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Public Lecture Series on “Lingnan Culture and the World” 2024 - Lingnan: A Literary Landscape
Three distinct thematic lectures portray the unique literary landscape in which Lingnan rejuvenated its cultural heritage, established links between the local and global communities, and harmonised the aesthetics of the classical and the vernacular creations. Through these vivid presentations, the series highlights the enduring vitality of the Cantonese language and literature across centuries.
This talk series is one of the events of The 4th Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Culture and Arts Festival. Hong Kong is hosting the festival for the first time, organising and coordinating over 260 performances and exchange activities to be held across the "9+2" cities of the Greater Bay Area. The festival aims to showcase the vibrant and diverse cultural richness of the region and foster cultural exchange and cooperation among the cities. For detailed information about the festival, please visit www.gbacxlo.gov.hk.
This talk series is also one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has long been promoting Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public to learn more about broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ccpo/index.html.
Past Activities
| Date: |
2024/11/24 (Sunday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
The Cantonese poems in the Xixiao ji by Liao Entao (1865–1954; style name Fengshu) are in strict poetic metre and formal tone patterns, while the Cantonese vocabularies used are rather lively and witty. These poems, thus, are catchy and memorable among Cantonese readers. In fact, the Xixiao ji does not belong to a new genre, but it stems from Cantonese literature with a long-standing history. This lecture introduces some pieces from the Xixiao ji, as well as explores the origin and evolution of Cantonese literature. |
| Date: |
2024/11/23 (Saturday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
In the late Qing period of China, Hong Kong and Macau shared the doubly unique position in the Lingnan region. Both ports were the initial contact zones for the young Cantonese generation in the region to be exposed to foreign languages and western learning; both were the origins and nexus of exchange for the bourgeoning print culture, which was represented by the surge of new types of publications, such as bilingual dictionaries, language textbooks, newspapers and magazines. From this historical backdrop emerged a generation of Cantonese bilingual literati, who would in turn impact the diversifying linguistic landscape, print culture and educational environment in the region. The lecture unfolds a varied set of accessible and interesting primary sources recently found in digital archives in Hong Kong, China and the U.S., to engage the public audience in re-living the learning, working and expatriate experience of these late-Qing Cantonese bilinguals who made their very first steps in Hong Kong and Macau. The lecture will focalise two of such characters – Yung Wing (1828–1912), and Kwong Ki Chiu (1836 –1891), whose lives were deeply connected by the Chinese Education Mission to the U.S., and whose paths will shed lights on the historical moments when Lingnan literati reaches the World. |
| Date: |
2024/10/27 (Sunday) |
| Time: |
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
Literary gathering for Spring Purification (Xiuxi) on the Double Third Festival (i.e., the third day of the third lunar month) has been deep-rooted in Hong Kong literary circles. The Kam Shan Literary Society, led by scholar-merchants Chen Boqi, Liang Yaoming, Liang Qizheng, He Zhuping, and Pan Xinan (a.k.a. Pun Sun-on), organized such literary gatherings for two decades, during 1972 to 1991, consecutively. They brought together literati in Hong Kong for drinking, composing poems, making paintings and calligraphy, as well as playing music and chess. These literary gatherings were held in Nam Tin Chuk Temple in Tsuen Wan, Yan Lo on Kam Shan of Taipo, Wun Chuen Sin Kwoon in Fanling, etc., contributing greatly to the development of Hong Kong classical poetry, paintings, and calligraphy. |
