The two-week “Song’s Culture: Discovery, Innovation and Re-representation” cultural festival, a final-year project of more than 40 students majoring in Culture and Heritage Management, celebrated aspects of the Song Dynasty’s heritage from 16 to 25 April in 4/F Blue Zone, Yeung Kin Man Academic Building. The festival was abuzz with activity as students gave demonstrations and answered questions from visitors.

Under the guidance of Senior Tutor Dr Marianne WONG and Instructor WONG King-chung of the Department of Chinese and History, the students organised the festival from scratch, combining projects from the courses “Advanced Management for Cultural Professionals” and “Event Management”. The students were responsible for all aspects of the operations, including conducting the initial research, identifying subtopics, promoting the event and liaising with sponsors. This required them to apply all of the theories they had learned in the classroom over the past four years.

Toby CHEUNG, who focused on marketing, recalled how their committee successfully enlisted the help of sponsors. The students attended a workshop by Kwong Wah Printing Co, which loaned its movable type for display, and asked for support. “It took persistence. Many sponsors offered assistance in kind, like printing the giant stage backdrop and letting us use their studio for free,” Cheung said.

The festival featured many interactive exhibitions of movable type, tea and fortune telling, live music performances and drama, a period costume parade, sneaker painting, incense workshops and public lecture series. The activities vividly evoked the dynasty’s vibrant scenes captured a millennium ago in the iconic painting “Along the River during the Qingming Festival”.