April 24, 2012

Next week on 3 and 4 May 2012, the conference 崑曲傳習與中國文化傳承學術研討會  [Kunqu chuanxi yu Zhongguo wenhua yantaohui] which translates into ‘Passing on Kunqu Skills and the Heritage of Chinese Culture’ will be held at the Chinese Civilisation Centre. Topics of the presentations include the research into recordings of interviews with Kunqu performers, the nurturing of new young opera performers, Kunqu performance on stage, ways to achieve a better understanding of the heritage of Kunqu tradition, etc etc. The speakers are experts and scholars from universities and institutions in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

The conference will start with the opening ceremony on Thursday 3 May at 9:30 am and a speech by Professor Cheng Pei-kai at 9:40 am. After the group photo the first session of presentations will start at 10:20 am and run through to the third session which ends with a discussion by 6 pm. The next day Friday 4 May starts with the fourth session at 9 am which is followed by a discussion on the Centre’s Kunqu project. The conference closing ceremony will follow at 11:40 am. For more details, please visit the website with the programme in Chinese or contact Ms Zhang Hui at Huizhang@cityu.edu.hk.

Written by: Audrey

April 18, 2012

Last week, the City Literary Festival took place on 13 and 14 April at the City University of Hong Kong. Many distinguished guests, writers and scholars attended the opening and other parts of the programme. According to the report published by CityU NewsCentre, Professor Cheng Pei-kai emphasized in his speech at the opening ceremony that the aim of the event was to rouse interest in creative writing and encourage reading.

Theme of the festival was ‘Longing for Nature’ and the invited writers all shared their views and feelings on this subject. After the opening in the morning there were four parallel sessions with prominent authors in the afternoon, separated by genre and moderated by experts. The first group ‘essay’ was led by Dr Fung Chi Wang, the second group ‘short story’ by Prof Chan Hok Yin, the third group ‘poetry’ by Prof Zhang Longxi and the fourth group ‘Cultural and Art Criticism’ by Dr Ma Ka Fai.

This year’s festival was organised by the Cultural and Sports Committee, the Chinese Civilisation Centre, and the Department of Chinese, Translation and Linguistics of City University of Hong Kong. It was co-organized by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the Chinese Language Education Section of the Curriculum Development Institute at the Education Bureao and Macao Foundation. It was sponsored by the Hang Seng Bank.

Written by: Audrey