"The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Fragrance of Time – In Search of Chinese Art of Scent" exhibition, was unveiled today (June 27) at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), featuring a selection of artefacts from the Shanghai Museum collection that are classified as national graded treasures, with over half of them not having been exhibited outside Mainland China before. The exhibition is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Shanghai Museum; jointly organised by the HKMoA and the Shanghai Museum, and solely sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

     The 109 sets of exhibits from the Shanghai Museum collection and 51 sets from the HKMoA collection include ceramics, bamboo carvings, paintings and bronze objects that span the Neolithic period to the 20th century, taking audiences on a visual and olfactory journey across thousands of years. Highlight exhibits include the Grade-1 national treasures, a Buddha statue from the Southern Liang dynasty and a painting by Chen Hongshou, a renowned painter of the Ming dynasty.

     Addressing the opening ceremony, the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Mr Kevin Yeung, said that the exhibition focuses on a Chinese fragrance culture that had a profound and extensive history in the daily lives of people in ancient China. Hong Kong was also an important trading hub for fragrance materials in the past. This exhibition features a selection of 160 precious items from the HKMoA and the Shanghai Museum, displaying the significance of Chinese fragrance culture in different periods.

     Mr Yeung added that this year, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region established the Chinese Culture Promotion Office, and organised the inaugural Chinese Culture Festival (CCF), showcasing the broad and profound Chinese culture, enhancing cultural confidence and national identity among the people of Hong Kong through diverse cultural programmes and activities. Each year, the festival will designate a focal city, with Shanghai being the focus in this first edition. Besides this exhibition, the LCSD will also bring to the public performances from the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company and the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra.

     Other officiating guests included the Deputy Director of the Shanghai Museum, Mr Chen Jie; the Head of Charities (Culture, Sports and Community Engagement) of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Ms Winnie Yip; the Chairman of the Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs, Culture and Sports, Mr Ma Fung-kwok; the Chairman of the Museum Advisory Committee, Professor Douglas So; the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mr Vincent Liu; and the Museum Director of the HKMoA, Dr Maria Mok.

     The Chinese culture of fragrance has a long and rich history. The use and appreciation of fragrances are closely intertwined with the aesthetics of ancient life and artistic creations. The exhibition is divided into four sections, namely Botanical Aroma, Intimate Scents, Heavenly Fragrances and Worldly Perfumes, exploring Chinese fragrance culture from different perspectives. The HKMoA has also set up a corresponding scent corner for each section, offering a suspended aromatic installation that allows visitors to experience the delights of scent appreciation in ancient China.

     Highlight exhibits from the Shanghai Museum include two Grade-1 national treasures on display in Hong Kong for the first time, namely "Lady reclining on a cage over a censer" by Chen Hongshou from the Ming dynasty; and a gold-painted stone Sakyamuni Buddha dedicated by Shi Huiying from the Southern Liang dynasty, as well as 13 sets of Grade-2 national treasures. The Grade-2 national treasure, "The eighteen scholars" from the Ming dynasty originally consisted of four monumental paintings on zither, chess, calligraphy and painting. This exhibition shows two of them, "Playing zither and dancing with cranes" and "Viewing and writing calligraphy" in particular. In both paintings, the scholars have lit a censer for the occasion of playing zither or appreciating calligraphy, creating an elegant ambience with a shroud of scented smoke. The scenes reflect the Ming literati’s admiration for the culture of fragrance.

     The oldest exhibit on display in the exhibition is a grey pottery censer with a bamboo joint design of the Liangzhu culture during the Neolithic period, which was unearthed from the Fuquan Shan tomb site in Qingpu District, Shanghai, in 1983. The biggest and heaviest exhibit is a censer with a lion-form knob designed in a round tripod form with a lid adorned by a squatting lion stepping on a rolling ball. It was used in royal temples during the Ming dynasty. Other important exhibits include a spectacular carved red lacquer incense box in the form of an imperial palace that exudes a regal aura; a five-piece altar set in fencai enamels on rouge-red ground, and Jingdezhen ware consisting of ritual vessels produced by imperial kilns during the Qianlong reign in the Qing dynasty. To allow visitors to view from both sides of a round fan inlaid with exquisitely carved agarwood in lingzhi and orchid design from the Qing dynasty, the curatorial team designed a special mount to display the exhibit.

     The highlights from the HKMoA collections include a hanging censer carved with an openwork floral design and six loop handles from the Qing dynasty. This censer was carved out of jadeite with extraordinary skill, creating a single piece of jadeite carved into a chain of interlocking rings, each being able to move independently, exemplifying the exquisite jade-carving style. Another highlight exhibit is a pair of kidney-shaped purses with seed stitching and couched gold embroidery of antiquity motifs from the Qing dynasty, displaying patterns with auspicious significance. Purses like this could be used as a love token in ancient times.

     Tsim Sha Tsui, where the HKMoA is located, was said to be originally known as "Heung Po Tau" (a port for exporting incense), reflecting the close relationship of the place being used as transit point of fragrance materials in the past. The museum has invited three local artists to reinterpret Chinese fragrance culture for the exhibition through different media such as traditional "gongbi" painting and scent installations. Cheng Chi-kin's "A Story of Time Through Scents" has collected and displayed nearly 50 common types of fragrant herbs and materials, and has used them to create scents of dawn, noon and dusk. These fragrances are dispersed through wave-shaped diffusion devices. Cheuk Ka-wai's gigantic floral handscroll painting "Gathering of Ten Fragrances", features 10 local fragrant plants that are related to the daily life, culture and literary works pertaining to Hong Kong. The audience is invited to rediscover the relationship between these local fragrant plants and Hong Kong culture, while reawakening their own memories of fragrances. So Wing-po's "Scent of Raindrop", drawing inspiration from both the philosophies of Chinese medicine and methodologies of modern chemistry, reconstructs the various scents emitted by rainwater with a laboratory setup and various natural and artificial substances in order to unveil the intricate and complex flow of fragrance within the natural world.

     The exhibition will run from tomorrow (June 28) to October 16 at the Special Gallery on the second floor of the HKMoA (10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon). At the same time, the HKMoA will organise a series of special events and activities, including public lectures by experts and artists to enhance public understanding of the Chinese art of scent, and multiple fragrance workshops and meditation experience sessions to allow audiences to engage with Chinese fragrance culture through various senses. For details of the exhibition and activities, please visit the website at hk.art.museum/en/web/ma/exhibitions-and-events/fragrance-of-time.html.

     This exhibition is one of the programmes of "City in Focus: Shanghai" of the inaugural CCF and Shanghai Culture Week. Another two spectacular events showcasing the cultural charm of Shanghai styles to be presented in August are the classic play "The House of Wulong" of the Qi School and the full-length serial opera "Seven Heroes and Five Gallants" by the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company as well as the "New Oriental Chinese Music Scene" concert by the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra. Shanghai Culture Week is co-presented by the LCSD, Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism and the Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival with an opening reception and ceremony at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on August 2.

     The CCF, presented by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and organised by the LCSD's Chinese Culture Promotion Office, aims to enhance the public's appreciation of Chinese culture and cultivate citizens' national identity and cultural confidence. The inaugural CCF will be held from June to September. Through different performing arts programmes in various forms and related extension activities, including selected programmes of the Chinese Opera Festival, exemplary local arts projects recognised by the China National Arts Fund, performing arts programmes from arts and cultural organisations, film screenings, exhibitions, talks and more, the festival allows members of the public and visitors to experience the broad and profound Chinese culture with a view to promoting Chinese culture and patriotic education as well as enhancing national identity amongst the people of Hong Kong, making contributions to the steadfast and successful implementation of "one country, two systems". For details, please visit the CCF website www.ccf.gov.hk.

     The LCSD has long been promoting Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public to learn more about the broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ccpo/index.html.

                        

Attention TV/radio announcers:

Please broadcast the following as soon as possible and repeat it at regular intervals:

     Here is an item of interest to swimmers.

     The Leisure and Cultural Services Department announced today (June 27) that the Ping Shan Tin Shui Wai Swimming Pool in Yuen Long District has been temporarily closed for cleaning and superchlorination following the discovery of a small amount of vomit in the pool.

     It will be reopened at 6.30am tomorrow.

     The department appeals to swimmers to be considerate and to keep the swimming pools clean. They are advised not to swim after a full meal and should use the toilet facilities if necessary before swimming. 

     â€‹The Government Flying Service (GFS) and the Civil Aviation Flight University of China (CAFUC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) today (June 27) to underpin closer collaboration.
      
     Witnessed by the Controller of the GFS, Captain West Wu, and Vice-President of the CAFUC Mr Ouyang Ting, the MOU was signed by the Chief Pilot (Training and Standards) of the GFS, Captain Wong Yiu-hong, and the President of Guanghan Flight College of the CAFUC, Mr Ge Zhibin.
      
     The MOU aims to further implement the construction of emergency response and rescue forces proposed in the National 14th Five-Year Plan through better nurturing of aviation rescue command talent, pilots and technical support forces, and providing more opportunities for young people in Hong Kong to develop their careers in the aviation industry.
      
     Captain Wu said at the signing ceremony that he hoped the co-operation will leverage the strengths of both parties in the aviation profession to deepen talent exchanges and offer opportunities to young people in Hong Kong aspiring to join the aviation industry to contribute to the emergency response and rescue effort of the country.

        

     In a total of five separate prosecution cases, six public rental housing (PRH) residents were each sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and were fined $5,000 or $10,000 for not declaring their Hong Kong domestic property when applying for PRH and declaring their income and assets.
 
     A spokesman for the Housing Department (HD) today (June 27) reminded PRH applicants and residents of PRH estates to declare truthfully their income and assets.
 
     Information of the five cases are as follows:
 
Case 1:
     A PRH resident living in On Tai Estate declared in the Declaration in Respect of Admission to Public Rental Housing (PRH) in 2018 that he did not have any domestic property ownership in Hong Kong from the date of registration for the PRH application to the time of admission to PRH. Subsequent investigation revealed that he jointly owned a domestic property in Tai Kok Tsui at the material time.
 
Case 2:
     A PRH resident living in On Tai Estate declared in the Declaration in Respect of Admission to Public Rental Housing (PRH) in 2018 that he did not have any domestic property ownership in Hong Kong from the date of registration for the PRH application to the time of admission to PRH. Subsequent investigation revealed that he solely owned a domestic property in Kai Tak at the material time.
 
Case 3:
     A PRH resident living in On Tai Estate declared in the Declaration in Respect of Admission to Public Rental Housing (PRH) in 2018 that he did not have any domestic property ownership in Hong Kong from the date of registration for the PRH application to the time of admission to PRH. Subsequent investigation revealed that he jointly owned a domestic property in Eastern District at the material time.
 
     The PRH residents in Cases 1 to 3 were prosecuted for making a false statement knowingly in the respective declaration forms, contrary to Section 26(1)(c) of the Housing Ordinance. All of them were convicted in the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts on June 24. Given the gravity of the offence, the defendants were sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and were fined $5,000 or $10,000. The HD has already recovered one of the subject PRH flats and is going to issue a notice-to-quit to another tenant, while the other subject PRH flat will be surrendered by the end of July.
 
Case 4:
     Two PRH residents living in Sau Mau Ping South Estate declared in the 2022 Income and Assets Declaration Forms that they did not have any domestic property ownership in Hong Kong. Subsequent investigation revealed that they jointly owned a domestic property in To Kwa Wan.  
 
Case 5:
     A PRH resident living in Kwong Tin Estate declared in the 2023 Income and Assets Declaration Forms that he did not have any domestic property ownership in Hong Kong. Subsequent investigations revealed that he solely owned a domestic property in Ngau Tau Kok at the material time.
 
     The PRH residents in Cases 4 and 5 were prosecuted for refusing or neglecting to furnish information specified in the declaration form, contrary to Section 27(a) of the Housing Ordinance. They were convicted in the Kwun Tong Magistrates' Courts on June 24. Given the gravity of the offence, the defendants were sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and were fined $5,000 or $10,000. The HD has already recovered one of the subject PRH flats and is going to issue a notice-to-quit to the other tenant.
 
     The spokesman reminded all PRH applicants that if any persons are convicted by the courts for making a false statement knowingly during a PRH application, contrary to Section 26(1)(c) of the Housing Ordinance, the maximum penalty is a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months. The PRH application concerned will be cancelled while any allocated PRH unit will be recovered by the HD.
 
     He also reminded PRH residents that households living in PRH should accurately complete their Income and Assets Declaration Forms. Before furnishing particulars specified in the requisition required by the Hong Kong Housing Authority, households should read the content and completion guidelines of the Income and Assets Declaration Forms carefully and compute their income and assets in accordance with the methods specified. Otherwise, they may be prosecuted for making a false statement knowingly, contrary to Section 26(1)(a) of the Housing Ordinance. If convicted, the maximum penalty is a $50,000 fine and imprisonment for six months. Alternatively, they may be prosecuted for refusing or neglecting to furnish information as specified in a declaration form, contrary to Section 27(a) of the Housing Ordinance. If convicted, the maximum penalty is a $25,000 fine and imprisonment for three months. The HD will take action to recover the undercharged rent incurred due to the inaccurate information furnished by the households or even recover their PRH units.
 
     The spokesman reiterated that the public in general recognises the HD's efforts in combating the abuse of PRH resources. The HD will continue to adopt multipronged and risk-based measures to comprehensively combat tenancy abuse. The HD will take decisive tenancy management and law enforcement actions against tenants who are found to have abused PRH and breached the tenancy agreement or relevant policies, in order to ensure that the precious PRH resources are allocated to those most in need.

     Hong Kong Talent Engage (HKTE) hosted a themed seminar this afternoon (June 27) to brief incoming talent on corruption prevention and anti-deception practices to raise their awareness of the relevant crimes.

     At the seminar, a representative from the Community Relations Department of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) introduced Hong Kong's anti-corruption laws and drew the attention of incoming talent to the fact that government and public sector employees do not accept tips from the public, and that bribing employees of private organisations is illegal. Also, the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance has not specified the minimum threshold for the amount of advantage for the purpose of corruption offences. The ICAC has kept reviewing various investment entrant and talent admission schemes with the relevant government departments in order to strengthen regulating the schemes and stamp out malpractices. The ICAC appealed to members of the public, including incoming talent, to join hands in maintaining Hong Kong's culture of integrity.

     In addition, a representative of the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre of the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force updated incoming talent on the latest deception trends at the seminar, and urged them to heighten vigilance against telephone deception tricks, including phone scammers impersonating Mainland law enforcement officers or bank staff, and other common types of deception such as online employment and investment frauds, as well as romance and online shopping scams. A representative from the Financial Intelligence and Investigation Bureau of the Police reminded incoming talent that criminal syndicates often induce account holders to provide personal accounts or personal information to create virtual bank accounts by offering monetary remuneration or using different excuses. They then collect and transfer the crime proceeds using such stooge accounts for the purpose of money laundering. Members of the public, including incoming talent, should properly protect their personal information and never lend or sell personal accounts to any third party.

     Incoming talent may refer to the ICAC's education resources on corruption prevention (www.icac.org.hk/icac/smart/en/index.html) for details on anti-corruption laws and related information. For scam prevention, incoming talent may use Scameter on the CyberDefender website (cyberdefender.hk/en-us/scameter/) or the mobile application "Scameter+" to verify suspicious or high-risk transaction counterparts. If in doubt, they should call the Anti-Scam Helpline 18222 for enquiries. Moreover, at the themed seminar today, a speaker from a local talent networking group shared with participants Hong Kong's social culture and customs.

     HKTE has held online and physical seminars or workshops from March 2024 in collaboration with working partners on a wide range of topics, such as job seeking, business start-ups, education, accommodation, living tips and Cantonese learning. Talent who have arrived in Hong Kong may obtain event details from HKTE's social media or by contacting HKTE via email (hkte@hkengage.gov.hk).