Establishing the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance for Creative Arts to promote cooperation and exchanges

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance for Creative Arts held its inauguration ceremony cum first conference at EdUHK’s Taipo campus on 17 May 2024. The alliance was initiated by Sun Yat-sen University, South China University of Technology, South China Normal University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangdong University of Finance and Economics, The Education University of Hong Kong, and Macau Polytechnic University, with the aim to promote exchanges, collaboration, and resources-sharing among member institutions in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau in the field of creative arts. The Department of Cultural and Creative Arts (CCA) of EdUHK serves as the secretariat of the alliance.

In a videoed message, President Professor John Lee Chi-kin said that the Central Government’s Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan supports Hong Kong in developing itself into a hub for cultural and art exchanges between China and the world. “As the cultural hub of South China, Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have rich artistic resources and unique cultural heritage. I believe that the establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance for Creative Arts will bring new opportunities for academic exchanges and cooperation in the region,” Professor Lee said.

In his welcoming speech at the inauguration ceremony, Dr Thomas Tam Cheung-on, Associate Professor from CCA and committee chairman of the alliance, thanked all attendees for coming to witness the establishment of the alliance. He said the alliance aims to enhance the level of cooperation in the field of creative arts between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao, as well as to promote cross-border cooperation and innovation.

Dr Tam said art is not only about the pursuit of beauty, but also to give people the power to change the world. “We are in an age where creative arts are rapidly expanding their boundary. Today, creative arts include not only visual arts, but also music, literature, dance, design, drama, and many other disciplines. Through creative arts, we express our wisdom and emotion, and display our creativity and unique perspective about the world,” Dr Tam said.

Dr Tam shared his expectations for the alliance at the ceremony. “I hope the alliance will encourage cross-border cooperation and exchanges among artists, designers, musicians, and writers from universities in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. Secondly, the alliance is expected to promote sharing of resources, including teaching resources, research outcomes, exhibitions and performance opportunities, and so on. This will help raise the standard of creative arts of universities from the three places and enable us to make progress together,” he said.

The expert in art appreciation and criticism and art museum education also expects the alliance to build up its social influence. He hopes that members of the alliance would pay attention to social issues, convey positive energy and attract public concerns about creative artworks. Dr Tam also wishes that the alliance would help cultivate a new generation of artists. “The newly formed alliance should be committed to cultivating young artists and art educators, providing them with opportunities to inherit artistic knowledge, and encourage them to be courageous in innovation and dare to challenge tradition,” he said.

At the inaugural ceremony, faculty members and students from CCA collaborated to create a multi-media performance. While Dr Philbert Li King-yue played a piano piece composed by Dr Leung Chi-hin against an interactive visual artwork produced by Professor Hung Keung, student representatives from the Music Innovation and Design Lab of the University joined the performance. Instead of lyrical melody of traditional piano pieces, Dr Leung’s work displays a strong rhythm of percussion music. Dr Li’s playing of the piece led the audience to imagine the playing of a set of jazz drums. Together with the interactive visual images designed by Professor Hung, the performance presented a combination of text, images and sounds, making it an audio-visual feast.

The alliance held its first academic conference after the opening ceremony, where scholars from its member universities gave a series of talks to discuss the future of creative arts education, the relationships between scientific development and music education, conservation of cultural heritage, as well as topics related to traditional crafts of Lingnan region and Chinese movies. The alliance for creative arts was established under the framework of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao University Alliance and approved by its secretariat on 26 July 2023.