Ms May Cheung is a Tailor at JW Marriott Hong Kong, in charge of maintaining all staff uniforms, hotel linen and upholstery. A long serving staff, she has been with the hotel for 30 years. On a day-to-day basis, she helps to ensure the cleanliness and condition of items, doing necessary repairs to pillow cases, mattresses, sofa covers and curtains. She also helps to arrange fittings of staff uniforms for new, promoted or pregnant staff who need a new uniform.
With plenty of years of sewing experience under her belt, May also picked up other hobbies along the way, such as photography and even Traditional Chinese Medicine. She shares with Hi Life about her different talents.
I have started sewing since I was young. When I was seven, I was fascinated with my mother’s sewing machine, and since then she started teaching me the basics of sewing and tailoring.
One tailoring creation I am very proud of is my traditional wedding dress that I made for myself. It was a silk wedding dress with puffed sleeves and ruby diamonds, and I used sewing tools like a curved ruler and seam ripper that has been with me for 30 years. I also sewed a mermaid qipao for my sister for the occasion.
As a full-time tailor, I do not do any tailoring or sewing in my free time now. However, I picked up photography two years ago. I like capturing the natural beauty around me with a curious mind, especially when I travel. The natural scenery in some places such as Laoshan (崂山) in Qingdao (青岛) and Huangshan (黄山) in Anhui (安徽) are so beautiful!
One of my favourite places that I have travelled to is Mogao Grottoes (莫高窟), located in Dunhuang (敦煌) in Northwest China. There are over 400 Buddhist temples in caves in this area, and they are filled with beautiful murals and sculptures.
