The four-month-long inaugural Chinese Culture Festival (CCF) concluded after bringing together over 4 000 artists from more than 150 outstanding local and Mainland art groups and associations from different provinces and cities to stage over 250 performances and activities in Hong Kong, covering music, dance, Chinese opera and multimedia, film screenings, exhibitions, talks, a carnival and other related extension activities. More than 900 000 participants joined the Festival online and offline.
The CCF, presented by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and organised by the Chinese Culture Promotion Office under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), aims to promote Chinese culture and enhance the public's national identity and cultural confidence. The opening programme, dance drama "Five Stars Rising in the East", started with full houses for two performances, followed by the "Encountering Chinese Culture" carnival held at Sha Tin Town Hall and New Town Plaza, which attracted over 10 000 participants. The Carnival not only extended the charm of Chinese performing arts from the theatre to the community but also allowed members of the public to experience a number of intangible cultural heritage items and workshops with festive characteristics to appreciate the richness of Chinese culture.
In addition, more than 20 free performances of "Chinese Culture for All: A Special Performance Series", covering music, dance and opera performances with Chinese characteristics, open rehearsals and film screenings, were organised during the Festival. These performances attracted over 7 000 students and teachers as well as members of the community, allowing them to experience the profound heritage of Chinese culture and boost their cultural confidence.
The LCSD's signature project, the Chinese Opera Festival (COF), has become a core part of the CCF from this year, widening the audience base and providing diverse forms of extension activities. In addition to talks, meet-the-artists sessions, masterclasses, exhibitions and film shows, the North Road Bangzi and Shandong Liuzi opera plays, both of which are Intangible Cultural Heritage regional opera genres, as well as film screenings of Shao opera adapted from the classical tale "Journey to the West", are newly featured this year. To engage more young audiences, this year's COF introduced a new guided appreciation activity called "Chinese Opera En Route to Campus". In collaboration with the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, an outreach team was formed to visit 10 primary, secondary and special schools to introduce different Chinese opera genres, including Peking opera, Kunqu and Cantonese opera, through demonstrations and interactions with students, offering them chances to explore Chinese culture. A demonstration performance of a Peking opera excerpt was held at the Foyer of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, which received an enthusiastic response from citizens and visitors.
The CCF also serves as an important platform to showcase the achievements of artists in the creative transformation and development of traditional Chinese culture in the way of preserving precious traditional values while keeping abreast of the times. For example, the dance drama "Five Stars Rising in the East" interpreted the profound cultural connotation of a cultural relic as well as the scenes of 1 000 years of exchanges and integration of Chinese culture by using innovative dance languages; "Cyrano de Bergerac" – A Cantonese Opera Interpretation was an adaptation of a French classic piece of the same title, demonstrating the eclecticism of Cantonese opera, most notably in the hybrid mix of East and West; "Loong Legacies: Arts, Design & IP Product Exhibition and Talks" showcased the reinterpretation of cultural connotations of "Loong" through various forms of artworks.
Many CCF programmes also demonstrated the spirit of cultural inheritance. "Legacy and Vision: Conversations with Chinese Cultural Masters", co-organised with the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Hong Kong Member Association, featured acclaimed masters in the art industry to speak on their respective areas of expertise in culture and arts; "The Concert of Drum Music Art Ensemble of Jiangzhou, Shanxi and their Hong Kong Inheritors" invited local young performers who had travelled to Jiangzhou of Shanxi to learn the drum music to join the performance. During the COF, a number of masterclasses on Kunqu opera were organised for interested parties, and performers of the Zhejiang Wu Opera Research Centre visited the Cantonese Opera Academy of Hong Kong for exchanges with young students.
This year, Shanghai was designated as the "City-in-Focus" of the inaugural CCF. The LCSD invited the Shanghai Jingju Theatre Company and the Shanghai Chinese Orchestra to come to Hong Kong with strong line-ups to present their outstanding productions. The Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Shanghai Museum co-organised an exhibition on the Chinese art of scent. An exchange display of intangible cultural heritage of traditional craftsmanship and handicraft arts from Jiading District of Shanghai was held at the Foyer of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre to showcase the unique charm of Shanghainese culture and promote exchanges between Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The grand finale of the stage programme, dance drama "Mulan", was a new interpretation of the well-known story of taking one's father's place in the army. The two performances were met with enthusiastic applause from full houses. In conjunction with the Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnivals 2024, the inaugural CCF concluded joyfully in a spirit of reunion.
A review video highlighting the fabulous programmes under the inaugural CCF, as well as online replays of selected exhibitions, talks and masterclasses, are now available on the CCF website. Interested parties can visit www.ccf.gov.hk/en/online-programme/.
During the Festival period, participants' views were collected through questionnaires. Over 90 per cent of the participants gave satisfactory or above ratings to the CCF programmes. When asked about whether the CCF had enhanced their understanding of and interest in Chinese culture, over 85 per cent of the respondents indicated that it had. The LCSD expresses gratitude to the local cultural industry, institutions and community organisations as well as the Mainland cultural organisations, including the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Hong Kong Member Association, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Dance Company, the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism, the Center for China Shanghai International Arts Festival, the Shanghai Museum, the China Performing Arts Agency Productions Limited, and more, for their unwavering support in organising and promoting the inaugural CCF, and looks forward to continued support and participation from stakeholders across different industries and members of the public in the second edition of the CCF. The Festival will continue to leverage Hong Kong's unique advantages of enjoying strong national support while maintaining unparalleled connectivity with the world under the principle of "one country, two systems", thereby showcasing fine traditional Chinese culture in Hong Kong as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchanges, and fulfilling the mission of going global and bringing in diverse arts and cultures. It will also strive to promote Chinese culture and patriotism education while enhancing national identity among Hong Kong people through diverse arts and cultural forms.
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