Tan Dun WE-Festival Celebrates Tea Culture Through Music and Arts in Hong Kong

"Tan Dun WE-Festival" returns to promote innovation and exchanges of Chinese culture with ancient tea-inspired music

The "Tan Dun WE-Festival", presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, returns this year with the theme of tea culture. Curated by Hong Kong's Ambassador for Cultural Promotion and internationally renowned composer and conductor, Tan Dun, the Festival features a number of stage performances that will blend the profound traditional Chinese culture with visual arts and symposiums from May 30 to June 7. It will also serve as a pre-festival event of the Chinese Culture Festival (CCF) 2025, using music to bridge East-West cultural exchanges and promote cross-cultural arts collaboration, allowing the deep heritage of Chinese culture to shine with captivating charm in Hong Kong, an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.

Brief introductions of the programmes in June are as follows:

"Xiangxi Tujia Women's Daliuzi & Hong Kong Women's Percussion Ensemble" ("TEA-liuzi" World Premiere)

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Date and time: June 4 and 5 (Wednesday and Thursday), 8pm

Venue: Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Ticket prices: $380 and $480

Enlightened by an impressionable field trip in Xiangxi (western Hunan), Tan explores the possibility of merging the "daliuzi" (percussion of Tujia) with tea culture. Drawing from tea-making techniques of leaf-whistling, tea-picking and grinding, he creates a world premiere performance of the composition "TEA-liuzi". The Hong Kong Women's Percussion Ensemble, comprising local young percussionists, will make its debut with Xiangxi Tujia Women's Daliuzi to engage in an East-West percussion dialogue that bridges the past and the future.

Lost Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Manuscripts: "The Vanishing Mogao Caves"

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Date and time: June 7 (Saturday), 8.45pm

Venue: Studio Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre

Ticket prices: $380 and $480

Tan has been immersed for years in the ancient music manuscripts of Dunhuang scores located overseas, and has recreated and produced a number of ancient musical instruments of the Tang dynasty from the murals of Dunhuang. In this programme, Tan, together with his self-founded Dunhuang Ancient Music Consort, will present an immersive and time-transcending production that revives last year's Paris premiere of "The Vanishing Mogao Caves" through ancient music and dance, vocal performances and mini operas. This edition will also feature ancient Tang music pieces.

Tickets for the above programmes will be available at URBTIX (www.urbtix.hk) starting April 15 (Tuesday). For telephone bookings, please call 3166 1288. A time-limited offer is available from April 15 to 30 for purchasing selected CCF stage programmes, the "Chinese Opera Film Shows" of the Chinese Opera Festival 2025 and the "Legacy and Vision: Conversations with Chinese Cultural Masters" lecture series. For programme enquiries and concessionary schemes, please call 2268 7321 or visit the dedicated website www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/Programme/en/music/groups_1857.html.

The above-mentioned programmes also offer two related pre-performance symposiums (in Putonghua). The first symposium, "A Dialogue between Xiangxi Tujia Women's Daliuzi & Hong Kong Women's Percussion Ensemble" will take place at 7pm on June 5 at the Studio Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, while another symposium, "Dunhuang Relics: 'A Discourse on Tea and Wine'", will be held at 8pm on June 7 at the Studio Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, during which Tan will engage in a discussion with Professor Liu Hong of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Interested audience members can attend the respective pre-performance symposiums by presenting the relevant programme tickets of Xiangxi Tujia Women's Daliuzi & Hong Kong Women's Percussion Ensemble or the Lost Tang Dynasty Music and Dance Manuscripts: "The Vanishing Mogao Caves". Admission is free. Limited seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Another Festival programme, Tan Dun | "Tea: A Mirror of Soul" by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, will be held at 8pm on May 30 and 31 at the Concert Hall of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. This opera is inspired by "The Classic of Tea" by tea master Lu Yu. Tan himself will conduct the production, imbued with the essence of Zen. Please visit the programme website www.hkphil.org/concert/tan-dun-tea-a-mirror-of-soul for more information.

First held in 2023, the "Tan Dun WE-Festival" features musicians, dancers and ensembles from the Mainland, Hong Kong and around the world that reveals fresh new approaches to music, dance and visual arts, turning the city into an international stage for cultural and arts exchanges. The Festival also attracts people from both East and West to gather in the city, showcasing the essence of Hong Kong's East-meets-West cultural DNA. Local young artists such as soprano Candice Chung, bass-baritone Apollo Wong and percussionist Karen Yu are invited to participate in this year's "Tan Dun WE-Festival", where they will perform alongside artists from both the Mainland and overseas, stimulating their creativity and bringing in new artistic perspectives.

The CCF, presented by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau and organised by the Chinese Culture Promotion Office under the LCSD, aims to promote Chinese culture and enhance the public's national identity and cultural confidence. It also aims to attract top-notch artists and arts groups from the Mainland and other parts of the world for exchanges in Chinese arts and culture. For more information about programmes and activities of the CCF 2025, please visit www.ccf.gov.hk.

"Tan Dun WE-Festival" returns to promote innovation and exchanges of Chinese culture with ancient tea-inspired music Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

"Tan Dun WE-Festival" returns to promote innovation and exchanges of Chinese culture with ancient tea-inspired music Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

"Tan Dun WE-Festival" returns to promote innovation and exchanges of Chinese culture with ancient tea-inspired music Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Hong Kong Customs detects drug trafficking case involving incoming passenger at airport

Hong Kong Customs detected a drug trafficking case involving two incoming air passengers at Hong Kong International Airport yesterday (May 1) and seized about 12 kilograms of suspected cannabis buds with an estimated market value of about $2.3 million, and nine suspected duty-not-paid cigarettes.

A 37-year-old male passenger arrived in Hong Kong from Bangkok, Thailand yesterday. During customs clearance, Customs officers found a total of about 6kg of suspected cannabis buds in his carry-on baggage. The man was subsequently arrested. After a follow-up investigation, Customs officers further arrested a 34-year-old male passenger, who also arrived from Bangkok, Thailand, and was suspected to be connected with the case, at the airport on the same day. During baggage examination, Customs officers found a total of about 6kg of suspected cannabis buds and nine duty-not-paid cigarettes in his carry-on baggage.

After an investigation, the two arrested persons involved in the case have been jointly charged with one count of trafficking in a dangerous drug. Moreover, the 34-year-old arrestee has also been charged with one count of possession of dutiable goods and one count of failing to declare to a member of the Customs and Excise Service the possession of dutiable goods. The case will be brought up at the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts on May 4.

Customs will continue to step up enforcement against drug trafficking activities through intelligence analysis. The department also reminds members of the public to stay alert and not to participate in drug trafficking activities for monetary return. They must not accept hiring or delegation from another party to carry controlled items into and out of Hong Kong. They are also reminded not to carry unknown items for other people.

Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment approach and focus on selecting passengers from high-risk regions for clearance to combat transnational drug trafficking activities.

Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.

Under the Dutiable Commodities Ordinance, any person who imports, possesses, sells or buys dutiable commodities without a valid licence commits an offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $1 million and imprisonment for two years.

Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs' 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).

Hong Kong Customs detects drug trafficking case involving incoming passenger at airport Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases