PRESS, PUBLISHING, BROADCASTING, FILMS AND TOURISM 255
younger generation seems to prefer western music in all its forms. Ephemeral popular music has as many devotees in Hong Kong as elsewhere, but there is enthusiasm for western classical music. In both the Chinese and English services of Radio Hong Kong by far the greatest number of classical music artists and listeners to classical music programmes are Chinese.
Other Chinese entertainment programmes included quiz pro- grammes, film magazines and reviews, and request programmes, the latter drawing about three hundred letters each week, many of them from overseas Chinese in various Far Eastern and South- East Asian countries.
The production of radio plays continued at the same level as in the previous year, approximately fourteen plays a week being produced, eleven in Cantonese, two in Kuoyü and one in Chiuchow. The plays ranged from translations of Shakespeare and modern English plays to comedies, tragedies and serials written by Hong Kong authors. Radio Hong Kong continued to provide Radio Sarawak with recordings of Kuoyü plays; at the end of the year Radio Australia was considering the use of similar material in its Mandarin service; and Radio Malaya was consider- ing using several Cantonese plays and other programmes.
A wide range of talks and feature programmes were broadcast, including the continuation of the weekly cultural talks covering the development of Chinese drama, painting and poetry; the 'Air Doctor', a weekly health talk; and talks on photography and stamp collecting. By arrangement with the B.B.C., Sir Christopher Hinton's talks on 'The ABC of Atomic Energy' were broadcast in Cantonese and a weekly feature 'Life in Britain' dealt with subjects ranging from domestic achievements in industry and society to Britain's role in industrial expansion abroad.
Hong Kong Chinese abroad recorded their impressions in pro- grammes from the B.B.C., Radio Nederland and Radio Australia. With the number of staff available, it was only possible to produce four local features during the year, and these four pro- grammes dealt with the rundown of H.M. Dockyard, the opening of the new Kai Tak Runway, the 4th Festival of the Arts and the work of the Urban Services.
Radio Hong Kong's first full-scale coverage of an overseas sporting event was in May, when the Cantonese sports producer