Cultural Exchanges

Exchanges with the International Community

The LCSD’s arts managers, curators and librarians regularly attend international conferences and festivals to stay in touch with new developments, and to scout for quality programmes for presentation in Hong Kong.

In 2012, overseas exchange programmes and international conferences that were attended by representatives of the department included: the Association of Asia-Pacific Performing Arts Centres Annual Conference and the 5th Biennial Conference of Museum Studies in Taipei; the 26th June Congress of International Society for the Performing Arts in Seoul; the Association of Science-Technology Centres 2012 Annual Conference in the United States; the Asia-Pacific Network of Science & Technology Centres 2012 Annual Conference in Singapore; the Fifth World Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology in Fukuoka, Japan; and the Third Joint Meeting of The Hong Kong-Taiwan Economic and Cultural Co-operation and Promotion Council and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council in Taipei.

In January 2013, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum joined hands with the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Tours, France, in organising a three-day international conference on ICH. The event drew over 30 experts and academics from Hong Kong and the Mainland, as well as from elsewhere around the world, including Macao, Taiwan, Japan, India, Australia, the US, France, Israel and Morocco.

In September 2012, the Hong Kong Film Archive curated Magical Wonderful Tour: A Trip Through Hong Kong Cinema at the Vladivostok International Film Festival in Russia. The event showcased ten Hong Kong films selected from the archive’s 100 Must-See Hong Kong Movies.

The Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) strengthened ties with counterparts elsewhere through cooperation and exchange of views on subjects of mutual interest. A public lecture on the development of innovative library services in the digital age was organised jointly with the Hong Kong Library Association and the Goethe Institut Hong Kong, and included experience shared by visiting delegates from the Bavarian State Library of Germany. The Public Libraries and the Bavarian State Library also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Library Cooperation. The MoU, aimed at promoting cultural exchange between the two libraries, related to a series of library co-operation initiatives that include information technology development and sharing of digital resources.

Exchanges with Mainland China and Macao

To enhance cultural exchange, improve co-operation and extend networking, reciprocal visits were organised with cultural bodies in the Mainland and Macao. Among such cultural exchange visitors to Hong Kong during the year were delegates from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, from the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, from the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sport and Tourism, from the People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, from the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security, and from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

To mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), the LCSD collaborated with the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau in presenting The Majesty of All Under Heaven: The Eternal Realm of China's First Emperor, a blockbuster exhibition on the Qin terracotta army and relics from the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang that was held at the Hong Kong Museum of History from July 25 to November 26, 2012. Supplemented by six multimedia presentations utilising innovative technology, the exhibition featured 120 stunning exhibits selected from major cultural institutes in Shaanxi province that vividly portrayed the rise and fall of the Qin dynasty and its impact on the historical development of China.

The LCSD also collaborated with the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture of Sichuan Province in an exhibition cum talk, The Greatest Skills of Shu: Intangible Cultural Heritage of Sichuan, held at the Hong Kong Central Library in June 2012 to complement China Cultural Heritage Day. Exponents of Sichuan’s ICH were present to demonstrate their splendid handicraft skills for the Hong Kong audience.

The Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) Cultural Co-operation Meeting, held annually to strengthen cultural exchange and co-operation between Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, was hosted in Hong Kong in 2012. A wide range of topics was discussed during the two-day meeting, including development and exchange of performing arts talent, programme collaboration and the interflow of cultural information, heritage and museum co-operation, library co-operation and exchanges, and intangible cultural heritage. A Memorandum of Intention on Cantonese Opera was also signed at the meeting, through which further co-operation on the conservation, continuation and development of this unique artistic genre was pledged.

One major initiative held under the GPRD Cultural Co-operation framework was the 10th anniversary edition of the annual Cantonese Opera Day. This was held in November 2012 at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza, in a move to further promote the art and make it more accessible to the community.

Another performing arts project developed under the framework was the poetic dance and multi-media work Love Letters, which brought together an outstanding array of dancers and cross-disciplinary artists from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Under the direction of veteran Hong Kong choreographer Pun Siu-fai, the dance theatre premiered in Guangdong in February 2013, with touring performances in Hong Kong and Macao following in May 2013.

In May 2012, a collaborative travelling exhibition entitled Maritime Porcelain Road: Relics from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Museums opened at the Macao Museum, from where in November it went on to the Guangdong Museum. The exhibition originated from the GPRD Cultural Cooperation 2010 Annual Meeting, as part of the goal of strengthening cultural cooperation and fostering partnership with museums in the region, and was jointly presented by the Home Affairs Bureau of the HKSAR, the Department of Culture Guangdong Province, and the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region. It was co-organised and hosted by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Guangdong Museum, and the Macao Museum. The exhibition staged some 170 sets of exhibits from the collections of the three museums in a study of the importance of China’s export trade in ceramics and its impact on South-east Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It will come to Hong Kong in mid-2013.

Other GPRD cultural co-operation initiatives in 2012-13 included The Thirteen Hongs of Canton: Selected Pictures and Documents, an exhibition held at the Hong Kong Central Library in January 2013 and co-organised by the HKPL and the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province. This exhibition displayed digitised historical paintings and documents illustrating the maritime trade of China and the culture of Guangdong in the 18th and 19th centuries. A further initiative was the creative writing competition to celebrate 4.23 World Book Day, co-hosted by the HKPL and Shenzhen Library; winning entries from Hong Kong and Shenzhen were displayed at both libraries.

Hong Kong Week 2012 – Culture & Creativity @ Taipei

Hong Kong Week 2012 – Culture & Creativity @ Taipei, presented by the Hong Kong–Taiwan Cultural Co-operation Committee in association with the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office (Taiwan), was a first-of-its-kind extravaganza which guided Taiwan audiences through the riches of Hong Kong’s arts and culture. Held from November 23 to December 2, 2012, this 10-day event featured eight performing arts programmes in a total of 14 performances and five screenings, including drama, multimedia theatre, jazz, pop music, new music, Chinese music, modern dance, and dance video. The event also included a cultural and arts seminar, a comic exhibition and a contemporary film showcase, as well as a variety of extension activities. In total, Hong Kong Week 2012 brought together over 300 leading talents from Hong Kong’s arts scene in some creative and highly original performances and displays.

Asian Museum Network Conference Hong Kong 2012

The Asian Museum Network Conference 2012, held for the first time in Hong Kong in September 2012, was an example of successful collaboration between the Hong Kong Design Centre, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre and the Vitra Design Museum, Germany, with the LCSD as the principal supporter. Some 500 audiences including professionals from the art, architecture and design sectors around the world attended the conference, sharing expertise on museum design in the Asian context.