20 years ago during the pre-historical period when the universe was created out of the 'great chaos'. Yau, a mythological character, is believed to have taught his people how to build crude bridges and construct huts.4 The latter were sometimes erected as 'nest-like' shelters in trees to afford better protection against wild animals. He built such a structure for his own mother. This, so some claim, marked the beginning of framed timber structures which led, naturally, to the erection of scaffolding. Yau Chao Shi's birthday is celebrated on the 19th day of the first Moon,
During the Era of the Spring and Autumn Annals, about 500 years before Christ, a master builder, all-round craftsman and inventor, Lu Pan, who today remains the patron god of all workers in the building industry, is said to have brought into use more 'scientific methods' of scaffolding.7 Lu Pan was one of the first mortals to be raised to the level of a deity.
Osmond Tiffany Junior, traveller and author, wrote during Hong Kong's first decade (the 1840s) as a British Colony:
... before a house is commenced a staging of bamboo is erected and covered with matting. As the building rises the bamboo poles are run up story by story, the matting elevated, and the whole house completely protected from the glare of day until the last nail is driven.*
Although one sometimes comes across a similar practice in Hong Kong today, when the substructure or a site is protected from the weather, with high-rise buildings such a shelter as Tiffany describes above is not generally practicable. Such a practice is, however, sometimes employed in Britain using steel scaffolding covered with tilts.
Today, seemingly flimsy, 'low-technology' bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong, together with the agility and traditional skills of scaffolders, contrast markedly with the modern technology of multi-storey buildings. This invariably earns admiration in Hong Kong from both tourists and locals alike. Bamboo scaffolders have been aptly likened to spiders weaving their webs. Bamboo scaffolding may be considered as primitive without being old-fashioned, time-saving without being insecure, and economical without being impracticable.