Soka Gakkai International Hong Kong marks anniversary with grand cultural presentation
The Soka Gakkai International of Hong Kong (HKSGI) put on a grand cultural show at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre recently.
Two thousand of its young members took part in the event: The New Century Hong Kong Youth Cultural Gala Presentation. Its theme was 'Embracing the spirit of youth in creating a century of happiness'.
The event aimed to demonstrate the organisation's confidence in and commitment to society at the start of the new millennium. The event also marked the organisation's 40th anniversary.
HKSGI chairman Lee Kong- sau said: 'The slogan of the Cultural Gala Presentation is 'Create a Century of Happiness By Ourselves'.
'The logo combines the two Chinese characters for 'happiness' and 'human'. In essence it means to share the joy of culture with people.'
The group's public relations manager Angel Yip Lai-lai said: 'It took us almost four months to get our act together. To make the event more impressive, we recruited some 700 volunteers, many of whom have special talents, such as dancing or singing.'
The show featured Chinese and Western dance, English and Chinese choirs as well as vocalists, piano, erhu and flute recitals.
One of the highlights of the programme was the 'Victory Tower' formation by the gymnastics team and the final thousand-youth march, which marked the climax of the show.
Aged from 12 to 50, performers came from 15 different countries representing every continent.
Currency dealer and HKSGI member Cheung Kwok-kit, 27, was in the gymnastics team.
Mr Cheung, who joined the organisation 15 years ago, said: 'It is a great honour to be part of the show and even more exciting is that both my younger brother and myself are performing.'
The HKSGI is the local branch of the Soka Gakkai International, founded in Japan in 1930. It is a religious organisation that promotes peace, culture and education based on the Buddhist philosophy of respecting life and the Buddhist spirit of compassion and forbearance. It is also a non- governmental organisation affiliated with the United Nations with some 10 million members in 163 countries.
