The festival will feature Paris-based fashion diva Sophie Hong, who will present her silk design to the city she is indebted to for her success.
"My encounter with Xiangyun silk started with a piece of cloth I came across at a Chinese emporium here in Hong Kong," Hong recalled prior to her show, which opens tomorrow at Midtown in Causeway Bay.
"This show has gone around the world but it is not a fashion show, but one that promotes Chinese cultural education and aesthetics."
Xiangyun silk, she said, was made of natural minerals and plants dating as far back as the Ming Dynasty.
Taiwan brings a cultural love affair to Hong Kong
Tenth edition of Taiwan Culture Festival offers music, silk, puppets and creative brands
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 15 October, 2015, 12:00am
UPDATED : Thursday, 15 October, 2015, 5:40am
Robin Ruizendaal and Sophie Hong. Photo: Jonathan Wong
All things cultural from Taiwan, including flagship brands, will be on display at the tenth edition of the island's largest festival in Hong Kong.
Taiwan Culture Festival, an annual government-sponsored event bringing different types of artists and exhibits from Taiwan to Hong Kong since 2006, is going the extra mile by presenting an international cast and a miniature expo on creative industries.
"How to innovate on the basis of tradition is our strength," said Lu Chien-ying, director of Kwang Hwa Information and Culture Centre, which is presenting the festival.
"This year we would like to offer a moment of thinking and fun for Hong Kong through some of our distinguished cultural envoys," she added.
Apart from bringing the Taiwan Philharmonic, the island's top orchestra, for its Hong Kong debut, the festival will feature Paris-based fashion diva Sophie Hong, who will present her silk design to the city she is indebted to for her success.
"My encounter with Xiangyun silk started with a piece of cloth I came across at a Chinese emporium here in Hong Kong," Hong recalled prior to her show, which opens tomorrow at Midtown in Causeway Bay.
"This show has gone around the world but it is not a fashion show, but one that promotes Chinese cultural education and aesthetics."
Xiangyun silk, she said, was made of natural minerals and plants dating as far back as the Ming Dynasty.
"Traditional craft has to be recreated to give it a new life, such as through pattern and colour, and that's what I have been doing," the designer said.
Collaborating in the invitation-only show is Robin Ruizendaal, a Dutch expert in puppet theatre. "We are presenting something that is high culture but full of fun," said the Dutchman in fluent Putonghua after living in Taiwan for 22 years.
Asked why the show was being presented in Hong Kong after being showcased in some 50 places including Singapore and Macau, the puppet master laughed: "We're having a difficult love affair here. We love Hong Kong very much, but Hong Kong doesn't love us that much."
Other highlights of the month-long festival include a mini-expo featuring some 70 creative industry brands, run mostly by Taiwan's young entrepreneurs and designers, at the PMQ heritage site in Central.
"We want to exchange our dreams with our friends in Hong Kong and their dreams, and we are bringing them five Taiwan gifts - freedom, memory, persistence, hospitality and reunion," said Jerry Yen, CEO of Campobag, organiser of the exhibition.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Taiwan brings a cultural love affair to the city
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