TUFS Cinema: Screening of the Hong Kong film ��Winter Chants��

January 16, 2025

On January 13th 2025 (Monday), TUFS Cinema held a screening of the Hong Kong film ��Winter Chants�� in the Agora Global Prometheus Hall.

This film is a documentary about the ��Tai Ping Qing Jiao�� festival, which was held in the village of Haowu in the New Territories of Hong Kong at the end of 2020. The Tai Ping Qing Jiao is a traditional festival held once every ten years to pray for the well-being of the community, but it has also become a valuable opportunity for people who have moved away from the village or overseas to return and meet together. While carefully recording the human drama and religious ceremonies surrounding the festival, this film is also a valuable work that reflects the changing social situation in Hong Kong in the 2010s and the unique era of the spread of the new coronavirus infection.

After the screening, there was a talk session with director Tsui-shan Jessey Tsang, Hong Kong cultural researcher Oguri Kota (Junior Fellow at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, TUFS), and the session's moderator, Hong Kong history researcher Associate Professor Akiko Kurata (Institute of Global Studies, TUFS), who discussed the background to the film's production and the director's thoughts on the film, as well as providing explanations of the New Territories village where the film is set and the ��Tai Ping Qing Jiao�� festival. In the midst of the great changes taking place in Hong Kong society, this film not only preserves the traditions of a village festival, but also reaffirms the idea that it can be a catalyst for Hong Kong citizens to think about what ��home�� means to them.