Passing down the art of Cantonese opera — university students make the leap from IG to social enterprise for cultural conservation

In recent years, local communities are playing an active role in cultural conservation. A wealth of social media pages and groups on different topics have emerged, and related guided tours, exhibitions and workshops are held every weekend. One of them is “Far Away”, a page founded by several university students. “Our motive was to share the conservation knowledge we learnt in class with the public, but to our surprise, we gained over 4,000 followers, and went above and beyond.”
Seeing that the local cultural treasure of Cantonese opera, adored by the older generation, is becoming a lost art, they hope to promote it to the younger generation, bridging the generational gap via cultural connection. Hence, they started a social enterprise, and submitted the “Cantonwide” project proposal to Impact Innovation Lab, which was then selected as one of the incubatees. Turning into a business, there comes greater responsibility. Besides cultural conservation and social inclusion, sustainability is crucial to the project. “We do not want our project to rely solely on funding, we wish to establish a sustainable, profit-making business model, to achieve our goals in preserving and promoting Hong Kong culture while connecting Hongkongers.”


Drawing references from similar companies, the team picks in-depth tours and workshops as its core business, kicking off with “Cantonwide” that promotes the art and culture of Cantonese opera. They may be young, but they love Cantonese opera, with thorough knowledge of it from team members studying history, and having a teacher’s family member who is a Cantonese opera artist. “Many recognise the costumes and stage design of Cantonese opera, but what I admire the most are the scripts, which capture the beauty of our language.” Through Impact Innovation Lab, they got in touch with different partners, including Aberdeen Chi Oi Family For Old People, which provided venues for events and helped in recruiting elderly participants. Impact Innovation Lab encouraged us to try different pricing models and collaborations in finding sustainable solutions, which turned out to be important lessons for us.”


Some of the current activities of the project include Yau Ma Tei Cantonese opera guided tour, “The Flower Princess” screening, handicraft workshops, and Tong Tik-sang retrospective exhibition. Apart from promoting Cantonese opera, there are more they want to accomplish. “We want youngsters to not just be our audience and participants, but also facilitators in activities, breathing new life into old age, to reach intergenerational integration.” Communication goes both ways, elderly can also inspire youngsters by sharing their experiences. “In different stages of life, we go through different worries, be it work, family or friends, elderly’s views and experiences could provide valuable insight.”
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