A Hong Kong adaption of the ballet classic The Nutcracker and a metaverse platform based on the city’s former Tiger Balm Garden on Tuesday were selected by the United Nations as exceptional model cases of promoting cultural heritage’s technological innovation and transformative preservation.
The two projects were awarded the “Star of Outstanding” at the 2024 Global Awards for World Heritage Education Innovative Cases at the 46th Session of the World Heritage Committee, which is currently taking place in New Delhi, India, until July 31.
The organizer of the award — the World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia and the Pacific Region, under the auspices of UNESCO — said that the Hong Kong adaptation of the Russian ballet classic The Nutcracker allows Hong Kong’s cultural heritage to fuse into ballet, fostering a harmonious fusion between heritage, art, and the city.
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The localized version was born in 2021 after the Hong Kong Ballet’s close work with local design teams. Leveraging technological and creative methods, it integrates unique heritage elements from early 20th-century Hong Kong into the stage set, storyline and choreography, launching a captivating adventure journey for the characters into Hong Kong’s heritage, the organizer said.
The ballet also engages in public participation activities, such as children performance and dance workshop, and goes deep into the community to promote interaction and integration among different social classes and evoke public memories and pride.
Another awardee is the first VR metaverse heritage education platform in Hong Kong, which features teamwork and immersive experience to rebuild the city’s Tiger Balm Garden — a now-closed, almost 90-year-old Grade I historic building in Tai Hang, Hong Kong Island — in the virtual world.
According to the organizer, the platform has adopted advanced technologies to re-create the building’s intricate details, including structural elements and sculptures, and further connects users through multidevice capabilities to allow for real-time collaboration.
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Users can adopt diverse virtual personas and engage in collaborative and immersive tasks tailored for cultural restoration or interior design. This experience fosters a deeper comprehension of the preservation and restoration of cultural heritage, UNESCO experts added.
The award was launched in 2022 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. The event organizer hopes to select heritage education cases with contemporary exemplary significance around the world and provide an international exchange platform for global heritage education practitioners.
Over the past few years, the award has received more than 200 application cases around the world.
Contact the writer at amberwu@chinadailyhk.com
