Ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Canada Goose brought its Natural Intelligence platform to Tai O for its first Local Expedition in Hong Kong, inviting actors Hedwig Tam and Leung Chung-hang to learn how the moon and the tides have shaped daily life, craft and tradition in one of Hong Kong’s oldest fishing villages.
Through Natural Intelligence, Canada Goose explores the knowledge held in the rhythms of the natural world, the kind gained through years of close contact with nature. The Natural Calendar brings this to life on nature’s schedule, with each Local Expedition timed to a natural phenomenon. In Tai O, that moment is the Mid-Autumn full moon. As the moon and sun align, their combined pull creates spring tides, with some of the greatest differences between high and low water, in a village built at the water’s edge.
Tai O is a place where the tide still sets the pace of daily life. Its stilt houses are built to meet the rising and falling water, and generations of fishermen have read the currents, wind and sky to decide when to set out to sea, knowledge passed down through lived experience.
Learning From the Tai O Community
Guests began by learning how local fishermen anticipate the tides, before joining a traditional net-weaving workshop to make their own netted bottle holders using techniques once part of everyday village life. At a traditional wooden boatyard, local artisans showed how timber is selected and shaped into vessels built for life at sea.
Before sunset, the pair boarded a wooden sampan to try sculling, a time-honoured technique that relies on rhythm, balance and a feel for the water, moving between the stilt houses as the light and tide shifted. In Tai O, Natural Intelligence lives not only in nature itself, but in the knowledge built by generations living alongside it.
Hedwig Tam said, “Life in Hong Kong moves quickly, and we become used to living by schedules. In Tai O, there has always been another rhythm, one set by nature. With Mid-Autumn approaching, I was fascinated to learn that the moon we admire in the sky also shapes the tides and the way generations here have lived.”
Leung Chung-hang said, “I have always enjoyed the outdoors, but this felt very different. The fishermen’s understanding of the tides, currents and weather is not learned from a book; it is built day after day. After trying sampan sculling, I came to appreciate that we do not always have to work against nature. Sometimes the deeper wisdom is knowing how to observe, adapt and move with it.”
Canada Goose Fall/Winter 2026: Built for Exploration
Throughout the Expedition, Hedwig Tam and Leung Chung-hang wore pieces from the Canada Goose Fall/Winter 2026 collection, shaped by Haider Ackermann. The collection draws on the brand’s roots in exploration and translates that performance heritage into a youthful design language inspired by collegiate athletics, with varsity graphics, prints referencing Antarctica’s McMurdo Research Facility, workwear influences, vibrant colours and archival details.
The Fall/Winter 2026 collection is now available at Canada Goose stores in Hong Kong and Macau.
