Chapter 21: Arts
The Hong Kong Festival of the Arts, held in the first three weeks of April, was an outstanding event in the history of the arts in Hong Kong. The object was, in the Governor's words, to "show not only what Hong Kong can do, but what it is doing, successfully and continuously, in the arts." The original idea came from the Sino-British Club, but it so developed that literature, drama, visual arts and music societies united in a cooperative effort which surpassed most people's expectations.
The festival programme included live and radio per- formances in European and Chinese music and drama, and organized literary competitions in English and Chinese. One special feature was the Exhibition Centre, on the Central Reclamation, designed and erected specially for the occasion, which housed exhibitions of European and Chinese visual arts. The Government lent a large number of pictures, including the remains of the Chater Collection, the Law and Sayer Collections, and a selection of photographs of old Hong Kong. An exhibition of children's art showed the work of pupils in schools. The University School of Architecture included in its section plans for the proposed City Hall, and other designs and plans by staff and students of the School. The Amateur Ciné Club showed documentary films daily at the Centre. Over 55,000 people, including 7,000 schoolchildren, visited this exhibition. An exhibition of Chinese antiquities at the Fung Ping Shan Library attracted over 9,000 visitors. A wide range of plays was presented in English by all four amateur dramatic societies; a varied and representative choice of Chinese plays was offered by the Drama Group of the Sino-British Club; and the Schools Drama Competition prize-winners gave special public performances. The Choral Group and the Crescendo Singers gave radio concerts, the choir of St. John's Cathe- dral presented Stainer's Crucifixion, and concerts were given by the Sino-British Orchestra and the Sino-British Music Group. The erection and arrangement of the Festival Centre was a major undertaking in itself, but the real achievement of the sponsors was to bring together the various groups and