yet another mural that is passed near the head of the valley on the ‘Tam Mei loop’. In part, this was because although I knew I’d taken photos of it, I couldn’t remember when I’d done so and therefore didn’t know where to look for them. In fact, I took the relevant photos last November, and here they are:

You will see that the theme of this mural is similar to that of the ‘fish out of water’ mural that I featured in my previous post: farming on the right-hand section and fish on the left, although there is no writing to provide a detailed interpretation. When I first saw this mural, I noted the enigmatic figures on the right and tacitly assumed that they were representations of a farmer and some kind of tutelary deity overlooking the bucolic serenity of the scene. However, we stopped here again yesterday, partly because I wanted to take more photos and partly because Paula had never noticed this mural before. And I quickly noticed that the figure on the right had a tail:

It’s actually an ox, and what I’d taken to be a strange hat was merely the animal’s ears and horns!

The farmers around here also kept pigs and chickens. I’ve spotted one or two piggeries in this part of the valley, but they’ve now been abandoned and are derelict. However, I can’t say for certain that chickens aren’t still being reared, although I definitely haven’t seen any:

It isn’t possible to take a good photo of the fish section of the mural, which is obscured by two bench seats—this is the terminus of a minibus route, presumably from Yuen Long, and the seats are there for the benefit of prospective passengers—but in addition to fish, there are several dragonflies and even a lotus flower (lotus roots are a popular vegetable in Cantonese cuisine).

I particularly wanted to take closer photos of two sections at the left-hand end of the mural, which don’t show up well in my original photos. This is a representation of the ingredients of a traditional Chinese hotpot, a communal dish that is popular during the winter months:

There are prawns—even though this location is some distance from the sea—a chili, some Chinese mushrooms, eggs and green vegetables. A hotpot would invariably have more ingredients than this.

The traditional Chinese building at the very end of the mural, which is entirely fictitious as far as I’m aware, has been styled ‘tower of happiness’:

The amorphous grey shapes at the bottom are probably bone jars, earthenware jars 75–85cm in height that are used to contain dismantled human skeletons and are usually collected together in formal ossuaries. You can see these everywhere in the countryside.

And the coincidence? We shot a video of the Tam Mei loop in April 2018, and although I’ve probably watched this video several times, I’d never noticed anything unusual until I was scrolling through the stills a few days ago:

The mural was in the process of being created when we shot the video! In addition to the man crouching, who was clearly in the process of doing something to the wall, the woman behind him seems to be acting as some kind of assistant, and someone appears to be placing covers on the seats in the bus shelter, presumably in preparation for painting the wall behind the seats. As you can see, the mural was only partly finished, and I’ve no idea how long it will have taken to complete.