“Mila”, a world premiere chamber opera at the Asia Society, Hong Kong, 18-21 February
It’s not often, if ever, that Hong Kong holds two opera world premieres in a single week; 2018 is off to a good start.
“The Silver Age: Origins and Trade of Chinese Export Silver”, edited by Libby Lai-Pik Chan
Not only is The Silver Age: Origins and Trade of Chinese Export Silver a useful companion to the Hong Kong Maritime Museum exhibition of the same name, the catalog has enough material, extending well beyond the exhibition, to be a valuable volume in its own right.
“Confessions of a Hong Kong Naturalist” by Graham Reels
Scientists don’t write autobiographies. That’s strange, really, because in most cases they’re obliged to record everything they do in some sort of laboratory notebook for either patent or publication purposes. Here, though, we have an exception. In Confessions of a Hong Kong Naturalist, Graham Reels recounts 12 years of wading watercourses, slogging through swamps and…
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“The art form of the future”: an interview with Neal Goren
Nicholas Gordon talks to Neal Goren, music director for the world premier run of the chamber opera Mila at the Asia Society in Hong Kong.
“Ghost Love”, new Chinese-language chamber opera, Hong Kong, 12-14 January 2018
Hong Kong can be a curious place. Ghost Love is a new Putonghua-language chamber opera, conceived and written locally, receiving what is—insofar as I can tell—its world premier this weekend, and yet, despite a number of attractive posters placed around town, there is hardly any mention of this in the press or online.
Chinese Export Silver at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum
Although China’s centuries-long demand for silver was one of the catalysts for the birth of globalization, silver products were also an important Chinese export. So-called “Chinese export silver” is the subject of a current exhibition at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum.
Anglophone City Poetics and the Asian Experience: An interview with Jennifer Wong
Tammy Ho Lai-Ming and Jason Eng Hun Lee spoke with Jennifer Wong, poet and author of Goldfish.
Asia Global Institute launches new journal: AsiaGlobal Online
The Asia Global Institute at the University of Hong Kong has launched AsiaGlobal Online, a new journal focusing on “policy-relevant insights on global issues and from Asian perspectives.”
“La Traviata”, More than Musical, Hong Kong, 14-17 December
Rather than mounting a second production, Hong Kong’s newest opera company, “More than Musical”, decided to reprise La Traviata, first shown here in June. This was probably a wise decision, artistically and logistically; after all, due to the deliberately small size of the spaces that the company uses for intimacy, only a few hundred people—fewer…
“La Bohème” in pictures, Hong Kong, December 2017
A selection of photos from Musica Viva’s “La Bohème”, December 2017.
Wasafiri’s “Writing Hong Kong” issue
At the British Council in Hong Kong on Friday, the UK literary quarterly Wasafiri launched an issue dedicated to writing from the former British colony.
“In The Land Of Pagodas: A Classic Account of Travel in Hong Kong, Macao, Shanghai, Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou” by Alfred Raquez
Think hard; use your imagination. Try to remember the time when the world was not an oyster, with its pearl geolocalized on Google Maps, rated on TripAdvisor, its best sights already pre-dissected on The Lonely Planet and travel blogs. There was an era during which the world had not shrunk yet to a global playground…
People still read newspapers (at least in Hong Kong): sketches by Adolfo Arranz
Originally from Spain, Adolfo Arrantz’s day job is Deputy Head of infographics and illustration at the South China Morning Post.
“Aida”, Opera Hong Kong 10-15 October 2017
Whether the casts for this week’s Aida are the best ever assembled for opera in Hong Kong—they have some competition from Hong Kong Arts Festival productions, including a Simon Boccanegra with Roberto Frontali, Michele Pertusi, Giorgio Berrugi and Erika Grimaldi, and a Traviata with Carmen Giannattasio and José Bros—is the sort of thing opera-goers love…
“Reduced to a Symbolical Scale: The Evacuation of British Women and Children from Hong Kong to Australia in 1940” by Tony Banham
Tony Banham has produced a very clear and detailed account of the civilian evacuations from Hong Kong in July of 1940. His extensive detail makes it clear that the evacuation’s potentially complicated logistics in fact went off much more smoothly than might have been expected. Less than half of Hong Kong’s British population was evacuated,…
