Cultural expo to promote Hakka culture

A cultural expo promoting the traditional Hakka culture and the related creative industry will be held from Dec 30 to Jan 3 in Meizhou, Guangdong province, organizers said on Tuesday.

The Hakka Cultural and Creative Industry Expo is aimed at enhancing exchanges of Hakka culture from various parts of the country and developing a trade platform for Hakka cultural and creative products, according to the organizers.

Meizhou, a mountainous city in the eastern part of Guangdong, is home to millions of Hakka people, whose ancestors were believed to have moved from central China to the south centuries ago.

Currently, there are 120 million Hakka people living in more than 70 countries and regions, according to local government sources.

“We are making efforts to put all Hakka people together and bring various resources into the cultural expo to boost development of the traditional Hakka culture in a modern way, which is well integrated with the creative industry,” said Zhou Zhangxin, publicity chief of Meizhou CPC committee.

Organizers said the expo will highlight creative industries including design, film and television, animation, craft, fine arts, intangible heritage, tourism and music performance.

“Traditional culture should be developed in a more creative way. Boosted development of the cultural and creative industry will help promote local economic development,” Zhou said.

According to the organizers, a number of leading creative products featuring Hakka culture from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Indonesia and Thailand will be displayed during the expo.

An animation exhibition focusing on cartoon and animation works in China over the past decade will be introduced to the expo, according to the organizers.

An award ceremony of micro movies featuring Hakka life will also be held during the expo.

A Hakka culture and creative industry association was set up in Meizhou in October, the first of its kind in the nation.