Key words Search–Talk on Chinese Classics: Appreciation and Emulation of Chinese Calligraphy
| Date: |
2025/7/27 (Sunday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
“Gongs and drums beaten aloud with streets and alleys packed with people” is the memory of the Lo Pan (Master) Festival in the past. Venerated as the deity of the construction industry, Lo Pan is worshipped in shops and offices as well as temples purposefully built for this master. The Lo Pan Festival is still considered a major event of the industry today. By introducing how different districts of Hong Kong celebrate the festival and the ups and downs of celebration activities over the years, this talk will explore the changes in the culture and beliefs of the Hong Kong’s construction industry. |
| Date: |
2023/10/7 (Saturday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre)
|
| Description: |
The evolution of medical practices and technologies in Hong Kong sheds light on the development of the city’s obstetric services. In the “Age of Wenpo (Chinese midwives)” more than a century ago, women gave birth at home. Subsequently, western midwives were introduced and the government vigorously encouraged women to give birth in hospitals in an effort to reduce maternal and infant mortality rates. The demand for midwives surged as a result. After the Second World War, society gradually stabilised, and while the demand for obstetric services continued to grow, a baby boom put the obstetric services of public hospitals under unbearable strain. Indeed, the development of obstetrics was inextricably linked with society and people’s livelihood.
The obstetric services of Kwong Wah Hospital played a major role in the development of Obstetrics in Hong Kong. Countless babies have been born in the hospital since its establishment in 1911. In 2017, Kwong Wah Hospital transferred the records of its Labour Room from 1935 to 1991 to the TWGHs Records and Heritage Office for permanent preservation and research purposes. In this talk, the speaker will offer a detailed account of how obstetric and midwife services were linked to social development in Hong Kong. She will also share the insights she gained from examining the records of the Labour Room of Kwong Wah Hospital. |
| Date: |
2024/9/21 (Saturday) |
| Time: |
3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: |
City Hall Public Library (Extension Activities Room, 8/F, High Block, Hong Kong City Hall)
|
| Description: |
The talk is also one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has all along promoted Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public learn more about broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ccpo/index.html. |
| Date: |
2025/11/2 (Sunday) |
| Time: |
10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
Festivals are an integral part of our lives. Starting from life experience, this lecture attempts to explain what the speaker has seen and heard in the process of moving from armchair to the field since 1975, and at the same time discuss issues and thoughts arising from long-term participant observation and cross-regional comparison.
The Jiao in Hong Kong is not only an important religious festival. For different regional communities, this is an important ritual tool for defining the community’s geographical and population boundaries and establishing ethnic identity. However, from the perspective of long-term follow-up observation, the rituals, content, and interpretation of the local communities’ Jiao festival are constantly adjusted due to changes in the macro-environment and micro-ecology. Therefore, the speaker attempts to use this opportunity to reorganize his half a century field experience from the process of observation and thinking, on the one hand, he will reminisce about the nostalgic past, and on the other hand, he will provide the audience with an insight into the long-term dynamic religious festival landscape of the regional communities in Hong Kong. |
| Date: |
2024/11/2 (Saturday) |
| Time: |
4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
| Venue: |
City Hall Public Library (Extension Activities Room, 8/F, High Block, Hong Kong City Hall)
|
| Description: |
The workshop is also one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has all along promoted Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public learn more about broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/ccpo/index.html. |
| Date: |
2026/7/19 (Sunday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Hong Kong Central Library (Lecture Theatre, G/F)
|
| Description: |
“Today, we are far apart, and meeting has become difficult; thus I drift alone under the cool evening sky on a silent boat.” These lines, from the classic Cantonese Nanyin “A Wanderer’s Autumn Grief”, are performed time and again by actors appearing in Hong Kong films. Whenever the tunes pop up, they stir a collective memory of Nanyin among Hong Kong people. From the movie “Rouge” more than thirty years ago to the more recent “The Last Dance”, the haunting melody of Nanyin seems like a secret code that always quietly plays on the heartstrings of the Cantonese community. This enduring resonance is no coincidence, probably because Nanyin has been performed by gushi (blind male singers) and Cantonese opera singers in Hong Kong for generations. In contrast, another form of narrative singing Yue’ou, which was presented in the Cantonese vernacular by shiniang (blind female artists) in Hong Kong half a century ago, has been almost completely forgotten. Both Nanyin and Yue’ou belong to the same tradition of narrative song art, with the former being remembered while the latter slipping into oblivion. Remembrance and forgetting are two sides of the same coin. When we speak of “Hong Kong memories”, one may ask, “What exactly have we forgotten?” |
| Date: |
2026/8/22 (Saturday) |
| Time: |
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
| Venue: |
Kowloon Public Library (Extension Activities Room)
|
| Description: |
As Hong Kong underwent rapid urbanisation, many villages were relocated, demolished or simply erased from maps. Today, memories of these villages are fading with time, teetering on the brink of oblivion. Through collections of oral history, archival documents and old maps, this talk revives the images of these forgotten villages, retells their stories and rewrites a collective memory of Hong Kong. |
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