Leaders of Hong Kong’s literary and art circles said on Friday that they will organize eight cultural programs for the upcoming 2024 Chinese Cultural Festival.

The programs include a star-studded concert, a calligraphy and painting exhibition featuring Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, a performance on the drums of Jiangzhou — a folk custom from Shanxi province — as well as several seminars on cultural topics.

The 2024 Chinese Culture Festival will be from June to September. Launched by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the festival is a key initiative under the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government’s efforts to promote Chinese culture.

READ MORE: New office to promote Chinese culture plans eventful '24 list

It will incorporate the existing Chinese Opera Festival as well as other diverse cultural programs and activities, such as music, dance, crossing-media performances, films, exhibitions, and lectures.

On Friday, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Hong Kong Member Association introduced the eight programs it has prepared for the cultural festival.

Association President Ma Fung-kwok said the eight upcoming cultural and artistic activities will not only demonstrate the diversity and purity of Chinese culture, but also bring a visual and auditory feast to Hong Kong residents.

Among the events is the Ode to China concert, a music carnival that includes local classics as well as pop songs, which will see the participation of renowned musicians such as Warren Mok and Alan Tam Wing-lun.

A calligraphy and painting exhibition related to Dream of the Red Chamber will be staged during the festival, showcasing more than 100 works by famous painter Jin Yanlin and other artists

A performance of the drums of Jiangzhou will be presented by artists from Shanxi, which will include Hong Kong artists who traveled to Jiangzhou — present-day Xinjiang county — to learn and inherit this art form. The show will feature classic Jiangzhou drumming pieces like Rolling Walnuts, Fight Between the Bull and the Tiger, and A Mice’s Wedding.

READ MORE: Cha’s works a ‘bridge for the world to know Chinese culture’

Jiangzhou drum music was among the first art forms to be recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage, and was inscribed onto the Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO’s list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

A calligraphy and painting exhibition related to Dream of the Red Chamber will be staged during the festival, showcasing more than 100 works by famous painter Jin Yanlin and other artists. A lecture will also be hosted to discuss the classic and its TV adoptions.

Tickets for these eight activities and other cultural activities of the Chinese Cultural Festival are currently on sale in the government-run online platform Urban Ticketing System and at the Xiqu Centre’s Ticket Office.

Contact the writer at fangxue@chinadailyhk.com