The second edition of the Chinese Culture Festival (CCF) returns to Hong Kong this summer with over 280 performing arts programmes, film screenings, exhibitions, and other events. The festival opens with ‘Dongpo: Life in Poems’, where the thoughts and emotions in Song dynasty poet Su Dongpo’s works are represented through modern dance blended with traditional Chinese painting, calligraphy, seal engraving, guqin, and other traditional elements of Chinese culture.
As part of the larger festival, there will also be a Chinese Opera Festival featuring six different types of opera, including Cantonese, Peking, Yuediao, Qingqiang, Yue, and Kunqu. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between all these types of Chinese opera, then this festival is a fantastic way to compare and contrast for yourself. Fans of classic Chinese literature will no doubt also appreciate that these plays are inspired by Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the four great Chinese novels – some of the story arcs covered in these performances include ‘Zhou Yu Thrice Humiliated’, ‘The Battle at Changbanpo’, and ‘Jiang Wei Surrenders’. These opera shows will be accompanied by masterclasses, meet-the-artist sessions, backstage tours, and more.
Aside from Chinese opera, the CCF will also include several dance performances. A particularly interesting one is the dance production of A Dream of Red Mansions, another of the four great Chinese novels, which retells the story of China’s most well-known tragic love triangle from the perspective of the 12 female beauties in the novel. A troupe from Xi’an – which is the city of focus in this year’s CCF – will also put on an acrobatic rendition of the ‘Swan Lake’ ballet.
Look out also for the range of film programmes that will be on show. There is a specific focus on films set in the Qin and Han dynasties, such as the Hong Kong historical drama The Great Conqueror’s Concubine (1994) by Stephen Shin, starring Gong Li, Ray Lui, and Zhang Fengyi; as well as the depiction of Guan Gong – the military deity also known as Guan Yu – in Cantonese opera, as seen in the rarely shown colour film General Kwan Escorts His Sisters-in-Law on a Thousand Mile Journey (1957).
The CCF 2025 will include plenty more programmes and events, ranging from orchestra performances and exhibitions of archaeological relics, to Shaolin wushu displays and even ancient Chinese marionette puppet shows. Running from April 16 through to September 28, keep an eye on the schedule of upcoming CCF performances and events here. Tickets will open for sale from April 15, and prices will differ depending on the specific events, but there will be a limited-time discount of up to 30-percent off until April 30.
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