Warning - handle heritage with care: Government warned treasures could be lost
Cheung Chau Bun Festival cited as victim of its own success and a cautionary tale for officials in their efforts to preserve city's traditions
The government was warned yesterday that its efforts to identify and protect the city's cultural heritage could end up destroying Hong Kong's treasures through commercialisation.
It recently released a list of 480 items of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) after seven years of painstaking research in response to the UN Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage.
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Florence Hui Hiu-fai, undersecretary for home affairs, said safeguarding cultural heritage could be done in creative ways that fit old traditions into contemporary lifestyles. "We'd be delighted to promote ICH from a design perspective," Hui told the South China Morning Post.
Watch: Cheung Chau Bun Festival
"Commercialisation is inevitable, but the monetary terms also educate people about the value of our heritage," she said.
Some Hong Kong designers were already including ICH in their concepts, she said, and more designs evolving around the theme of ICH would boost the public's interest in learning more about the city's traditions.