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individuals interested in all the arts, thereby focussing public attention on the cultural activities of the Colony.
Celebrity visitors during the year included Messrs. Julius Katchen, Louis Kentner, Larry Adler and Maurice Clare, and the English composer and singer Mr. Michael Head, all of whom gave concerts. The visit of Dame Sybil Thorndyke and Sir Lewis Casson was a memorable event for theatre-lovers, and large audiences were captivated by their performances at recitals. A recording of a theatre forum in which they took part was broadcast twice by Radio Hong Kong.
The performance of modern Chinese straight plays is a comparatively rare occurrence, and as so much of post- Revolution Chinese thought has been expressed through the medium of straight plays this is to be deplored. The public for the Chinese legitimate theatre is not nearly as large as that for older traditional forms of musical play, incorrectly described as opera, but it is further restricted by the high rents charged by theatres. Sorrows of the Forbidden City, the story of the one from last Chinese emperor, Kuang Hsü, by Yao Hsin-nung, was one of the plays successfully produced. The Tsung Yi Dramatic Group staged Pa Kin's Home, and The Sunrise by Ts'ao Yu. The Great Wall Players presented Thunder and Rain, also by Ts'ao Yu, and the Chinese Theatre Arts Group presented The Taiping Rebellion, by Yan Han-sheng.
There were more performances of Peking Opera and better box office results than last year. The outstanding per- formance was The Suspected Slipper, with Chang O-yun in the leading rôle. Cantonese musical plays, which have the biggest box office in Hong Kong, experienced a lean year, although The Tragedy of Liang and Chu (the Romeo and Juliet of the Chinese stage) drew record audiences, thanks partly to the novelty of the revolving stage at the Lee Theatre.
The two best public libraries are still those of the British Council and the United States Information Service. The British Council maintains active interest in various cul- tural groups. The Council library and reading room, the film and filmstrip library, and a library of records, prints and pictures, provide for a variety of borrowers interested
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