Popular culture is an indispensable part of life that often stimulates vitality and creativity. Hong Kong’s pop culture draws inspirations from humour, a consistent trendsetter that has left a profound mark on the city’s rich and colourful cultural landscape. The ‘Hong Kong Pop Culture Festival 2025’, themed ‘More Than Joy’, offers not only joy and laughter but also an opportunity to appreciate how pop culture can be transmitted and transformed, highlighting possibilities for integration and breakthroughs. This third festival features a diverse range of programmes including stage performances, film screenings, thematic exhibitions and outreach activities.

One of the highlights, Comics Fun Experience Gallery is not to be missed. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through these classic comic and animation characters, highlighting their deep-rooted influence on Hong Kong’s cultural landscape. The exhibition features themed photo spots where iconic characters appear in comic-style settings infused with distinctive Hong Kong elements, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the world of comics and take pictures with their favourite characters. The exhibition will continue at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza until 7 May, and then move to Event Space 1.1, VESSEL, Kwun Tong, for display from 10 to 29 May 2025.

The exhibition marks the first joint display of the three major collections of Chinese calligraphy and painting in Hong Kong – Chih Lo Lou, Xubaizhai and Bei Shan Tang. It features a selection of 93 sets of calligraphies and paintings from the Tang to the Qing Dynasty. These works are testimonies to not only Hong Kong’s golden age of collecting but also its role in the conservation of Chinese culture and heritage.

© Leisure and Cultural Services Department

An array of programmes will be featured in the ‘Chinese Culture Festival 2025’, including the opening dance performance Dongpo: Life in Poems, the ‘Chinese Opera Festival’, exemplary local arts projects recognised by the China National Arts Fund, performing arts programmes from arts and cultural organisations, as well as film screenings, exhibitions and talks.

Presented by:
Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau

Organised by:
Chinese Culture Promotion Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department

The first major Islamic art exhibition in Hong Kong, showcases around 100 masterpieces, including the finest carpets from Iran, Turkey and India, along with ceramics, metalwork, manuscripts and jade. The exhibits are primarily from the Museum of Islamic Art, along with precious objects from the collections of the Palace Museum and the Hong Kong Palace Museum. As early as the Tang and Song dynasties, the Islamic world had contact with China through land and sea routes. Chinese motifs often appear in Islamic art of the period, as seen in the carpets and objects made from diverse materials displayed in the exhibition.

Photos | “Wonders of Imperial Carpets: Masterpieces from the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha” special exhibition | © Hong Kong Palace Museum

This exhibition presents the complexity of twentieth-century Cantonese art and visual culture as an important chapter in global modernism. Sharing a linguistic and cultural identity, the southern port cities of Guangzhou and Hong Kong have historically been marginal in China. As the birthplace of revolution, these cities fostered a distinctive visual and artistic modernism shaped by cross-cultural interactions and the tensions between conservative and progressive art worlds. Bringing together over 200 works from institutional and private collections, many on public display for the first time, Canton Modern recovers a deeply rooted local story with contemporary global resonance.

Photo 1 | Installation view of Canton Modern: Art and Visual Culture, 1900s–1970s, 2025 | Photo: Lok Cheng | Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
Photo 2 | Installation view of Canton Modern: Art and Visual Culture, 1900s–1970s, 2025 | Photo: Wilson Lam | Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
Photo 3 | Installation view of Canton Modern: Art and Visual Culture, 1900s–1970s, 2025 | Photo: Dan Leung | Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong

The International Arts Carnival (IAC) returns to bring a summer filled with creativity, inspiration and unforgettable moments! This year's carnival features a vibrant lineup of performances and activities by world-renowned international and local artists, ensuring there's something for everyone in the family.

Highlights include the breathtaking 'Soul of Shaolin' by the Henan Provincial Shaolin Wushu Center; 'Sounds of Sports', where Phoebus Chan and his fellow musicians fuse music with homegrown sports heroes in an energetic performance; and the musical 'The Secret Agent Spin-off: Hidden Treasure,' adapted from the bestselling novel series.

In addition to exhibitions, workshops, online programmes and more, IAC offers an outreach programme at Domain in Yau Tong, showcasing excerpts from some of the carnival's most exciting shows. Get ready for an exciting summer bursting with art and imagination!

WestK Cabaret Nights is a brand-new series featuring interdisciplinary performances that blend music and theatre to showcase the vibrant spirit of Hong Kong’s multicultural cabaret scene. Curated by the WestK Performing Arts Division, WestK Cabaret Nights will be presented in the intimate venue of the Tea House Theatre at the Xiqu Centre on two to three weekday evenings, featuring a dynamic programme that combines various forms of live entertainment, spanning from music of different genres and music theatre to storytelling and stand-up comedy from both experienced and emerging artists.

Ticketing enquiries: (852) 2200 0022, ticketinfo@wkcda.hk
Programme enquiries: (852) 2200 2548, cathy.sc.law@wkcda.hk

The Impossible Trial – a musical, the first original Cantonese musical commissioned by WestK and co-presented and co-produced with HKREP, on its Mainland China tour in Shanghai and Beijing from 17 June, will return to the Xiqu Centre on 14 August for its third Hong Kong run. The 2025 Hong Kong rerun is supported by the China National Arts Fund. The Beijing stop of the tour is supported by the Office of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in Beijing.

Image courtesy of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

For ticketing enquiries:
ask@popticket.hk

For programme enquiries:
WeskK: theatre.team.pa@wkcda.hk
Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (852) 3103 5900