The year 2017-18 has been a rich and fruitful one for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). This was especially so because it coincided with the 20th Anniversary of the Establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The LCSD played an instrumental role in this by organising and supporting a wide range of leisure, sports and cultural celebration events and activities.

Attendance at our public museums reached new heights in the year with over 6.7 million visits, representing a significant increase from 4.5 million in 2016-17. We witnessed the phenomenal success of the exhibition Eternal Life – Exploring Ancient Egypt, jointly organised with the British Museum, which attracted a record attendance of over 850 000. We also forged closer collaborations with prestigious museums around the world by signing a Letter of Intent on Cultural Exchange and Co-operation with the Palace Museum in Beijing, and hosting the Museum Summit for the first time with 20 speakers from world-renowned museum institutions and over 860 participants from 13 countries and regions. Our museums also intensified their community engagement efforts through the launch of a new Museum Volunteer Scheme, giving enthusiastic volunteers the opportunity to help in areas such as welcoming visitors and organising education activities and workshops.

The year 2017 was another great year for lovers of music and art. Notable examples of the former were the International Military Tattoo and concerts by the Berliner Philharmoniker under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle. Two major public art projects, Blossoming Stairs and Seats • Together, also added colour and vitality to our cityscapes with the active participation of creative local artists.

In August 2017, the LCSD announced the first Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of Hong Kong. This provides the Government with a basis for prioritising resources for supporting and safeguarding our ICH items, especially those of high cultural value or in urgent need of preservation. We also organised exhibitions and educational activities to help familiarise the public with these important characteristic features of Hong Kong’s heritage. One major Hong Kong ICH item is Cantonese opera, and we continued our support and promotion by opening a Cantonese Opera Education and Information Centre at the Ko Shan Theatre New Wing in September 2017.

Our Hong Kong Public Libraries (HKPL) has continued to explore new ways of encouraging library usage and extending its services. In December 2017, the HKPL launched its first self-service library station in Eastern District, offering round-the-clock library services for the public outside traditional library premises. We are planning to launch two more library stations at new sites in the months ahead.

The Music Office celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2017, with a number of public events scheduled that included the 40th Anniversary Gala and Joint Concerts of Music Office Bands and Orchestras. These events were a powerful testament of a vibrant and active office that is still going strong after four decades of dedicated service to the community.

Hong Kong’s beaches were recently highlighted in a CNN article as among the world’s best for a city, and the LCSD has been working hard over the years to keep the beach-going experience a safe and pleasant one for bathers. We have also been pouring resources into enhancing our parks, through initiatives first launched in 2016-17. These include programmes to improve park facilities and enhance their soft landscape features, along with a series of Storm the Park activities that have attracted visitors to our parks for occasions of fun and discovery, family get-togethers and fresh air.

The annual Hong Kong Flower Show held in March 2018 broke records with an attendance of over 720 000. Themed around the dahlia, this year’s event was followed by the inaugural Green Recycling Day, reinforcing green measures to reduce waste from the Flower Show and encourage recycling and re-use. For the first time, we distributed some 5 000 pots of dahlias for free after the show to members of the public to encourage replanting at home.

Ten years after its inauguration in 2007, the 6th Hong Kong Games (HKG) once again brought together local athletes in competition while attracting strong community support. For the first time, we arranged live broadcasts of the competitions on the designated HKG website and YouTube channel for the benefit of members of the public who could not attend the competitions in person. Featuring over 3 200 competitors across eight sports and with thousands of spectators cheering on, the HKG certainly achieved their goal of encouraging sport for all in the community and helping strengthen district cohesion.

We spare no efforts in upgrading our leisure and cultural hardware, and are pressing ahead with an ambitious five-year programme to increase the provision of sports and leisure facilities as announced in the 2017 Policy Address. In May 2017 we opened the new Harbour Road Sports Centre in Wan Chai, which offers a comprehensive array of facilities in its area of 6 300 square metres. Other valuable new facilities included the Yuen Long Leisure and Cultural Building, containing both the Yuen Long Public Library, relocated from its previous site, and the new Yuen Long Sports Centre. Both were opened in June 2017. Elsewhere, the new Tsing Yi Southwest Leisure Building opened in July 2017, bringing a host of brand-new leisure facilities including a heated swimming pool to this part of Tsing Yi, while Salisbury Garden in Tsim Sha Tsui, which had been closed for revitalisation works, reopened in December 2017 with an art installation project and experiential performances.

To conclude, the past year has been a fulfilling and a very productive one for the LCSD, in which we have celebrated a historic anniversary and faithfully served the Hong Kong community. We intend to build on our achievements of 2017-18 to further refine and enhance our plans for the year ahead, as part of our continued commitment to serving Hong Kong through the provision of a steady stream of top quality leisure and cultural services and facilities.

Michelle Li

Director of Leisure and Cultural Services