'It's because of their living environment, television and radio. Because Hong Kong is an international city, they are exposed to foreign and western culture.'

City University established the centre a few years back to give students a better understanding of their own culture.

All undergraduates must choose two courses from a range of topics. They are also encouraged to attend lectures, demonstrations and performances during their three years on campus.

The programme has proved highly popular with students.

What is interesting is that young people in Hong Kong are not alone in their lack of cultural knowledge.

'Even at home, they are surrounded by a western lifestyle. Their parents are not very familiar with traditional Chinese culture, so their knowledge is quite weak,' Dr Lam said.

But not everyone thinks this is a problem.

David Jiang, dean of drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, believes it is inevitable - healthy even - for there to be cultural cross-fertilisation.

'We have found that traditional theatre, or Chinese opera, is losing its audience, especially in Hong Kong,' Dr Jiang said. 'That's because of modern life. Young people need something more entertaining with a faster pace.'

Dr Jiang believes it is possible to mix the modern with the traditional and have excellent results. He also favours combining the best from east and west.

The revolutionary operas staged in China during the Cultural Revolution - a fusion of Chinese and western dance, music, staging and drama - were an excellent example of the strategy.

'Although we hated propaganda, in form it fit the requirements of modern audiences. So the results, artistically, were quite good. It was not so boring [as traditional opera] or so slow moving. And the plots could be easily followed,' Dr Jiang said.

According to Chen Hualing, a senior language instructor at the Language Institute at Lingnan University, the declining interest in traditional art forms such as Chinese opera has been a long time coming. And it all boiled down to China's waning economic and political fortunes in the modern era, dating back to the final years of the Qing dynasty.

A fan of both Peking Opera and Kunqu, China's national opera, Ms Chen believes that blaming pop culture for traditional culture's loss of status is an oversimplification of a complex problem.

'During the first and second world wars, the anti-Japanese war and the civil war, China was very poor. People were more worried about food and shelter. They had no time to think about going to the opera,' she said.

'The government also had more important things to worry about than supporting the arts. Only when your basic needs are met can you have time for culture. There is a close relationship between politics and economics and culture.'

Hung Chang-tai, professor of modern Chinese history in the School of Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, rejects claims that traditional Chinese culture is dying out. He believes it is simply evolving with the times.

'When you look at traditional culture in China, it comes in many forms,' he said. 'I don't agree that when a country modernises it abandons its own culture. You could also argue that when you modernise and face new challenges, you adhere even more strongly to your own culture.'

To support his claim, he points to the country's traditional folk customs.

'If you go to Beijing, one of the most popular folk dances is the yang'ge,' he said.

'They used to dance it in the rural areas to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. According to this theory, it should have died out by now. But it is still very much alive in the cities, but in a different form.'

Looking to the future, does traditional Chinese culture stand a chance?

'It all comes down to the country's status in the world,' Ms Chen said.

'If China's economy continues to develop, Chinese culture will be taken more seriously, both at home and abroad. China might not become an economic or a political superpower like the United States, but it could become a cultural superpower.'

Many expect China to pull out all the stops when it stages the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Could this help usher in the dawning of a new Golden Age for Chinese culture?

'[As the host of this year's Olympic Games] Greece set a very good example of how to showcase a country's culture to the world. Athens has definitely raised the bar. It will be interesting to see what happens in Beijing,' Ms Chen said.