Speech delivered by Professor Hsu Hsiu Chu, Director of the School of Arts and Coordinator of the Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre of MPI
Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) held a Book Launch Ceremony of "Community Culture and Creativity - 10 Case Studies for the Lai Chi Vun Village, Coloane" on 24 November, 2017. The book recorded the academic and education perspectives on the old shipyards at Lai Chi Wan Village over the last year. After the book launch ceremony, Mr. Sales Marques, President of the European Studies Institute and member of the Macao Cultural Industries Foundation gave a lecture on "Mong-Há: Place Identity and Creative Potential" to interpret the relationship and significance of history, culture, creativity and community development.
Professor Hsu Hsiu Chu, Director of the School of Arts and Coordinator of the Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre of MPI emphasized in the MPI development plan that teaching contents must cooperate with the local needs, and endeavor to contribute to the development of society. Recently, MPI has been working on promoting its education diversity and teaching and learning methods, allowing students to integrate their professional skills with the development of society, and the publication of this book is part of MPI's teaching objectives.The Book "Community Culture and Creativity - 10 Case Studies for the Lai Chi Vun Village, Coloane" is co-edited by Dr. Hester Cheang Mio Han, Secretary-General of MPI, and Prof. Hsu Hsiu Chu, Director of the School of Arts and Coordinator of the Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre of MPI. Prof. Hsu Hsiu Chu stated that the discussion on the preservation and development of the Old Shipyard Lai Chi Vun Village has received high community attention in the recent year. As an education and academic research unit, we should pay attention and bring forward our views, allow our students to pay attention to the social events and learn through education and practice.
The Book embodied the research of the Old Shipyard Lai Chi Vun Village of ten graduates from the Bachelor of Arts in Design programme of MPI. The graduates put forward their suggestions for the development of Lai Chi Vun Village through preparing their graduation exhibitions. Hsu Hsiu Chu indicated that the student's graduation projects are yet to mature, but it is a good start-up, which can arouse public attention and allow more people to become concerned about the development of the Lai Chi Vun Village, and allow more discussion and participation within the Macau society so as to achieve the best outcome of our society's development.
In facing the development of "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", Macao will integrate with the Bay Area cities as one; and link up Macau to the rest of the world through "One Belt One Road". While integrating into the region and the world, Macao needs to establish its own identity. Over the past year, the Macao society has expressed many ideas on Lai Chi Vun Village, and this is important to the process of establishing our cultural identity. Meanwhile, the participation of students also conforms to the change of social atmosphere.
In addition to the introduction of student projects and exhibition, this book also invited scholars to discuss the significance of the graduates' projects from the perspectives of education, history, art and social and cultural creativity. Moreover, Dr. Carmen Wong In Nga also presented an analysis of the graduates' projects. And there was an overview of the history of the great prosperity of the shipping industry of Lai Chi Vun Village at the end of the book.
The presentation of Mr. Sales Marques was about the historical discovery of Mong-Há. He explored the establishment of cultural identity, and how to make use of the cultural resources to support the development of the community. At present, Macao is working on the development of community culture industries. Mr. Sales Marques mentioned that culture is the root of a place, and expressed that he looked forward to receiving more attention to and understanding of the cultural resources of Macao, which will contribute to cultivating the community development in Macao.
