SDC Paper No. 26/2020 Annex 2
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Annex 2 Request to Revitalise the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Southern District Responses by Relevant Government Bureau and Departments (I) Response from the Commissioner for Heritage’s Office and the Antiquities and Monuments Office of the Development Bureau Heritage Conservation Promotion Work in the Southern District There are 14 declared monuments and 110 graded historic buildings in the Southern District. Information on the declared monuments and graded historic buildings is available at the websites of the Antiquities and Monuments Office (“AMO”) (https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/monuments.php) and the Antiquities Advisory Board (https://www.aab.gov.hk/en/built3.php) for public viewing. Publicity and educational activities are recurrently organised by the Commissioner for Heritage’s Office (“CHO”) and AMO of the Development Bureau to foster public awareness of heritage conservation. Heritage items in the Southern District have been from time to time featured in the annual Heritage Fiesta under diversified themes organised by CHO. Promotion activities have also been held to complement items declared as monuments. For instance, to mark the declaration of the historic structures of Tai Tam Group of Reservoirs as monuments, CHO organised a series of guided tours to the Tai Tam Waterworks Heritage Trail in 2009. In 2013, to complement the declaration of the Bethanie, CHO and AMO also jointly organised a series of promotion activities including guided tours and public lectures. Similarly, valuable exhibits as well as introduction of the Tung Wah Coffin Home situated in Pok Fu Lam have been included in the “Heritage Over a Century: Tung Wah Museum and Heritage Conservation” exhibition which commenced in late May 2020 to complement the declaration of this historic building as monument in the same month. 1 Heritage Educational Activities involving Students in the Southern District To facilitate the inauguration of the St. Stephen’s College Heritage Trail in 2008, AMO provided assistance in training their student docents and uploaded the relevant information to AMO’s heritage trails website (https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails.php). In 2015, in collaboration with the Education Bureau and the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, AMO conducted teacher training workshop to enhance participants’ knowledge on heritage conservation and understanding about the global charity network through seminar at the Tung Wah Museum and field trip to the Tung Wah Coffin Home. Historic Building Revitalisation Projects in the Southern District Two historic buildings in the Southern District, namely the Old Dairy Farm Senior Staff Quarters and the Tai Tam Tuk Raw Water Pumping Station Staff Quarters Compound, have been included in Batches IV and VI respectively of the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme administered by CHO. The former will be revitalised into The Pok Fu Lam Farm and revitalisation works are in progress (https://www.heritage.gov.hk/en/rhbtp/The_Pokfulam_Farm4.htm); whereas the latter is at the stage for openly inviting revitalisation proposals with application deadline of 3 August 2020 (https://www.heritage.gov.hk/en/rhbtp/buildings6.htm). Moreover, the Bethanie which was declared as monument in 2013, together with the nearby Old Dairy Farm Cowshed, a Grade 2 historic building, have been conserved and revitalised into the second campus of The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. 2 (II) Response from the Education Bureau The EDB emphasises education of history and culture. Enhancing student’s understanding of the Mainland and the society has all along been one of the learning objectives of primary and secondary education. In the current school curriculum, students can understand the historical development of Hong Kong through General Studies at the primary level, and Chinese History and History curricula at the secondary level. The contents include studies of historical relics and figures in Hong Kong, so that students can understand the lives of residents in different periods of Hong Kong and the interactive relationship between the Mainland and Hong Kong. Since the 2018/19 school year, schools should offer Chinese History as an independent compulsory subject at the junior secondary level. All students can understand holistically the Chinese History and Chinese culture, including the history and culture of Hong Kong. In order to facilitate effective learning in Chinese history and culture, apart from classroom learning, life-wide learning beyond classrooms is also one of the important learning strategies. The EDB has been encouraging schools to make use of various community resources to organise diversified life-wide learning activities for students, such as site visits activities for students (including site visits to different areas of Hong Kong), to enrich and deepen students' understanding of local historical relics and heritage, enhance their interest in learning history, and their ability to appreciate historical relics. Take historical sites in Southern District as examples, "Big Wave Bay Rock Carving" is relevant to the Junior Chinese History topic of "Origin of the Chinese Ethnicities" and Junior History topic of "Human needs: past and present" about major archaeological discoveries in Hong Kong. It could complement students’ understanding of the Neolithic culture; "the Old Stanley Police Station" is relevant to the Junior Chinese History topic of "Japanese Invasion on China and the Anti-Japanese War" and the Junior History topic of "Hong Kong during the Japanese Occupation". It could enrich students’ historical knowledge about Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong and anti-Japanese activities. In the process of site visits, students have the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills from direct personal experience, understand the historical background and diversified cultures in Hong Kong, establish their sense of belonging to the community, and nurture positive values and attitudes. If any organisations hold in-depth educational activities in history and culture that align with the school curriculum, the EDB is pleased to help promote the activities to schools so as to facilitate learning in history. 3 (III) Response from the Leisure and Cultural Services Department To further promote arts development and enhance artistic ambience in the community, the LCSD launches the “Tao Arts Southern District - Community Arts Scheme” in the Southern District in 2020-21. Enhanced arts activities will be organised strategically by experienced professional arts group to promote exchange and interaction with the community and encourage the development of the district’s own Community Arts Scheme. With musical theatre project Our Days Down South as the focus of the Scheme, an original musical will be created based on the history, culture or landmarks of the Southern District to promote its cultural characteristics. Participants of the musical training classes will also appear in the production as performers. Additionally, in order to revitalise the distinctive culture of the Southern District, two fishermen’s song workshops will be organised, and two songs will be re- arranged to incorporate the element of fishermen’s songs for workshop participants to sing together. (IV) Response from the Tourism Commission In collaboration with the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB), we have all along utilised the various assets and resources in Hong Kong, including culture and heritage, art and entertainment, and great outdoors, to promote relevant tourism products & activities. For the Southern District, HKTB has been promoting the cultural attractions and heritages therein, including Hung Shing Temple at Ap Lei Chau, Murray House and Mt. Davis, as well as cultural events and traditional festivals like Pok Fu Lam Village Fire Dragon Dance, Stanley International Dragon Boat Championships, and Apleichau Hung Shing Culture Festival, to visitors around the world through their various channels, including their website (www.discoverhongkong.com) and visitor centres, etc. We welcome suggestions by the District Councils to explore and develop products or events with tourism merit that can help boost the image of Hong Kong as a world-class destination and attract visitors to the city. 4 .