LCQ6: Effectiveness of work of Chinese Culture Promotion Office
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Question:
The Chinese Culture Promotion Office (CCPO), established in 2024, is tasked with the important mission of increasing the awareness of, and interest in, Chinese culture and history across all sectors, fostering patriotic education, and enhancing the public's sense of national identity and cultural confidence. In order to better achieve this mission, there are views that the CCPO should adopt innovative methods to enhance the contemporary appeal and reach of Chinese culture, and collaborate extensively with different stakeholders to precisely reach different strata of society. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether, in the process of creating iconic flagship projects such as the Chinese Culture Festival, the CCPO has formulated a more comprehensive set of key performance indicators beyond attendance figures (including assessing the reach of relevant projects on social media, their role in shaping the values of young people, and their actual contribution to raising the international visibility of Hong Kong's "cultural icons");
(2) of the total number of events organised by the CCPO in various districts across the territory in the past year, as well as the number of participants and the distribution of resources; the targeted and differentiated promotion strategies adopted by the CCPO for different audience groups, such as adolescents, working people, the elderly and ethnic minorities, to ensure that the dissemination of Chinese culture combines professional depth with community inclusiveness and achieves all-round coverage; and
(3) how the CCPO will further deepen its strategic co-operation with the local publication sector, the cultural and creative industries, educational institutions and mainstream/emerging media platforms; in the face of new trends in digital communications, whether the CCPO will consider leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality or big data analytics to improve content presentation, and enhancing the reach and contemporary appeal of Chinese culture among the younger generation and overseas tourists through cross-sectoral collaboration (e.g. developing cultural intellectual property and promoting themed tourism in a synergistic way)?
Reply:
President,
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) established the Chinese Culture Promotion Office (CCPO) in April 2024. By co-ordinating the LCSD resources related to Chinese culture and history, the CCPO plans and organises a wide array of activities to promote Chinese culture to various audiences, aiming to strengthen the public's cultural confidence and foster identification with the country and national identity.
The CCPO is committed to developing the "Chinese Culture Festival" (CCF) into an annual signature cultural event in Hong Kong. Through a series of performing arts programmes in different forms covering Chinese opera, dance, music, films and more, held annually from June to September, the CCF enables the public to understand, embrace, experience and appreciate traditional Chinese culture, arts and history during the months-long event. Leveraging Hong Kong's advantages of enjoying strong national support and a high degree of global connectivity, the CCF also showcases fine traditional Chinese culture elements to the international audience and helps overseas visitors better understand traditional Chinese cultural excellence.
Another key initiative of the CCPO is the "General History of China Exhibition Series" launched since 2024. Through chronological exhibitions focused on significant historical periods, together with corresponding educational and outreach activities, the series enables the general public to learn about the development of Chinese history and culture in a structured way, thereby strengthening national identity and cultural confidence. The CCPO also launches roving exhibitions at parks, public libraries, sports and recreation venues, as well as government office buildings across Hong Kong, bringing interesting knowledge about Chinese history and culture into the community and broadening the audience base.
In response to the question raised by Dr the Hon Elvin Lee, our reply is as follows:
In 2025, the CCPO launched more than 200 activities to promote Chinese culture and history, with the second edition of the CCF, the exhibitions under the "General History of China Exhibition Series" and the "National Development and Achievements Series" recording a total attendance of more than 1.2 million. The second edition of CCF with over 290 programmes attracted more than 960 000 attendances, of which 17 per cent being tourists.
The LCSD attaches great importance to the evaluation of the overall benefits of cultural mega-events, and has established evaluation mechanisms for the CCF. Specifically, the LCSD collects data on participants' interests, spending habits and other aspects through questionnaire surveys so as to formulate more targeted promotional strategies and enhance the programme appeal. This will help attract tourists to Hong Kong for a first-hand experience of its unique cultural charm and an appreciation of the distinctive elements of the profound traditional Chinese culture, thereby boosting local spending. According to the data collected from questionnaire surveys during two editions of the CCF, over 90 per cent of the participants rated the programmes positively, and over 85 per cent agreed that the CCF had enhanced their understanding of and interest in Chinese culture, indicating that the CCF has achieved tangible results in improving the quality of the public's cultural life.
Targeting youth and student groups, the CCPO has collaborated with the Education Bureau offering professional development for teachers and experiential learning activities for students. Apart from integrating museum resources effectively into classrooms, these efforts also provide teachers with hands-on experience in museum-based teaching and learning, enabling them to make full use of LCSD's historical and cultural resources. To give students and younger generations more opportunities to learn about and experience Chinese culture, the CCF also offers free "Outreach Programmes for Popularising Chinese Cultural Arts" and "Chinese Opera En Route to Campus". Across the two editions, it attracted about 15 000 teachers, students and community participants, with encouraging responses.
In order to promote Chinese culture in a multifaceted approach, the LCSD has put in place various measures to facilitate participation and attract diverse sectors of society to its cultural programmes and exhibitions. For instance, the CCF offers various ticket concessions, including half-price discounts for senior citizens, full-time students, people with disabilities and their minders, as well as Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients. In addition, the second edition of the CCF introduced the new "Generations Together 1+1" Discount. Under this offer, each purchase of a concessionary ticket for students or seniors entitles the holder to one more discounted standard ticket for the same performance, thereby encouraging intergenerational participation in Chinese cultural programmes. To engage more local non-Chinese speakers and overseas visitors to learn about and appreciate Chinese culture, in addition to the bilingual (Chinese-English) display materials provided for general programmes and exhibitions, major exhibitions also offer guided tours and/or audio guides in both Chinese and English, while selected performances include bilingual subtitles, ensuring that visitors from all backgrounds can fully enjoy the cultural events. To accommodate the needs of working people, the LCSD schedules performances during weekday evenings and weekends. Selected museums also extend their opening hours on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays to better serve their needs.
The CCPO also rolled out public activities that connect with communities including the "Chinese Culture in Hong Kong Gardens" series focusing on local parks. Through guided visits and site studies of parks with Chinese cultural features, such as Kowloon Walled City Park, Nan Lian Garden and the Lingnan Garden within Lai Chi Kok Park, the public are introduced to historical cultures and architecture from different dynasties in everyday leisure spaces, exploring the Chinese cultural meanings embedded therein.
In terms of promotion, the CCPO reaches different audience segments via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Xiaohongshu, promoting exhibitions and activities related to Chinese history and culture in an interactive way. The CCPO also provides rich online resources on its website, making it easy for the public to learn about different areas of Chinese culture. Besides, the CCPO also uses conventional channels of mass media, such as newspaper, e-mail, books and magazines, television programmes and radio broadcasts, as well as collaboration with local cultural organisations to promote Chinese culture.
The CCPO is committed to establishing a platform for social partnership and proactively exploring collaboration with different local cultural groups and stakeholders to promote Chinese culture. Leveraging the existing social networks, district resources and professional knowledge of these organisations, a range of cultural programmes will be introduced and carried into different audience segments so that Chinese culture is more widely disseminated in the community. At the same time, the CCPO actively explores collaboration with the tourism sector to achieve the effect of "shaping tourism with cultural activities and promoting culture through tourism".
The LCSD will continue to apply innovative technological elements to museum exhibitions and will set up photo spots and immersive exhibitions to enhance visitor experience. Serving as a key base for promoting Chinese culture in the community, the CCPO is establishing the Chinese Culture Experience Centre (Experience Centre) in Kowloon Park. The Experience Centre will, making use of interactive and object-based learning approaches, present cultural relics and intangible cultural heritage, and employ new technologies and approaches to design creative and life-oriented cultural programmes to promote Chinese culture to citizens and tourists. Construction of the Experience Centre commenced in June 2025, with an expected completion in 2028 and opening to the public at the year end.
Ends/Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:45
Issued at HKT 12:45
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