Hong Kong shows off its arts and culture for a week in Taiwan
Arts groups from dance to theatre and jazz will stage 19 performances at week-long event
Hong Kong will stage the largest roadshow of its arts and culture in Taiwan as a belated response to the island's upbeat cultural display in the city.
Fredric Mao, chairman of the event's organiser, the Hong Kong-Taiwan Cultural Co-operation Committee, lamented the lack of efforts in promoting the city's arts beyond its shores.
"There has been a Taiwan Month [in the past six years], and what have we got?" said Mao, a veteran drama director. "For nine major art groups to perform back-to-back over 10 days outside Hong Kong is something we have never done before."
The HK$8 million Taiwan roadshow will open with the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre's musical drama I have a Date with Autumn. It will close with a show by the 85 musicians of the flagship Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Other events include the experimental theatre company Zuni Icosahedron performing the stage play 1587, A Year of No Significance and the Saturday Night Jazz Orchestra under music director Taka Hirohama forming a 40-strong band with its Taiwanese counterpart for a show called Let's Swing, Taipei.
The Arts Centre will curate an exhibition on Hong Kong comics from the 1960s to the present.