Director's Message
Welcome to the website of the Xiqu and Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre (XICH)!
The Education University of Hong Kong has always been devoted to promoting and inheriting Chinese traditional culture. For Cantonese Opera, there has been significant progress in terms of its social status, performance, and content thanks to the contributions of numerous stakeholders. However, education on appreciating Cantonese opera is still not receiving enough attention. Thus, facilitating the continuous development of professional artists’ personal techniques and styles, generating new and young audiences among existing and future generations, and nurturing quality audiences in such a way that they are able to provide pertinent responses to performances have become the key challenges for the modern transmission and development of Cantonese opera. Research Centre for Transmission of Cantonese Opera (hereafter RCTCO) was therefore established to actively promote and facilitate the education of Cantonese opera through various channels. In addition to conducting research on these relevant issues, we also provided support for commissioned research projects. Since its establishment in 2018, with the support of various individuals and organizations, RCTCO has made encouraging achievements in the education, promotion, and research of Cantonese opera, such as providing training for in-service teachers, holding lectures and seminars on different topics in the community, publishing academic articles, and editing books and proceedings, etc.
In August 2023, we expanded the scope of research, teaching, and promotion, and the Centre was renamed the "Xiqu and Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre". It is placed under the newly established “Academy for Educational Development” and Innovation (AEDI), aiming to promote and transmit Chinese culture more widely both locally and overseas. Succeeding the previous direction of promoting Cantonese opera, the new center expands its scope to other Xiqu genres and all intangible cultural heritage projects. We aim to promote Chinese traditional culture and advance Hong Kong as a cultural and artistic exchange hub between China and the world.
On this website, we will share information and highlights of the Centre's activities, as well as teaching materials, academic research reports, and publications related to Xiqu developed by us. We hope to convey the beauty and value of Xiqu to the public and enhance awareness and respect for Xiqu and the intangible cultural heritages.
Since XICH is a self-funded body, sponsorships and donations from the public are most welcome. At the same time, we eagerly look forward to collaborating with all sectors to promote the cause of Xiqu and the intangible cultural heritages, allowing this precious to shine in modern society. We sincerely appreciate your feedback and encourage you to join us in protecting and inheritingall intangible cultural heritages related to Chinese culture. Thank you very much for your support and attention.
Professor Leung Bo-Wah
Executive Director of XICH