Guizhou's cultural gems shine at Hong Kong's art expo

The temporal and spatial distance seemed to evaporate as an array of exquisite exhibits from Guizhou, an inland province on the Chinese mainland, made its debut at a high-profile art expo in Hong Kong, taking the city's cultural circle by storm with the artworks' inherent glamour rooted in the province's rich ethnic culture.

Rolled out on Thursday, the second edition of Art Hong Kong built on its strong inauguration in 2022, continuing to compliment itself with marked step-ups in scale and reach, with a celebrity-studded lineup of 70 artists worldwide and a top-notch collection of about 200 masterpieces.

Cheuk Wing-hing, Deputy Chief Secretary for Administration, (center); member of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Communist Party of China Provincial Committee, and head of the Publicity Department of the Guizhou CPC Provincial Committee Lu Yongzheng (sixth from right); and General Manager of Bauhinia Culture Group Wen Hongwu (sixth from left), among other officials cut the ribbon at the opening ceremony of the second Art Hong Kong expo on Dec 19, 2024. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

Lauding the expo as a robust demonstration, Cheuk Wing-hing, deputy chief secretary for administration, stressed at the opening ceremony the importance of having different sectors of society join forces to pump new vitality into Hong Kong's development into an East-meets-West center for international cultural exchanges.

To ramp up its appeal, this year's expo witnessed the launch of numerous innovative initiatives, including a session dedicated to digital art, where masterpieces of Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a revered Chinese painter, were morphed into immersive multimedia displays, and, most prominent of all, the designation of Guizhou as its first-ever Province of Honor.

Artists from Guizhou province perform folk dances during the "Night of Colorful Guizhou" session at the second Art Hong Kong expo on Dec 19, 2024. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

The special reach-out came after Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu led a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government delegation to Guiyang, the capital of Guizhou province, to attend the Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Cooperation Chief Executive Joint Conference in July 2023. Lee left in awe of the city's uplifting energy.

Leaping at the invitation, Guizhou organized a special art session at the expo that captured everyone's imagination.

Three subareas of the Guizhou pavilion housed works by 35 homegrown artists and craftsmen, a total of 30 paintings, 23 cultural heritage crafts, seven photographs, as well as four iconic Shuicheng drawings — a painting genre prevalent among common folks in Shuicheng county, Guizhou.

This Dec 19, 2024, photo shows a gilt silver hat on display at the Guizhou Art Session during the second Art Hong Kong expo, showcasing the fine work of Miao silver ornamentation, which is a national intangible cultural heritage item listed in 2006. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

Centerpieces include an exquisite gilt silver hat, also named the "phoenix coronet" after the mythic birds featured atop, surrounded by hundreds of handmade silver flowers and enlivening butterflies, fluttering or perching — an excellent showcase of the Miao silver ornament, which is a national intangible cultural heritage, listed in 2006.

Dubbed "the garden province", Guizhou has long been acclaimed for its gripping scenic beauty and indigenous cultural characteristics and is often cited as the epitome of the rapid advancement of China's modernization, said Lu Yongzheng, a member of the Standing Committee of the Guizhou Communist Party of China Provincial Committee, and head of the Publicity Department of the Guizhou CPC Provincial Committee, who led the province's delegation to Hong Kong.

A visitor takes photos of a Guizhou artwork during the second Art Hong Kong expo on Dec 19, 2024. [PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY]

Lu said that Guizhou is sparing no effort to carve out a development path with its own characteristics, with the cultural and tourism industry as one of the key fulcrums.

With the upgrade of the Guiyang-Guangzhou High-speed Railway in October 2023, the journey between Guiyang and Hong Kong has been shortened to a five-hour ride, further facilitating the deepening of ties between the two places.