The Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo (HKBPE), lasting for 24 days, has opened at Victoria Park this weekend and will run until January 5th next year. Some citizens have arrived early to queue up at the site on the opening day and successfully snapped up abalones with the prices of merely 1 HKD. At the Expo, some exhibitors have provided discounts and lucky bags to attract customers. As for them, they felt optimistic about the expected sales performance this year, hoping to achieve a growth of 15% to 20%.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
On Saturday morning, some citizens arrived early with trolleys, eco-friendly bags, and other purchase items to queue up, hoping to successfully purchase the 1-HKD lucky bags, containing abalones, bird's-nests, and shrimp roe noodles, etc. The stall offering 1-HKD abalone lucky bags would have 20 quotas available each day. Nevertheless, all the lucky bags provided for the opening day were snapped up rapidly after the Expo was unveiled. The citizens who have successfully purchased the lucky bags expressed their excitement and planned to spend several thousand HKD at the Expo to buy dried seafood & tonics. Besides, some citizens have also bought half a kilogram of semi-Dried oysters for merely 300 HKD, which was cheaper than the market price. They said that they would visit the HKBPE every year, since the Expo would provide plenty of goods choices. As for the purchase plan this year, they expected to spend 3,000 HKD on purchasing New Year's goods.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
Some exhibitors revealed their optimism about the sales performance this year, expecting a growth of 15% to 20%. In order to attract customers, they have prepared sufficient stock quantity and planned to release a series of promotional activities and new products.
Dr Wingco Lo, the President of the Chinese Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong, said in the opening speech that in the face of the dual challenges of the complex and volatile external environment and the transformed consumption patterns, the industrial and commercial circles have been actively seeking a transition pathway. Driven by the development of the local mega events economy, the popularity and prosperity of consumption in Hong Kong have revived. He also mentioned that the queuing up of visitors on the opening day could be regarded as the best proof of local consumer confidence.
Over 900 booths will be installed and divided into 12 themed exhibition areas at the HKBPE this year. Meanwhile, on-site bars and dining zones will also be set up. The organizer of the Expo expected that the 2025 Expo would attract 1.3 million visitors and generate sales figures of 1 billion HKD, which would be similar to the data of last year.
The 2025 HKBPE, Photo by Bastille Post
MILAN (AP) — German contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer pays tribute to one of Milan’s most majestic yet melancholy spaces inside Palazzo Reale with the site-specific exhibition titled “The Women Alchemists,’’ previewed on Tuesday as part of the city’s cultural programming for the 2026 Winter Olympics
The artist was inspired by the crumbling caryatids, or sculpted female figures that served as architectural supports, inside the palace’s Sala delle Cariatidi, a ceremonial hall severely damaged in a 1943 Allied bombing during World War II.
Kiefer said he was immediately inspired by the room and the fragmented female figures, left as a memorial to the destruction of war.
“I quickly came to the idea of the women alchemists, that is, women who were equal with men, who experimented with medicine exactly as men,’’ said Kiefer, 80, one of Germany’s most acclaimed postwar artists known for monumental works that examine history, memory and collective trauma.
He set to work on 42 panels, some six meters (nearly 19 feet) tall, each featuring a female alchemist whose contributions to early chemistry and medicine were lost to history, elevating male achievement instead.
Despite the subject matter, the artist insisted his was not a feminist exhibition.
“I am half woman. How can it be feminist?’’ he asked a packed conference room, to applause.
The show’s curator, Gabriella Belli, clarified that the show was “an act of important recognition, and not necessarily an act of justice or feminism.’’
Kiefer initially wanted to hang the paintings high on the wall above the fragile caryatids, but that wasn’t allowed.
Instead, the paintings zig-zag across the ballroom floor like ornamental screens, creating a pathway for visitors to reflect on the lives of the 38 women depicted, including Milan’s own Caterina Sforza, whose father was Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1466-1476.
The images play off the original wall mirrors by the artist’s intention, creating “an interaction between what is hidden, and what is revealed,’’ Kiefer said. He achieved the effect by recreating the museum space in his studio, placing mirrors in their corresponding positions.
Kiefer represents each of his female alchemists in full figure, contrasting with the crumbling half-bodies of the caryatids.
The imposing canvases invite reflection in the swirls of thick paint, dominated by a blueish-green, gold, black and silver. The female alchemists, often seen as witches, are depicted with three-dimensional plants that formed the basis of their work, and books where they recorded their results. There are clouds and shrouds, denoting their mystery.
“Kiefer is an alchemist in the way he approaches art,’’ said Belli, the curator. “For him, painting is always birth, destruction, regeneration, birth, destruction, regeneration. This is the process of alchemy, which is the transformation of matter.''
“The Women Alchemists” runs Feb. 7-Sept. 27, part of the city of Milan’s cultural calendar to accompany the Games that also includes the rare opening of a room in the Sforza Castle featuring a wall painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
Kiefer has a long history with Italy and Milan. His installation, “The Seven Heavenly Palaces,” is a permanent exhibition across town in the Hangar Bicocca, making the similarly monumental “The Women Alchemists” exhibition a powerful counterpoint.
Still, the city’s top cultural official, Tommaso Sacchi, said there are no plans at the moment to keep the exhibition on permanent display.
“I am not here to announce the complete donation of the works to Palazzo Reale,’’ Sacchi joked.
A view of the presentation of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
A view of the presentation of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
A view of part of the artwork on display of Anselm Kiefer's exhibition Le Alchimiste at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer is photographed during the presentation of his exhibition Le Alchimiste, at Palazzo Reale, part of the official cultural programme for the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
