CULTURE
Creativity index of Hong Kong
V.R. DEVIKA
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Hong Kong is trying to a creativity context that maps the cultural, social, human and infrastructural capital.
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The best thing was an outing to the museum to see the “Mona Lisa” of China, A painting CALLED “Along the River During Qingming Festival” attributed to Zhang Zedduan, a Song Dynasty artist.
It is not impossible. The Hong Kong Chinese Cuisine Training Centre Institute on the hill of Pokfulam, treated the vegetarian delegates of the World Creativity Summit in Hong Kong recently with a full vegetarian meal. A round table by the big window
with a grand view of the sea was set aside for us. I thought there would be just us four Indian delegates but surprise! We were joined by Steven Pang and Evelyna Laing Kan of Hong Kong, Catherine Karinki of Kenya and Jane Marin, a Scot who lives and works in Cambodia.
Hong Kong is offering much vegetarian stuff on the streets too, the French restaurants and even American Starbucks coffee outlets have delightful vegetarian stuff.
The World Creativity Summit was held at the Bethanie campus of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. In the opening session, Dr. Ada Wong, the institute’s chair and a politician, talked of Hong Kong’s non-tourist side, about the mounds of waste created in Hong Kong, of heritage streets being demolished for development… Bethanie campus itself is a heritage building. The French Missionary Fathers built it in 1875 and were there until 1974. It deteriorated until 2006 when it was carefully restored and converted for use by the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.
On Wedding Card Street
We walked through Lee Tung Street, also known as Wedding Card Street, once home to the printing and selling of wedding and other cards. Chinese people from around the world got their wedding cards done here. The Urban Renewal Authority plans to replace the densely inhabited street with new residential towers and shops. A three-year-long battle by residents to keep their vibrant community alive has come to its end.
On every store is a label that says it will be demolished soon for urban land renewal. Just as the government is knocking down Wedding Card Street and the old harbour piers, it has spent millions of dollars on new “heritage” attractions.
Hong Kong is also looking at creating a creativity context for itself. Measuring the tolerance, economic and creativity growth since 2000, the index maps the cultural, social, human and infrastructural capital in Hong Kong. Cultural capital was mapped counting the number of performances, cultural norms placed on creativity, value placed on overall creativity, perception of artistic expressions trust, acceptance of diversity and other indicators like relationship between economic growth and culture industry...
The best thing was an outing to the museum to see the “Mona Lisa” of China, a painting called “Along the River During Qingming Festival” attributed to Zhang Zedduan, a Song Dynasty artist. Thousands have been queuing up to see the painting in the “Pride of China” festival brought in from mainland China to Hong Kong. As an artistic creation, the painting is revered, and court artists of subsequent dynasties have made several reproductions.
Geometrically accurate
The painting is famous because of its accurate images of boats, bridges, shops, and the scenery. It captures the daily life of people from the Song period at the capital, Bianjing (today’s Kaifeng). The theme celebrates the Qingming Festival. The entire piece was painted in hand scroll format and the content reveals the lifestyle of all levels of the society (from rich to poor) as well as different economic activities in rural areas and the city. It offers a glimpse of the clothing and architecture during the period.
Scholars have disputed the accuracy of the translation of painting’s name; the word “Qingming” can refer to either the Qingming festival or to peace and order, two translations have been proposed by scholars: “Going Upriver on the Qingming Festival” or “Peace Reigns Over the River”.
In a rare move, the original painting was exhibited to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, and was on display until mid-August. The show has portions of the painting blown up to huge hoardings.
There are several books on the painting and analysis of each part of the painting is greatly discussed. Each viewer also gets a gift of miniature print of the painting rolled up as a souvenir.
The writer is a cultural activist, freelance writer and educationist based in Chennai.
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