PRESS, BROADCASTING, FILMS AND TOURISM
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represent a completely new idea in Chinese radio entertain- ment, and their popularity is therefore all the more gratifying.
In a more serious vein, a long-felt need was satisfied during the year with the broadcasting of a series of 'English by Radio' lessons in Cantonese and Kuoyu. These lessons were prepared by the 'English by Radio' section of the B.B.C., and have been extremely well received by listeners. The series is continuing.
In November the normal languages used in the Chinese service, Cantonese, Kuoyu and Chiuchow, were supple- mented by Hakka, in which a daily news broadcast was made.
Radio Hong Kong again made its own contribution to the Hong Kong Festival of the Arts. Together with broad- casts of the dramatic and musical productions produced for stage audiences, two radio plays were broadcast as festival productions-'Lady Precious Stream' by Dr. S. I. Hsiung in English, and 'Displaced Persons' by Ursula Bloom in Cantonese.
The insatiable demand of the Chinese service for good radio-play scripts led to a greatly increased use of translations of English radio-plays. Apart from remedying the shortage of good Chinese scripts, this policy has helped to introduce the English way of life and thought to Chinese audiences, and to give guidance in the art of play-writing to Chinese script writers.
The European listener with special interests was catered for to a greater extent, and to the programmes for those who drive cars, kick balls, read books, listen to music, and so forth, were added programmes for filmgoers ('Going to the Pictures'), for women ('Women Only'), and for just plain listeners (Thursday Scrapbook'). A novel and successful experiment was carried out in February when Radio Hong Kong joined forces with Rediffusion in supporting the drive for funds organized by the Hong Kong 'Tiger' Standard to