In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the passing of Xian Xinghai, ‘the son of Macao’ and musician of the people, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) will be hosting a series of activities at the Xian Xinghai Memorial Museum, including film screenings, ukulele workshops, special offers for relevant publications and additional guided tours, to deepen the public’s understanding of the musician’s life, artistic achievements and patriotic spirit, as well as to propel patriotic education in the community. All are welcome to join.
The Composer, a film which takes Xian Xinghai as its theme, is the first cinematic collaboration between China and Kazakhstan, and has garnered a number of awards from film festivals at home and abroad since its premiere in 2019. The film, adapted from Xian’s experience in Almaty during his final five years, relates how he forged a close friendship with local musician Bakhytzhan Baikadamov during his exile and how he conveyed his yearning for home and hope for China’s victory in the Second Sino-Japanese War through music. The screenings of the film will be held on 26, 30 and 31 October between 3:00 and 5:00pm.
In order to enable the public to appreciate Xian’s music compositions outside of concert halls, a total of six family sessions and six open sessions of the ukulele DIY workshop will be run between October and November. Participants will be guided by a professional instructor to make their unique instruments by assembling the body and colouring the components; they will also learn to play children's songs written by the musician to gain a deeper understanding of his works. Both the abovementioned film screenings and workshop sessions will be held at the Xian Xinghai Memorial Museum, and online registration is available free of charge via IC’s Activities Registration System at www.icm.gov.mo/eform/event. If the number of registrants exceeds the maximum number of participants, participants will be selected at random. For enquiries please call 8988 4000 during office hours.
The Xian Xinghai Memorial Museum will also offer additional guided tours between October and December, including tours between 3:00 and 4:00pm every Saturday and on 30 October (the anniversary of the musician’s death), in addition to the regular tours from 3:00 – 4:00pm every Sunday. A 30% discount will be offered to anyone who visits the Museum during this period when purchasing the children’s picture book Music Road of Xian Xinghai priced at MOP 140 and the Exhibition Catalogue of Xian Xinghai Memorial Museum priced at MOP 210.
IC will reinforce the cleaning and disinfection of the venue prior to the activities. All participants are required to wear face masks, undergo body temperature checks, present their valid Health Code of the day and cooperate with crowd control measures. For more information, please visit IC’s website at www.icm.gov.mo, and follow IC’s official WeChat account ‘IC_Art_Macao’ and ‘IC Art’ page on Facebook.
