"Some voices and songs, if not recorded, will disappear with history." This is the belief that drove Sze Ka-yan, founder of the art collective Fragrant Village, to launch her project "Village Echoes."

For over a decade, Sze and her small team have visited 30 old village schools in China's Hong Kong, interviewing alumni and preserving endangered school anthems. Through sound, exhibitions, and artistic creations, they aim to retain the memory of the island's village schools and their local stories, safeguarding the soon-to-be-lost rural culture of Hong Kong.

Now, these anthems will leave Hong Kong for the first time, presented to audiences in Shanghai as a concert titled "Listening to the Memory of Hong Kong's Village Schools."

The concert collects village school anthems lost in time, field work songs, evening fishing village chants, and festive temple gongs and drums, recomposing them into an audible "sound map" that revives the voices and spirit of Hong Kong's rural schools.

"Many people don't even know that Hong Kong has a countryside," says Sze. "Those lyrics contain a great deal of local culture from that time, including people's way of life back then, and the interaction between locals and newcomers."

The collection of these anthems began in 2013 when Sze first set foot in a village school. She happened to hear a group of elderly alumni singing their school anthem. Their pure and heartfelt voices moved her deeply.

"The elderly couldn't remember the entire anthem," Sze explains her creative process. "But alumni from the same school pieced it together, roughly restoring it. My team then arranged and refined it, then sang it back to them to see if we had managed to recreate it."

"Many village schools have already been abandoned, but I will continue this project. It's a race against time," she adds.

Sze has invited Xiao He, a Beijing-based musician, to join her for the Shanghai performances. His folk song seeking project shares a similar spirit with "Village Echoes," aiming to seek out and revive disappearing children's songs from various regions of China.

Meanwhile, an exhibition "Village Echoes: On a Journey of Collecting Village School Anthems" is being set up at Theater YOUNG, which will remain open to the public through June 7.

The "Village Echoes" concert is part of the "Hong Kong Arts Unlimited" series of performances and events held at Theater YOUNG.

"Hong Kong Arts Unlimited" kicked off last week with the Hong Kong Repertory Theater's production of "The Emperor, his Mom, a Eunuch and a Man," followed by the musical "Draft My Life" (May 22-23) and a screening series featuring five selected stage productions directed by Edward Lam (June 5-7).

Performance info

Dates: May 23, 7:30pm; May 24, 2pm

Tickets: 100-120 yuan

Venue: Venue: Theater YOUNG

Address: 1155 Kongjiang Rd, Yangpu District 杨浦区控江路1155号