Jockey Club brings national treasure to life - direct from Shanghai Expo

11/10/2010

Exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the highly-acclaimed “River of Wisdom – Animated Version of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival” Exhibition is coming to Hong Kong next month. This state-of-the-art electronic adaptation of the Northern Song Dynasty painting, regarded as a national treasure in its original form, is currently on display in the China Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. 

The Hong Kong SAR Government and the Shanghai Municipal Government will jointly present the 21-day exhibition at the AsiaWorld-Expo from 9-29 November. Details of the exhibition were announced at a press conference today (11 October) by the Club’s Chief Executive Officer Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges and Director of Leisure and Cultural Services Betty Fung. 

Mr Engelbrecht-Bresges said the Club was deeply honoured to bring this unique display to Hong Kong. “This exhibition will not only promote the public’s interest in Chinese art and culture, but also demonstrate how the arts, culture and technology can be fully integrated. The Jockey Club, through our Charities Trust, will be sponsoring the ‘River of Wisdom Exhibition – Jockey Club Transport Subsidy Scheme’, providing round trip transport subsidies for 200,000 students, the elderly, the disabled etc, to bus them to and from the venue,” he added. 

He noted that over the years, the Club had played a significant role in promoting and developing arts and culture throughout Hong Kong.  “In the past ten years alone, our donations to arts and culture have totalled some HK$1.3 billion,” he said. 

Mrs Fung said she was delighted that the Shanghai Municipal Government and the Shanghai Expo fully support the “River of Wisdom- Animated Version of the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival” Exhibition in Hong Kong.  She also thanked The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust for its support to make this plan come true. 

Sponsorship provided by the Club’s Charities Trust amounts to HK$10 million, which covers the production and installation cost of the event and the transport subsidy for the 200,000 students, the elderly, the disabled etc being provided with free tickets by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.  With other attendees being charged only a nominal HK$10, the organisers hope to attract a total of 800,000 visitors to the 21-day exhibition. 

“Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival” is a panoramic hand scroll painting by renowned Northern Song Dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan. It captures the daily life of people some 1,000 years ago in the capital, Bianjing, today's Kaifeng. The painting features lively images of boats, bridges, shops, and scenery, including 814 people, some 60 animals and 28 boats. The animated version took the production team two years to complete, and uses 12 projectors running simultaneously to bring the scenes to life in both day and night.  The animated scroll is 30 times bigger than the original painting, covering an area 6.3 metres high and 130 metres long. 

The Hong Kong Jockey Club 

Founded in 1884, The Hong Kong Jockey Club has become one of Hong Kong’s best known and respected organisations, providing the public with world-class sporting entertainment as well as being the city’s major non-Government community benefactor, now donating more than HK$1 billion a year to charitable and community projects.  It has been a part of Hong Kong through good times and bad, sharing the city’s growth and development with its people, and is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for future generations.