The 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo open at the AsiaWorld-Expo in South China's Hong Kong special administrative region on May 30.

The 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo took the building of a platform for the overseas promotion of Chinese culture as its core mission, brought together cultural creative forces worldwide, and leveraged its unique strength as an international center for Chinese and foreign cultural and artistic exchanges, building a solid bridge for the presence of Chinese culture abroad and elevating the innovation and international transformation of the cultural sector to a new height.

Photo taken on May 30 shows attendees at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo

Highlights of the opening ceremony: align with national strategies and underscore core mission

Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), Xue Lijun, deputy general-manager of Bauhinia Culture Holdings Limited, and Shi Wenli, vice-director of Shenzhen Bureau of Culture, Media, Tourism and Sports, attended and addressed the opening ceremony. They stressed the significance of the Art Hong Kong Expo to the further development of the cultural industry, regional coordination and collaboration, the internalization of the Chinese culture and cultural creative exchanges worldwide.

In their separate speeches, diplomats from the consulate-generals of Hungary, Zimbabwe and Russia in Hong Kong extended congratulations to the Art Hong Kong Expo and conveyed high expectations for closer cultural exchanges and cooperation, showing the Art Hong Kong Expo's features and special appeal.

Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo.

Zoltán Páldi, consul and trade commissioner of the Consulate General of Hungary in Hong Kong, attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo.

Desmond Makosa, consul of tourism and culture at the Consulate General of Zimbabwe in Hong Kong, attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo.

Anatoly Kargapolov, Russia's consul-general in Hong Kong, attends and addresses the opening ceremony of the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo.

About 20 calligraphers and painters from Guangdong exhibited their extraordinary works to express best wishes to the Art Hong Kong Expo. Pi Qubing, executive president of the Organizing Committee of the Art Hong Kong Expo, briefed attendees about the event's innovations and highlights. Eddie Leung Tin-fu, president of the Organizing Committee of the Art Hong Kong Expo, showed thanks to international attendees and welcomed them to engage in exhibition, promotion, exchange and trade in Hong Kong.

This year's Art Hong Kong Expo is a specific measure for the SAR to proactively follow and implement relevant national development strategies. The Art Hong Kong Expo has made full use of its unique strengths in terms of the combination of Chinese and western culture and wide international network resource to promote the development of the Chinese culture abroad since the country made it clear in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development in 2021 to build Hong Kong into an international culture and art exchange center.

In 2023, the Ministry of Commerce and other five central authorities jointly unveiled the "Thousands of Shipping Sailing Abroad Action Plan," injecting fresh vitality into the Art Hong Kong Expo and facilitating the international development of domestic cultural industry. The initiative has received high recognition and huge support from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and further underscored the importance of the Art Hong Kong Expo in promoting foreign-related cultural exchanges and trade.

Eight parallel exhibition venues shine: multi-cultural integration and co-existence facilitate the development of cultural creative industry

With an exhibition space of 50,000 square meters and eight parallel thematic exhibition venues, this year's Art Hong Kong Expo surpassed previous events in terms of capacity and attending enterprises. It drew the attendance of over 1,000 enterprises, which displayed cutting-edge achievements in the cultural creative sector.

The cultural industry exhibition venue featured state-level cultural projects, industrial policies and results, which covered publication, filming and new media sectors and depicted a blossom picture of the cultural industry.

The exhibition venue for international cultural and tourism trade drew the attendance of enterprises from nearly 30 countries with their speciality projects. Thirteen state-level foreign cultural and trade bases exhibited thematic content, industrial policies and innovative products.

The intangible cultural heritage exhibition venue injected new vitality into traditional handicrafts through digital methods and invited relevant inheritors to demonstrate their exquisite techniques and skills, promoting the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.

The exhibition venue for specialty city elements showed regional cultural charm and fruitful results of the coordinated development between the cultural and tourism industries. The "Three Mountains and Five Gardens" work from Haidian district of Beijing, the "Huashan Swords" work from Huashan Tourism Group, and the thangka paintings from Tibet Bureau of Culture and Tourism as well as Tibet Arts Association met warm response from attendees.

Representatives of the China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG), which is one of organizers of the Art Hong Kong Expo, introduced that the centrally-administered state-owned enterprise (SOE) will fulfill its obligations, guide more cultural enterprises from the Chinese mainland to take Hong Kong as their first stop in the overseas development endeavor, strengthen multi-cultural integration and co-existence, and forge strong momentum for the success of the Art Hong Kong Expo and the long-term development of the cultural creative industry.

In the following three days, the 3rd Art Hong Kong Expo held various exhibition and convention events, thematic forums, cultural and tourism promotion symposiums, commerce and trade discussions to explore new development opportunities of the cultural tourism industry, tap its functions and roles of exporting Chinese culture, promote the dialogue between Chinese and international culture, create new vitality and open new frontiers for the further development of global cultural creative industry, and bring together people from all social sectors in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to write a new chapter for cultural exchange and development.