RTHK Produces Cross-Media Musical for National Security Education Day

On June 26, 2022, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK premieredBauhinia in Bloom — Cross-Media Musical Performance (紫荊花開—跨媒體音樂匯演), a 70-minute, five-act production commissioned by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s Committee for Safeguarding National Security to mark 2022’s National Security Education Day. Composed, written, and directed by Mei Kwong-chiu (梅廣釗), chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Composers and a member of the China Musicians Association, a mainland state-affiliated body, the performance involved more than 170 performers, including the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Dance Company, and several lion dance and martial arts troupes, and used orchestral, choral, and dance elements to narrate what the Committee’s event page described as the “significant historical development of the motherland and Hong Kong over the past century,” promoting the “holistic national security outlook” (總體國家安全觀). That page confirms the program “was produced by RTHK.” National Security Education Day has been co-organized since 2021 by Hong Kong’s national security committee together with the Central People’s Government’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong and the central government’s Office for Safeguarding National Security, both directly named as supporting organizers in official announcements of the event.