Performing Art in the City: Inheritance and Innovation

Our Vision
The festival aims to explore the neo-generation performances on traditional art and cultural elements for the CityU community. Establishing a chance for re-discovering the beauty and rich knowledge among Cantonese music, Chinese opera and Naamyam in Chinese art.

Our Missions
1. To encourage the audience’s understanding and precipitation into the traditional Chinese art performances, from professional perspectives and hands-on experiences.
2. To provide an insight to Chinese cultural performances and interaction with professionals to increase the potential for audience’s own research or studies.

Our Programme
Our cultural festival “Performing Art in the City: Inheritance and Innovation” will be held from March 26th to April 6th, 2024. The exhibitions in the cultural festival will focus on three main genres in Cantonese music, Chinese opera and Naamyam. We will be inviting professional guests for art demonstration lectures, not only providing the first-hand experiences to audiences understanding the art, but also illustrating the insights of the relative effort or innovative ideas those professionals had put into. There will be more hands-on sections for visitors to get a chance learning those Chinese art through mini-games and workshop.

Our Website
Please click HERE.

Details of the Exhibition
Our Exhibition which will be held in the University Concourse – Blue zone, 4/F, Yeung Kin Man Building, consists of 3 main genres:

•   Cantonese music
•   Chinese opera
•   Naamyam

Details of the Workshops and Art Demonstration Lectures
*All the events mentioned below will be held in the University Concourse – Blue zone, 4/F, Yeung Kin Man Building unless further announcement on social media

Opening Ceremony
Date	26/3/2024
Time	17:00-18:00
Introduction	The festival started with the opening ceremony inviting school lecturers, professors and fellow students to give a warm welcome to everyone for participating this year’s events. We also invited Professor CHING May Bo, Professor and Head, Department of Chinese and History, to give us the welcoming message. We will also introduce the events involved in this festival.

‘Old-Time “Audiobooks” - Wooden-Fish Books & Naamyam’ by The Gong Strikes One
Date	27/3/2024
Time	14:00-16:00
Introduction	Cantonese region during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “wooden-fish books” were storybooks that featured a neat, reader-friendly layout of seven-character lines; such text can also be performed in naamyam, a kind of traditional Cantonese narrative song. In this lecture-concert, The Gong Strikes One will introduce and demonstrate how wooden-fish books can be turned into naamyam song texts.

‘The Evolution of Guangdong Cantonese Music: Exploring the Interplay between Creative Entrepreneurship, Cultural Inheritance, and Music Variations’ by TroVessional
Date	28/3/2024
Time	15:00-16:00
Introduction	In this talk, the speaker will discuss some recent approaches to experimental performances within the tradition of Guangdong Cantonese Music, a deeply rooted cultural heritage that evokes nostalgia in Hong Kong. Inspired by the concept of Creative Entrepreneurship, the exploration focuses on its potential application in two areas: (1) cultural inheritance and (2) music performances. Skills, vision, and people are vital factors in executing creativity. Throughout the session, musicians from TroVessional will showcase how creativity can transform traditional music into an expressive form of performing art. Speaker: Ms Jessica Fung 馮啟思 Performers: Keith Yeung 楊健平, Chun-yin Siu 蕭俊賢, Justin Bai-shen Ng 吳百燊

‘The Evolution of Guangdong Cantonese Music: Exploring the Interplay between Creative Entrepreneurship, Cultural Inheritance, and Music Variations’ by TroVessional

Date

28/3/2024

Time

15:00-16:00

Introduction

In this talk, the speaker will discuss some recent approaches to experimental performances within the tradition of Guangdong Cantonese Music, a deeply rooted cultural heritage that evokes nostalgia in Hong Kong. Inspired by the concept of Creative Entrepreneurship, the exploration focuses on its potential application in two areas: (1) cultural inheritance and (2) music performances. Skills, vision, and people are vital factors in executing creativity. Throughout the session, musicians from TroVessional will showcase how creativity can transform traditional music into an expressive form of performing art.

Speaker: Ms Jessica Fung 馮啟思
Performers: Keith Yeung 楊健平, Chun-yin Siu 蕭俊賢, Justin Bai-shen Ng 吳百燊

‘Cantonese Opera Inheritance in Modern Society’ by Ms. LEUNG Fei Tung
Date	2/4/2024
Time	12:00-14:00
Introduction	Cantonese opera needs years of training and polishing. In modern society, people live a fast-paced life with exploding information. Traditional art dims as one of the mainstream entertainments. How should young Cantonese opera performers inherit this tradition?

Wong Fei Hung’s Music Secrets (Community Cultural Ambassador Scheme)
Date	5/4/2024
Time	12:00-14:00
Introduction	In the musical theater, Li Wai Lok, a local young playwright and actor, will illustrate a storyteller named "lok jai". Through his story of searching for Wong Fei Hung's music secrets, he learns how to deal with people and not be afraid of hardships. You can enjoy yourself with the melodies containing Hong Kong martial film characteristics and understand more about it. One fun fact is that Hong Kong wuxia martial arts films usually use certain sections in some Chinese music for specific scenes, due to a lack of budget to create new music. Lok jai will recreate classic scenes from Cantonese martial arts films, accompanied by live performances from the Windpipe Chinese Music Ensemble.

The Elegant Beauty of Kunqu
Date	5/4/2024
Time	14:30-16:30
Introduction	Guest Speaker: Mr. LI Hongliang (Vice Director of the Jiangsu Performing Arts Group, National Class One Performer) Mr. LI Hongliang has been a Kunqu performing artist for over 40 years. He will share his unique insights and talk about the performance characteristics and the beauty of the vocals of Sheng (Male role), Dan (Female role), Jing (painted face), and Chou (clown) in Kunqu Opera with the guests.
Note	*Special acknowledgment to Cultural Exchange Oasis (CXO), City University of Hong Kong and the Jiangsu Performing Arts Group Kunqu Troupe

Workshop & Game Stalls
Date	27/3/2024, 2/4/2024
Time	11:30-13:30 (27/3/2024) 1600-18:00 (2/4/2024, excluding Shadow Art Adventures Workshop)
Introduction	yut6 wan5 tong4: Booth Game 1 (Level 1) Before participating in the booth game, participants should familiarize themselves with the appearance and timbre of different Cantonese ensemble instruments displayed on the exhibition board in the form of pictures. Then, the staff at booth one will play several solo excerpts of different instruments and provide three possible answers for each question. Participants need to combine the information on the exhibition board to select the correct answer and infer which instrument the recorded segment belongs to. The purpose of this booth is to give participants a preliminary understanding of the commonly used traditional and modern ensemble instruments in Cantonese music. Booth Game 2 (Level 2) Booth Game 2 will feature several excerpts from famous Cantonese ensemble musical compositions. Participants will need to listen carefully and identify the Cantonese musical instruments used in each piece. The objective of this booth is to provide participants with an opportunity to apply the knowledge they acquired from the exhibition and Booth Game 1, thereby reinforcing their understanding of the developmental history of Cantonese music. Naamyam Lyric Odyssey: Naamyam is a traditional narrative music performed in Cantonese, but it has gradually become a lost art. Our booth aims to reawaken public memory and pass this precious traditional musical culture on to the new generation. Participants will listen to a series of Naamyam performance clips and fill in the corresponding lyrics in the blanks. Upon completion, they will receive a souvenir. We hope to provide participants with a deeper understanding of Naamyam and raise awareness of conservation through this fun and entertaining approach. Shadow Art Adventures Workshop: During the festival, you will be given a chance to make your own story with the puppet packs we have prepared. You will be following our tutors’ instructions and grab the colour pen to create wonderful shadow play puppets on your own. After the amazing artwork you have created during the exhibition time, you will also be able to present the special story with the shadow play setup by us! It will be a unique experience if you have never participated in such Chinese cultural activity before. You must come and join if you have a rich interest in a huge variety of Chinese opera themes.
Note	For Shadow Art Adventures Each section will be given around 30 minutes for participants to immerse in their art-creating experience. Participants can take their puppet work away after the working section. Each participant only can join one section of this workshop. Application for this workshop will be posted on social media shortly after the relevant announcement on this festival social media. Please stay tuned.

Download Activities Timetables

Inquiry

Website: https://www.cityuculturalfestival.com/
Instagram: performingart_cultfest2024
Facebook: 新藝.傳城Performing Art in the City: Inheritance and Innovation