THE ARTS
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'Maid with a Red Fly-whip'; by the Stage Club of 'The Taming of the Shrew'; by Radio Hong Kong of 'Pygmalion', of a Western classical concert by local artists, and of some contemporary Chinese music; by Rediffusion of a Cantonese serial play; and much else. Nearly 80,000 people of all ages visited the Festival Centre, Theatre and Lecture Hall while they were open.
Western amateur theatrical bodies continued on the whole to produce plays with more regard for their own enjoyment or the cultural challenge than for popular taste or the ability of the actors to carry it off. At present one ambitious, well produced and well acted 'classic' a season seems to be as much as the public will digest, if it is available. The nearest to filling this prescription in 1960 was the Garrison Players' version of Ibsen's 'Peer Gynt', although the Hong Kong Stage Club's production of 'The Strong are Lonely' by Fritz Hochwälder impressed some. The under- graduate Masquers made a brave and colourful, occasionally moving and wholly admirable presentation of Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'. That the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan can still evoke the traditional response was proved by the lively, well- sung and immensely popular production by the Hong Kong Singers of 'HMS Pinafore'.
The Hong Kong Philharmonic Society gave two chamber con- certs, three orchestral concerts and two concerts of Chinese music. Amateurs of leading recording soloists were able to compare their discs with performances alive by such pianists as Eileen Joyce, Bela Siki, Nikita Magaloff and Rudolph Serkin and violinists like Alfredo Campoli and Ruggiero Ricci. Michael Head gave a very pleasing performance of songs and lieder at the piano. Hong Kong is beginning to show that in executive accomplishment the Chinese musicians who are now startling Europe and America have not sprung in loneliness from arid soil. About 10,000 students took part in the twelfth Hong Kong Schools Music Association Festival. Some of the most successful concert soloists of 1960 included Hong Kong's own Ma Sik-hon, the violinist with his wife Miss Tung Kwong-kwong to accompany him, and Miss Mimi Chow, the pianist.
A catalogue of all the many other artistic activities and small bands of enthusiasts not already mentioned, particularly Chinese, would prove that the vitality of the Colony's artistic life is not to be