Then & Now | Triad rituals in Hong Kong and how they’ve been changed by technology and better education

Colourful triad initiation rituals, with their paraphernalia of pennants, flags, woven grass sandals, white paper fans, blood-curdling oaths written on brightly coloured paper, sacrificial roosters and other esoterica, were a staple of Hong Kong-made gangster films for decades.

Any Cantonese movie aficionado will have some idea of what’s going on in a cinematic triad initiation ceremony, and of who is who in the pecking order. Terms such as “incense master”, “red pole” and “white paper fan” are used to denote triad ranks commonly understood by the person in the street, even if they have had no criminal affiliations themselves.

Triad groups from northern China, principally Shanghai’s pre-war Green Gang, had similar but significantly different rituals to the Cantonese and Chiu Chow groups more often found in Hong Kong, Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia.

A triad initiation ceremony recently raided by Hong Kong police in Kowloon resulted in the seizure of old-style ritual paraphernalia. Police said it was the first time in more than a decade that a complex ceremony of this kind had been uncovered; some officers noted that they had not seen such detailed rituals in their careers.

None of this is surprising, since old-style triad initiation rituals largely died out decades ago in Hong Kong (they are still, however, widely performed in Malaysia).

Why, over time, did triad initiation rituals become simplified in Hong Kong?