Media

“Lai Chi Wo! Village Fest” (hereinafter “the Village Fest”) was officially launched today (December 21, Saturday).  Professor Lam Wai-Fung and Dr Winnie Law, Director and Deputy Director of the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at the University of Hong Kong, Lai Chi Wo village chiefs Mr Tsang Ah-Chat and Mr Tsang Wai-Yip, “Art for All” artist team and around 200 participants gathered together to sing Hakka folk songs along with Hakka folk song researcher Dr Stephen Cheung and local Hakka villagers dressed in traditional costumes, witnessing the opening of the Village Fest.

The Village Fest will be held on two consecutive weekends on 21, 22, 28 and 29 December. It has two main themes – “Hakka Culture” and “Joyful Earth”. Apart from large-scale co-creation activities in the morning, there are also a number of workshops related to Hakka culture, villages, rural environment and food in the afternoon, allowing participants to experience the joy of Hakka village life through Hakka folk song singing, soil moulding, exhibition guided tours, Hakka embroidered band knitting, earthen kiln cooking, mud brick making, and medicinal herb discovery.

The activities of the Village Fest emphasise the wisdom and fun of rural life, which include a guided tour to help participants understand how villagers in the past made use of various herbs to meet their daily needs and to cure diseases. There is also an experiential workshop to introduce how Hakka ladies knitted Hakka embroidered bands with different patterns and colours to reflect their marital status and their wishes for the future. Villagers and performers wear colourful dyed Hakka costumes using traditional plant dyeing technique. Apart from the Hakka blue dye, turmeric and sumu are also used to add bright colours of yellow and red.

The Village Fest is the first large-scale community co-created event in Lai Chi Wo.  It is organised by the Policy for Sustainability Lab of the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at the University of Hong Kong, co-organised by Lai Chi Wo Pui Shing Tong, and curated by “Art for All” and “On Earth” artist teams. Local artists and Lai Chi Wo villagers jointly curated a variety of creative activities for participants to experience the vibrancy of the Hakka village with their five senses. Through rediscovering the joyful nature of sustainable rural life, participants will get to understand the mutually supportive relationship between urban and rural areas, and put a new lifestyle into practice based on the spirit of rural-urban sustainable symbiosis.

The Village Fest is part of the “HSBC Rural Sustainability” programme. The Village Fest and other community co-created projects of the programme adopt a solidarity-based partnership model. Artists and specialist groups are invited to collaborate with rural communities to help identify and utilise rural capital, and to enhance the vibrancy of rural communities through an array of activities related to Hakka reinvention, rural art and education, natural craftsmanship and technology suitable for rural life.

Photos:
Photos of the Village Fest will be uploaded to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xJ68t6GAdB8SOVzsKcqVjv4XYcgfypor?usp=sharing

Enquiry:
Ms. YAU Anna, Project Manager, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, The University of Hong Kong (Tel: 6089-6047 / Email: annawyau@hku.hk)

Organiser: Policy for Sustainability Lab, Centre for Civil Society and Governance, The University of Hong Kong
The Policy for Sustainability Lab (PSL) formally joined the Centre for Civil Society and Governance on 1 May 2019, and became one of the Centre’s major pillars. The mission of the Centre is to contribute to the attainment of a sustainable society through forging community-based and innovative solutions to social and environmental challenges. The work of the Centre is knowledge-based, with a focus on research, knowledge dissemination, and social impact. Under the overarching mission of the Centre, PSL aspires to promote and facilitate beneficial socio-ecological interactions as a way to attain sustainability. For details, please visit https://ccsg.hku.hk/

About the “HSBC Rural Sustainability” Programme
The “HSBC Rural Sustainability” programme aims to revitalise the rural communities of Hong Kong and to promote urban-rural symbiosis and sustainable development. It revitalises the local rural areas through multiple ways including community building, socio-economic collaboration, regional innovation, sustainable development education and research, as well as start-up incubation. The programme has the vision of contributing to the long-term vibrancy and sustainability for Hong Kong’s rural community and beyond. It strives to implement the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The programme is initiated by the Policy for Sustainability Lab of the Centre for Civil Society and Governance at The University of Hong Kong and supported by HSBC and the Environment Bureau of HKSAR. For details, please visit https://www.socsc.hku.hk/psl/laichiwo/en/

About “Art for All”
“Art for All” is a non-profit Community Art Charitable Organisation established in 2001 which aims at assisting socially underprivileged people. The team launched the “Murmur of the Bricks” art installation project which uses soil and straw in Lai Chi Wo to make adobe bricks and transforms an old village house into an interactive art installation to inherit the almost forgotten stories and songs of Lai Chi Wo Village. The art installation drives audience’s contemplation to Hakka culture, vernacular aesthetics, traditional crafts and the values of rural villages in the contemporary society. For details, please visit https://www.facebook.com/artf4allHK/

About “On Earth”
“On Earth” is an art project launched in Lai Chi Wo in 2019 by a group of ceramist and artists. The project focuses on the “People”, “Land” and “Natural Resources” of Lai Chi Wo with ceramic art as the vehicle for exploration. The project team organises various activities that allow participants and villagers to learn about ceramic art, create Lai Chi Wo characteristic art pieces, and record villagers’ stories. The result of the project is shared with both the local and overseas public to help them apprehend Lai Chi Wo from different perspectives and help villagers and their descendants jointly sustain the beautiful rural land and natural ecological environment of Lai Chi Wo. For details, please visit https://www.facebook.com/onearthartproject/