The LCSD’s arts managers, curators and librarians regularly attend international conferences and festivals to keep abreast of new developments in arts and culture, and to scout for quality programmes for presentation in Hong Kong.
In 2013, overseas exchange programmes and international conferences that were attended by representatives of the department included the 69th International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Congress in Barcelona, Spain; the 17th Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA) Conference and General Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand; the ICOM-CC Metal 2013 Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland; the 27th June Congress of the International Society for the Performing Arts in Wroclaw, Poland; the Asia-Pacific Network of Science & Technology Centres 2013 Annual Conference in Daejeon, South Korea, the Science Centre World Summit 2014 in Mechelen, Belgium, and the Hong Kong-Taipei Inter-city Forum in Taipei.
On May 19, 2013, the Hong Kong Museum of History held a seminar on International Museum Day 2013, at which guest speakers from the Mainland, Taiwan, Australia and Japan shared new directions and recent developments in museums.
In March 2014, the Hong Kong Film Archive collaborated with the Centre for Asian American Media at CAAMFest 2014 in the United States to showcase two early films made in the 1940s produced by Grandview Film Company.
The Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) continued to strengthen ties with counterparts elsewhere in the world. To tie in with the theme of the Asian Cultural Cooperation Forum (ACCF) 2013, HKPL organised a half-day expert workshop in November 2013 entitled Libraries and the Preservation and Promotion of Culture. Library professionals were invited from the National Libraries of China, Japan and Singapore as well as the Hong Kong Central Library to share their expertise on the collection, preservation and promotion of literary arts and culture.
Library professionals from the Mainland, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong shared their expertise in preserving literary arts and culture at the Asian Cultural Cooperation Forum.
To enhance cultural exchange, improve co-operation and extend networking, visits were organised with cultural bodies on the Mainland and Macao. Among such cultural exchange visitors to Hong Kong during the year were delegates from the Dapeng New District Management Committee and Futian District Public Culture and Sports Development Center of the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Government; the Dongguan and Foshan Municipals of the Hong Kong & Macao Affairs Bureau; the Shanghai Municipal Jing’an District Government; the Foreign Affairs Office of the Fujian Provincial People’s Government; and the People’s Government of Qingpu District of Shanghai Municipality.
The LCSD collaborated with the Palace Museum in presenting The Splendours of Royal Costume: Qing Court Attire, the largest exhibition ever launched by the Palace Museum outside the Mainland on the court attire of the Qing Dynasty and its cultural significance. It was held at the Hong Kong Museum of History from July 31 to October 7, 2013. Supplemented by large-scale multimedia programmes, the exhibition featured 130 items/sets of textiles and embroideries from the Palace Museum Collection that provided an excellent platform for understanding the complexities of Qing court attire.
The LCSD also collaborated with the Ministry of Culture and the Department of Culture of Guizhou Province in an exhibition cum demonstration titled Genesis and Spirit: Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guizhou, held at the Hong Kong Central Library in June 2013. Artists from Miao, Buyei, Dong and Gelao ethnic minorities performed traditional opera, music and dances for the Hong Kong audiences.
An artist from an ethnic minority performs a dance at the opening ceremony of Genesis and Spirit: A Showcase of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guizhou.
The Co-operation Agreement on the Development of a Digital Library in the Hong Kong Public Libraries was signed by LCSD and the National Library of China in April 2013. Digitised copies of rare ancient books, local gazetteers, rubbings of ancient bronze and stone carvings, new year pictures and exhibition resources from the National Library of China will be made available to locals via the Public Libraries Multimedia Information System.
An agreement was reached with the National Library of China on strengthening digital library development between Hong Kong and the Mainland.
The 14th edition of the annual Greater Pearl River Delta (GPRD) Cultural Co-operation Meeting was hosted in Macao in 2013. A range of topics was discussed during the two-day meeting, including the 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. Memoranda of intention on two exhibitions of cultural relics on Lingnan archaeological achievements over three decades in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao as well as on the assessment mechanism for the network of cultural co-operation points were also signed at the meeting.
One major initiative held under the GPRD Cultural Co-operation framework was the annual Cantonese Opera Day. This was held in November 2013 in the Foyer, Piazza and Exhibition Gallery of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, in a move to further promote the art and make it more accessible to the community.
In January 2014, a collaborative historic exhibition entitled Historical Imprints of Lingnan: Major Archaeological Discoveries of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao opened at the Guangdong Museum. It will be held at the Hong Kong Museum of History from June to September 2014 and at the Macao Museum from September 2014 to January 2015. The exhibition originated from the GPRD Cultural Cooperation 2012 Annual Meeting, as part of the goal of strengthening cultural cooperation and fostering partnerships with museums in the region, and was jointly presented by the Home Affairs Bureau of the HKSAR, the Department of Culture of 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 History, the Guangdong Museum, and the Macao Museum. The exhibition staged some 500 exhibits of valuable archaeological relics from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao that highlighted the achievements, technological advancements and progress of public archaeology in the recent decades.
From September to November 2013, a collaborative travelling exhibition entitled Jingmi Rensheng: Touring Exhibition of Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Collection on Sun Wan and Tai Ensai opened at the Shenzhen Museum, from where it went on to be shown at the Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History from February till March 2014. This exhibition also originated from the GPRD Cultural Co-operation Meeting. It was co-organised and hosted by the Shenzhen Museum, the Hong Kong Museum of History, the Macao Museum, the Guangdong Museum of Revolutionary History, and the Memorial Museum of Generalissimo Sun Yat-sen’s Mansion. The exhibition staged some 200 sets of exhibits from the collections of the five museums to illustrate the life history of Sun Wan, daughter of Dr Sun Yat-sen, and her husband Tai Ensai, giving visitors insights into some of the people closest to Dr Sun.
Other GPRD cultural co-operation initiatives in 2013-14 included a creative writing competition to celebrate 4.23 World Book Day, co-hosted by HKPL, Macao Central Library, the Sun Yat-sen Library of Guangdong Province and Shenzhen Library. Winning entries from the collaborating libraries were displayed at the GPRD regions.
Students from Hong Kong and Shenzhen share their reading experiences at the Prize Presentation Ceremony of the 4.23 World Book Day Creative Competition in 2013.
To create an exchange platform for artists, Oi! (Oil Street Art Space) and vA! (the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre) organised Crossroads • Another Dimension: Cross-Strait Four Regions Artistic Exchange Project 2013 in collaboration with the He Xiangning Art Museum, the Macao Museum of Art and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition was held between May 2013 and February 2014 and featured contemporary art works by 16 artists with international perspectives, four from each of the cities of Shenzhen, Macao, Kaohsiung and Hong Kong. The exhibition revealed the latest art trends in these four cross-strait regions.
A piece of creative artwork in the touring exhibition Crossroads•Another Dimension.
To facilitate academic collaboration among art and culture professionals, artists and scholars, vA! joined forces with the He Xiangning Art Museum and the Fine Arts Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong to organise the Conference on the Representation and Practices of Chineseness in Contemporary Art in January 2014. The conference examined how the uniqueness of Chinese character is reflected and represented in contemporary art practices. Twelve speakers from the Mainland, Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong were invited to present their ideas and share their expertise.
In March 2014, vA! and Oi! co-organised This Slow • That Fast: Animamix Biennale 2013-14 with the City University of Hong Kong, a participatory project that formed part of the regional biennale in Asia. The event showcased new media artworks created by 29 young artists in Hong Kong, and included a series of educational workshops aimed at widening the audience base, especially among young people.
Visitors appreciate new media artworks created by 29 local young artists, at This Slow • That fast: Animamix Biennale 2013-14.
The second edition of Hong Kong Week in Taipei, presented by the Hong Kong–Taiwan Cultural Co-operation Committee in association with the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office (Taiwan), was run in 2013. With ‘Legacies and Innovations’ as its central theme, Hong Kong Week 2013 presented an artistic and cultural feast that included flavours from both past and present. Four exhibitions on history, contemporary art, design and comic art plus two performing arts programmes as well as 24 extension activities were held in major exhibition and performance venues in Taipei, from November 29, 2013. In total, over 60 000 audience and visitors participated in Hong Kong Week.
The exhibition A Century of Fashion: Hong Kong Cheongsam Story displayed more than 100 cheongsams dating from the late Qing and early Republican periods through to the present day at Hong Kong Week 2013@Taipei.
Exciting programmes included the opening exhibition A Century of Fashion: Hong Kong Chengsam Story, the exhibition Hong Kong Design‧Styles, the comic art exhibition A Parallel Tale: Taipei in 80s x Hong Kong in 90s, and the contemporary art exhibition All are Guests. Performing arts programmes included the Hong Kong Philharmonic’s Jaap's Shostakovich 5 and the dance poem Spring Ritual‧Eulogy, performed by the Hong Kong Dance Company.
Maestro Jaap van Zweden, music director and conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, made his tour début with the orchestra for Hong Kong Week 2013@Taipei.
