Hong Kong’s intangible cultural heritage, such as Hong Kong-style milk tea, can be as captivating as historic monuments.

Also known as "silk stocking milk tea", Hong Kong-style milk tea is the outcome of a century-old evolution from English milk tea of the colonial era to the present popular beverage of Hong Kong.

Listed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hong Kong, this tea-making technique not only epitomises the fusion and development of the city's East-meets-West food culture, but also gives a glimpse of how locals live and eat.

To back projects which help safeguard and promote local intangible cultural heritage items like this local beverage, the Leisure & Cultural Services Department has recently launched a funding scheme.

The scheme will also support the passing-down of such heritage by local bearers and bearer organisations.

The Intangible Cultural Heritage Funding Scheme is inviting the first round of applications for community-driven projects which are related to the items in the Representative List and the Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Hong Kong.

The funding amount for each project applied must not be less than $250,000.

Assistant Director of Leisure & Cultural Services Chan Shing-wai explained the benchmark aims to ensure projects funded are of a certain scale that can make an impact on the society.

“We have been allocated $300 million for the whole scheme that will cover all kinds of applications related to the promotion and inheritance of the intangible cultural heritage. We haven’t set any ceiling for the application, but we do have a kind of minimum funding amount that amounts to the $250,000 benchmark.

“We don’t want to be too minute and microscopic about the minor events, but we want to have a more impact or more substantial impact on the promotion of the event.”

Scheme details are available at the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office and its website.

Applications will close on May 3.