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hong kong FEAST STRAIGHT OUT OF A MARTIAL ARTS CLASSIC Any kind of food, it would seem, can be found in culinary paradise Hong Kong, from Michelin-starred restaurants to tasty and authentic street food. The 2017 guide references 49 different cuisines and 61 starred-restaurants, including six awarded three stars, a rich offering indeed for a territory 30 times smaller than Belgium. Only the select few food fanatics would be zealous and bold enough to attempt recreating in real life the fanciful and extravagant dishes that existed only in fiction, and this had never been done outside Hong Kong.

When the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels (HKETO, Brussels) decided to crown its 2017 celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with a martial arts-themed gala dinner, with dishes inspired by Jin Yong’s classic, The Legend of the Eagle-Shooting Heroes, Hong Kong’s Chinese Culinary Institute (CCI) was quick to accept the challenge.

Founded in the year 2000, the CCI is the biggest culinary educational institution in Hong Kong, offering programmes for both beginners and for professionals wishing to upgrade their skills. They can learn the main Chinese regional styles of cooking, each with its dedicated kitchen and served in the institute’s own restaurant. Particular emphasis, of course, is placed on Hong Kong’s own

Cantonese cuisine, renowned for its delicious and endlessly varied dim sum dumplings.

Such is the institute’s reputation for excellence that once they graduate, students are quickly snapped up by restaurants and hotels in Hong Kong and the region - the CCI boasts a 96% employment rate.

With its practice of encouraging a creative approach and a modern interpretation of classic dishes, the CCI was excited rather than daunted by the challenge of turning the gastronomic fantasies of Jin Yong’s masterpiece into reality. CCI chefs, assisted by their students, used their skills and talent to create and cook an eight-course feast of aromatic dishes with poetic references, served at two gala dinners hosted by HKETO, Brussels, one in Paris on 19 October and the other in Brussels on 24 October.

Chefs and students of Hong Kong’s Chinese Culinary Institute turned the gastronomic fancies of Jin Yong’s novel “The Legend of the Eagle-Shooting Heroes” into reality. The ham used to make “Twenty-four Bridges of Moonlight” can be seen in the centre of the picture.

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This is how one of these culinary delights, so delicious that it earned its name from a line of a Tang poem – “Twenty-four Bridges of Moonlight”, is made. Twenty-four holes are scooped out of a Jinhua ham, which are then artfully filled with 24 little spheres skillfully carved from a piece of tofu. Bound and steamed, the ham produces a wonderful, savoury taste, absorbed by the tofu. Having served its purpose, the ham is then discarded, and the 24 white moon-like spheres can be served. This was just one of the dishes cooked by the book’s heroine, Huang Rong, for powerful martial arts master Hong Qiqong.

Knowing he was a gourmet in constant pursuit of sensual enjoyment, she used her remarkable cooking talents to tempt him to agree to teach her lover Guo Jing the 18 powerful kung fu moves known as “The Art of Taming Dragons”. The story is as familiar to Hong Kong and other Chinese people, growing up reading Jin Yong’s books and watching the many television series and films derived from them, as the tales of King Arthur and the Round Table are to people in the West.

The enjoyment of guests at the gala dinners was further enhanced by the expert performances of martial arts athletes from the Hong Kong Wushu Union, all gold medallists in various competitions.

Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the European Union, Ms Shirley Lam, introduced some of Hong Kong’s achievements over the past 20 years. She told guests, who included members of the diplomatic corps, the European institutions, the Belgian government, business people, academics and the media, that Hong Kong enjoys a unique advantage under “one country, two systems”. “We benefit greatly from strong links with the Mainland of China and, at the same time, we retain our separate legal, financial and economic systems. We have used our experience and skills in doing business with the outside world for over half a century. Our international outlook and connectivity and the high degree of autonomy we enjoy has given us an edge”.

Ms Lam said that the best is yet to come for Hong Kong, as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government continues to strive to make the city even more competitive and connected.

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“Our Chief Executive Mrs Carrie Lam, in her first Policy Address delivered on 11 October, outlined a full range of proposals to promote and facilitate Hong Kong to be an ideal place for companies to expand their business, and also a more liveable and smarter city for our people and visitors.”

Ms Lam also spoke about the new measures to make the tax system even more business friendly, the Government’s strategy to boost innovation and technology development, mega infrastructural projects that are underway and the unique opportunities Hong Kong will enjoy under the Belt and Road Initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bay Area development.

Picture left page: Athletes from the Hong Kong Wushu Union recreate a scene from one of Jin Yong’s martial arts novels.

Picture right page: Ms Shirley Lam (centre), presents copies of the works of Jin Yong to Ms Benedicte Vaerman, Collection Expert China of KU Leuven Libraries Artes, and to Professor Dr Guido Van Huylenbroeck of the University of Gent.

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WUXIA LITERATURE AND CINEMA, AN ESSENTIAL PART OF HONG KONG IDENTITY Chinese martial arts, often named under the umbrella term of wushu or kung fu, involve exercising the mind as well as the body, a strenuous and continued effort devoted to one’s pursuit. This resonates with the Hong Kong spirit – strive for perfection, never give up, and at the same time, be skillful and flexible in facing challenges. Wuxia literature has a long history. Xia were soldiers originally fighting for one of the contending Warring States, who later became knights-errant of the common people, fighting against injustice and corruption. The genre was revived in Hong Kong in the 1950s and flourished there, alongside the cinema it inspired. Louis Cha published his first martial arts novel, The Book and the Sword, in 1955 under the pen name Jin Yong. It was a huge success and he went on to write a total of 14 novels and one short story which have deeply influenced the popular culture of Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan and Macao. The Hong Kong Heritage Museum honoured Dr Cha by opening a Jin Yong Gallery earlier this year (www.heritagemuseum.gov.hk/en).

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advertorial

Special Representative for Hong Kong Economic and Trade Affairs to the EU, Ms Shirley Lam, presents an award to the winning team at the Oxfam Trailwalker.

hong kong TWENTY YOUNG PEOPLE “WALK THE HONG KONG SPIRIT” AT THE OXFAM TRAILWALKER As one of its initiatives to mark this special year, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels (HKETO, Brussels) brought 20 young people from Hong Kong to participate in the 100-kilometre Oxfam Trailwalker challenge in Belgium’s High Fens around Eupen on 26-27 August.

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The challenge consists in teams of four walkers having to complete a 100km trek in no more than 30 hours. Although it is now a worldwide event that takes place in nine countries over four continents, the first Trailwalker was first held in Hong Kong in 1981 as a Gurkha training exercise, before it was taken over by Oxfam in 1997. In view of this special link, HKETO, Brussels was happy to sponsor the event. The 20 young people, all 20 years old, the same age as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, successfully completed the arduous trek, showing the true Hong Kong “can do” spirit. In addition to the five teams of young people, seven Hong Kong adult teams also “Walked the Hong Kong Spirit”, including “Fearless Dragon”, a team of walkers with disabilities. There was also a shorter VIP walk. The Belgian team that raised the largest sum of money for charity was invited to Hong Kong to take part in the Oxfam Trailwalker there, held on 17-19 November 2017.

During their week-long visit, the group of twenty-year-olds learnt more about Belgium and the EU through a series of briefings on topics ranging from youth policies to climate change. They were taken on guided tours to major sites, including World War I locations and the battlefield of Waterloo. The group also visited a project in Boom near Antwerp, where De Steenschuit offers traineeships to people who have been unemployed for at least one year. In 2013, it started the construction of a replica of the RV Belgica, a wooden three-mast ship in which famous Belgian explorer Adrien de Gerlache sailed to the South Pole on an international expedition of discovery in 1897. Once it is completed, the New Belgica will take part in tall ship events and take pride of place in Antwerp’s new Museum for Maritime Heritage, to be opened in the docks in 2023. The project is supported among others by funds raised at the annual Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival in Antwerp, organised by Rotary Club Antwerp West and supported

by HKETO, Brussels.

Picture on the right: The Deputy Representative of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Brussels (HKETO, Brussels), Miss Alice Choi (front row, second right); the Assistant Representative of the HKETO, Brussels, Mr Jeffrey Chim (front row, first right); the Chairman of the Belgium-Hong Kong Society, Mr Piet Steel (front row, first left); and founder of the International Polar Foundation, Mr Alain Hubert (back row, second left), participated in the Oxfam VIP walk and greeted the walkers of a Hong Kong team, the Fearless Dragon, at the Hong Kong Checkpoint.

Picture below: The group of young people from Hong Kong visited the De Steenschuit project, which is building a replica of historic ship Belgica.

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