ENG-1953 — Page 219

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT, 1953

Choral singing was as popular as ever. In addition to the three leading societies, the Hong Kong Singers, the Choral Group and the Crescendo Choral Society, there were many smaller private groups. The churches also played their part in encouraging choral music, St. John's Cathedral and the Roman Catholic Cathedral maintained first class choirs. Some of the church choirs presented such works as The Messiah, Elijah and The Creation, and others gave varied recital programmes.

The Schools Music Association is fulfilling its purpose of inspiring the young people to play and sing, and has provided them with many opportunities of listening to good music. The Association had a record year. Nearly 4,000 children took part in the competitions of the Fifth Annual Musical Festival and it is evident that music is in a very healthy state in Hong Kong Schools.

It is pleasant to note the greatly improved efficiency of local music shops. The wide selection of recordings, especially of long playing records and high fidelity record players, has led to a great increase in the number of records purchased.

The Hong Kong Stage Club, The Kai Tak Players and the Garrison Players (the two latter drawing their casts largely from service personnel) in public performances and in the "Theatre on the Air", reflected the intense interest in dramatic art. Nothing but praise is due to the Stage Club for their variety of productions year by year, in spite of the fact that they have no theatre. The Kai Tak Amateur Dramatic Society ably demonstrated their versatility and determination by staging three plays during the heat of the Hong Kong summer in addition to their normal programme. In a natural meeting place of east and west, two items are of special interest. The first was the production by the Wah Yan Dramatic Society of Chinese Opera in English and the second the production, in Cantonese, of "Lady Windermere's Fan," by the student-

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