Hong Kong’s Chinese Culture Festival 2025 charts a bold, poetic future
From the philosophies of Su Dongpo to the rhythms of Xiangxi’s tea ceremonies, the festival weaves together heritage and innovation in a four-month celebration of living Chinese culture
Poetry in motion. That’s how the Chinese Culture Festival (CCF) 2025 begins—transforming verse into dance, ink into choreography.
Taking place from June to September 2025, the second edition of the CCF spans over 280 programmes, from Chinese opera and ensemble premieres to dance, theatre, films, carnival and exhibitions. But beyond its scale is a clear statement of purpose. “CCF is more than a celebration,” says Yolanda Ngai, Senior Manager of Chinese Culture Festival under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. “It’s a responsibility—to sustain heritage through new brains.”
With innovation as its vehicle and tradition as its compass, CCF 2025 also reflects Hong Kong’s broader cultural mission—to inherit and revitalise Chinese culture for a global stage. It also opens up possibilities as much as it offers answers: What does it mean to inherit a legacy? How can artists honour the past without being bound by it? This year’s CCF doesn’t simply showcase culture—it negotiates with it, inviting audiences to see Chinese tradition not as a static memory, but as something living, dynamic and full of anticipation.
Dongpo: Life in Poems
As emphasised in the opening statements, Dongpo: Life in Poems is more than symbolic—it’s delicate and compassionate. Directed by internationally acclaimed choreographer and visual artist Shen Wei, the performance breathes contemporary movement into the life and work of Su Dongpo, one of China’s most revered poet-scholars. The result is a layered fusion of music, modern dance, calligraphy, ink painting, guqin and seal carving, all set to an atmospheric score by Chen Qigang.
But this is not about nostalgia. “We’re not replicating the past,” explains Shen. “We’re allowing it to breathe in the present.” Dongpo becomes a visual meditation on memory and renewal, charting the arc of one man’s inner life to illuminate a broader cultural lineage.
As the festival’s opening spectacle, the production exemplifies this year’s programming guideline: honouring tradition not through preservation alone, but through transformation—finding new form, rhythm and life in what came before.
From ritual to resonance: Tea culture, Xi’an and the soul of tradition
If Dongpo is the philosophical overture to the festival, then the “Tea Culture” series is its sensory resonance. The series treats tea not just as a beverage, but as an aesthetic and emotional medium—a way of listening, remembering and connecting.
The Tan Dun WE-Festival is led by Tan Dun, the internationally renowned composer and conductor and Hong Kong’s Ambassador for Cultural Promotion. His pre-festival programme includes Tea: A Mirror of Soul, by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. The composer weaves the intimacy of the tea ceremony with the grandeur of orchestral composition. A prominent highlight of the concert of Xiangxi Tujia Women’s Daliuzi & Hong Kong Women’s Percussion Ensemble is the world premiere of TEA-Liuzi · Mystical Xiangxi, ingeniously creating rhythms inspired by the lives of Xiangxi’s Tujia tea-pickers and Tujia Women’s Daliuzi. Another world premiere related to tea culture is Tea Music: Water, Wind, Ceramics. Meanwhile, The Vanishing Mogao Caves resurrects Tang dynasty soundscapes through a modern lens, evoking the fragility—and resilience—of cultural relics. The broader series includes exhibitions, talks and demonstrations, bringing to life traditions inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and giving audiences a tactile experience of heritage in practice.
As Ngai noted, “We don’t duplicate tradition. We renew it.” At CCF 2025, the past is not only preserved—it is reappraised through motion, sound and spirit.
This blend of the local and the ancestral is echoed in this year’s City in Focus: Xi’an—an ancient capital reintroduced not just through artefacts from dynasties including Qin, Han and Tang, but through live performances. Once the eastern gateway to the Silk Road and the cradle of 13 dynasties, Xi’an is often viewed through its archaeology. But here, it emerges as something else: a cultural rhythm that continues to pulse.
The Youth Experimental Troupe of Qinqiang Opera, part of the Xi’an Performing Arts Group, presents Zhou Ren on the Way Home, a stirring regional piece, whose wide-ranging vocals and sweeping tones convey themes of loyalty and justice. In the acrobatic ballet Swan Lake, the Xi’an Acrobatic Troupe reinterprets a Western ballet classic through thrilling elements of Chinese acrobatics. This year, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: The Great Unity–Civilisation of the Qin and Han Dynasties in Shaanxi Province exhibition features over 130 invaluable archaeological relics from Qin and Han dynasties.
As Ngai explains: “Xi’an is a living archive. We wanted to present it not just as a historical locality, but as a symbol—of continuity, resilience and reinvention.”
From classical Chinese opera to literary revitalisations
If Xi’an embodies the legacy of ancient empires, then the Chinese Opera Festival (COF) gives voice to the moral virtues, awe-inspiring vocals and mythic archetypes that shape it. This year, the COF brings together six opera forms (Peking, Yue, Yuediao, Qinqiang, Cantonese and Kunqu) in a sweeping programme line-up that moves from dynastic epics to intimate, lyrical dramas.
Opening the COF is the China National Peking Opera Company’s new historical production Cession for Consolidation of the Song Regime, which tells the story of Qian Chu, the King of Wuyue, who voluntarily submits his territory to the Song dynasty for the greater welfare of his people. With its central themes of peace, patriotism and public duty, the production resonates with contemporary visions of identity and
collective belonging.
This year’s narrative is anchored by a cycle of Romance of Three Kingdoms–inspired plays—drawn from one of Chinese literature’s four great classics. From the battle of wits of Zhou Yu Thrice Humiliated, the heroism of The Battle at Changbanpo, to the legendary A Meeting of Heroes, Invoking the East Wind and The Huarong Pass, these performances deliver more than virtuosic technique. They also explore the inheritance of traditional Chinese Opera. Yuen Siu-fai, the Artistic Director leading two Cantonese Opera programmes, has a clear goal in mind: to preserve the legacy of the art form and pass the baton to future generations. To this end, he has gathered top local performers from three different generations to pull off the two featured operas.
Among the most distinctive interpretations is the Yuediao Opera repertory, where female performers take on xusheng (bearded male) roles. Shen Xiaomei, an acclaimed Yuediao virtuoso, stars as Zhuge Liang in Jiang Wei Surrenders, bringing nuance and grace to the legendary strategist. The troupe also presents the bittersweet comedy Li Tianbao Gets Married, showcasing the flexibility and emotional range of this lesser-known regional style.
Chinese opera lovers also enjoy the privilege of being invited backstage to take part in a range of free activities, including artist talks, masterclasses and a demonstration performance. “We want audiences to see Chinese opera not as a museum piece,” Ngai explains, “but as something alive, evolving and worth engaging with—even if you’re new to it.”
This cross-disciplinary spirit also underpins a number of works supported by the China National Arts Fund, which accentuate how heritage can serve as a creative springboard rather than constraint. Cantonese Rhyme, Poetic Homeland –
Sentiment of Chinese Music in the Greater Bay Area by Ricky Yeung Wai-kit & Sha Jingshan Recital includes original dizi and pipa compositions and crossover attempts via new piano arrangements for Poetic Homeland. The Sounds from Cultural Relics by Hong Kong Gaudeamus Dunhuang Ensemble is another cross-border attempt to translate the essence of murals and ancient artefacts into a series of music compositions. Hé: The Rite of Spring, performed by the Miranda Chin Dance Company, boldly integrates Chinese dance movements with the structure of Stravinsky’s modernist masterpiece—a fusion of legacy and leap.
That same spirit of “embracing innovation while upholding tradition” runs through two major dance drama productions featured in this year’s line-up. Azure After the Rain, by the Shanghai Dance Theatre, revisits the poetry of Li Qingzhao, illuminating her emotional depth and cultural legacy through Song dynasty aesthetics. Meanwhile, A Dream of Red Mansions reframes the Qing dynasty classic through the eyes of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling, offering a youthful, female-led lens on a national treasure. In addition, the drama Four Generations Under One Roof adapts the world-renowned classic novel by Lao She into a stage play that reflects on the fate and destiny of ordinary people living in old Beijing’s hutong during the challenging era of War of Resistance.
Innovation through inheritance: New voices, ancient roots
Across this year’s programme, some of the most compelling works are those that approach tradition not as a fixed form, but as a source of momentum.
CCF 2025 is presenting live performances featuring representative inheritors of Chinese intangible cultural heritage. Among them is Zhang Ximin, a National Intangible Cultural Heritage inheritor of Huayin Lao Qiang, who will collaborate with Zhao Taisheng and a pop music band to breathe new life into this energetic ancient vocal tradition through improvisation.
Another highlight is Quanzhou string puppetry, which was included in the First National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of China in 2006. Skilled artists will bring a host of string puppets to life, telling captivating stories through expressive gestures and intricate movements.
Beyond stage performances, the “Encountering Chinese Culture” Carnival engages the public with stage programme highlights, performances and booth activities under “Vibrant ICH”, as well as story-telling sessions and “Library on Wheels”.
“We see innovation as a mode of preservation,” explains Ngai. “When artists reinterpret traditional forms for today’s audiences, they help ensure that these traditions remain relevant, meaningful, and alive.”
A culture that moves
“The CCF isn’t just a celebration—it’s a conversation between generations and genres, between cities and histories; and between the accomplishment of what has come before and the creativity of what comes next,” Ngai stressed.
Whether through the ancient resonance of Qinqiang Opera, the quiet rituals of tea appreciation or the delicate arc of a dance across dynasties, CCF 2025 reminds audiences that tradition is not static. It evolves. It adapts. And it speaks—not just in the language of the past, but in the vivid vocabulary of now.
Building on the success of its debut edition, this year’s festival continues Hong Kong’s role as a cultural bridge—connecting audiences with the treasures of Chinese heritage while inviting new interpretations across generations and borders.
The CCF 2025 takes place from June to September. For more information, visit www.ccf.gov.hk/en/
