RECREATION AND THE ARTS
Hong Kong Festival Fringe
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The Festival Fringe is an open arts festival that takes place at the same time as the annual Hong Kong Arts Festival. It comprises four weeks of shows and exhibitions contributed by local and overseas artists in indoor and outdoor venues throughout Hong Kong. All the artists present their shows with their own financial resources.
The Fringe provides a year-round venue at the Fringe Club for performers and artists to create new works and polish their skills. In the past year, 116 different shows, 20 exhibi- tions, and 26 different training courses were held at the Fringe Club. The premises are made available rent-free by the government.
Festival of Asian Arts
The Festival of Asian Arts, one of the most important international cultural events in the region and organised by the Urban Council, celebrated its 11th year. The 17-day festival was held from October 17 to November 2, featuring 10 overseas and six local groups. Performers from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand presented various facets of Asian culture ranging from contempor- ary jazz music and popular spiritual singing to ritual dances and experimental theatre.
Performances were presented at the City Hall Concert Hall and Theatre, the Ko Shan Theatre, the Space Museum Lecture Hall and the Hong Kong Coliseum. In addition, there were free performances in parks and playgrounds.
The festival also included several lectures and demonstrations by visiting and local artists to promote appreciation and understanding of various Asian performing art forms. Four museum exhibitions were held to coincide with the festival.
The festival events attracted 407 160 people.
Hong Kong International Film Festival
Held for the tenth year in 1986, the Hong Kong International Film Festival has grown from a modest regional festival to become one of the most eclectic film festivals in the world, gaining international recognition as a showcase for Asian cinema.
The tenth festival, held from March 27 to April 11, featured new productions from 29 countries, and several retrospective programmes. There were mini tributes to Max Ophuls and Jean-Luc Godard, whose distinctive styles of cinematography had greatly influenced the development of European cinema. A special programme on "The Best of Heinosuke Gosho' was presented, showing 12 best works of the Japanese filmmaker, acclaimed in Japan as one of the greatest masters but little known abroad. To celebrate the anniversary and in recognition of the local film industry, 15 local works were highlighted in the retrospective: 'Ten Years of Hong Kong Cinema (1976-85)'.
In addition, Cantonese melodramas made in the 1950s and 1960s were chosen as the topic for the Hong Kong Cinema Retrospective Section, and a small programme was dedicated to Li Chenfeng, a renowned film director on the Cantonese melodrama genre who died in May 1985.
International Theatrical Carnival
The International Theatrical Carnival was organised by the Urban Council to provide entertainment programmes for the enjoyment of children and young people during the summer holidays.
Six groups from China, Britain, Canada, Austria, Holland and the United States took part in the carnival. Together with five local performing groups they gave 37 performances