ENG-1998 — Page 433

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

National Ballet of China, the People's Theatre of Beijing in support of the Chinese Drama Festival and the Chinese Outstanding Young Soloists Series. To further enhance cultural interaction and programme enrichment, a wide variety of collaboration projects was presented, including: A Concert of Opera Highlights by Chinese Vocalists and Hong Kong Cultural Centre Midsummer Classics by the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra with outstanding students of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. The Pei Yanling Troupe of the Beijing Opera Theatre of Hebei and local veteran Cantonese opera artist Yuen Siu-fai collaborated on the Chinese opera project Thrice Taunting Zhou Yu.

Hong Kong International Film Festival

The annual Hong Kong International Film Festival, held in March/April, is one of the world's major non-competitive film festivals. The 22nd Festival in 1998 presented 263 films from more than 45 countries and attracted a total audience of 187 700.

Apart from the screening of films, a number of fringe activities were held, including exhibitions, seminars, talks, student previews and outdoor film shows. The topic of the Hong Kong Cinema Retrospective this year was Forward and Beyond: The Careers of King Hu and Eileen Chang introducing the films directed by Mr King Hu and films based on Ms Eileen Chang's (Zhang Ailing) screen plays.

Hong Kong Independent Short Film and Video Awards 1998

Jointly presented with the Hong Kong Arts Centre, the competition aims to encourage creative non-commercial independent productions of short film and video in Hong Kong and to promote public interest in film and video as artistic, communicative and expressive media. A youth category was added in 1998 to arouse the interest of students in film/video production.

Festival of Asian Arts

The Festival of Asian Arts was held over three weeks in October and November featuring 11 visiting and 24 local performing groups. Seminars, lecture- demonstrations, exhibitions and free outdoor performances augmented the main performances. A total of 164 500 persons participated in various festival activities.

International Arts Carnival

The annual International Arts Carnival entered its 17th year in 1998. It took place in July and August and comprised 41 performances of dance theatre, music, mime, puppetry and children's drama. The shows were staged by 10 visiting and 10 local groups. Other special features of the festival included a poster design competition and exhibitions as well as workshops and tours to cultural venues.

Entertainment Programmes

During the year, the Provisional Urban Council staged 228 free entertainment programmes, partly in collaboration with district organisations, in parks, playgrounds and community halls as well as the council's community arts centres. These programmes covered a variety of performing art forms, with a strong emphasis on traditional Chinese arts. They attracted more than 64 000 people.

Annual events organised by the council included the Spring Lantern Festival, the Summer Fun Festival, the Mid-Autumn Lantern Carnival, the Christmas Carnival

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