ENG-1961 — Page 330

PUBLICATIONS, BROADCASTING AND FILMS

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Cantonese. Kuoyu programmes include news, plays, music, talks, and programmes relayed from the BBC Chiuchow programmes include news, plays and music, while Hakka broadcasts are limited to a daily news bulletin and a weekly programme for farmers.

The most significant difference between the English and Chinese Services is that, whereas the English Service has to rely con- siderably on recorded programme material, the Chinese Service has practically no recorded material available to it. It does, however, have a wealth of talent and the bulk of its programmes are produced in Hong Kong.

The increase in spoken word programmes on the English Service was matched by a similar increase on the Chinese Service. The series 'The Government and the People' was broadcast in Cantonese, and a wide range of Government activities was covered every week in the news magazine programme 'Topical Events'.

Drama production in Cantonese increased from an average of twenty to an average of thirty plays a week. The greatest problem facing the drama producer in Hong Kong is the search for good script material; consumption is high and the Chinese Services of Radio Hong Kong, Commercial Radio and Rediffusion between them broadcast about one hundred and thirty plays weekly. Because the number of good dramatic works expressly written for sound radio is disappointingly small, Radio Hong Kong's efforts to improve the quality of its drama output in Chinese have perforce included the dramatization of classical Chinese novels, the adapta- tion of novels by contemporary writers in Hong Kong and the translation of works by western authors. Although it might be thought that the west would be able to offer unlimited material for use in Chinese, in practice this is not so, since many stories, plays and novels are set in social surroundings and societies which are so alien to the experience of the majority of listeners that the material loses all its dramatic impact. However, in the field of light entertainment two notable successes have been scored this year, with the production in Cantonese of the well-known science fiction serial Journey into Space', and the detective serial 'Inspector Scott Investigates', both originally BBC Light Pro- gramme productions.

For some years past a weekly 'Farmers' Magazine' has been broadcast for New Territories farmers with the co-operation of the

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