Among the twelve Chinese Zodiacs, Dragon has a noble symbol of reverence and wisdom. To welcome the arrival of Dragon, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) has invited twelve major electronic media organisations to join in and celebrate together in “RTHK Lunar New Year Celebration for the Year of the Dragon” today (30 January, 2012) in RTHK.
The venue was decorated with an enormous Chinese calligraphy written by the distinguished scholar Professor JAO Tsung-I who expressed good wishes for the New Year to everyone. The event started with a special Dragon Eye-dotting ceremony. Officiated by Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development Gregory SO and Director of Broadcasting Roy TANG, they managed to control a model plane to eye-dot the eyes of a dragon, whose size of its head (21.5 ft (H) x 22 ft (L) x 9 ft (W)) has been pending approval from Guinness World Records for the largest dragon head. The ceremony implies metaphorically a wish of every success in local media development.
Director of Broadcasting Roy TANG mentioned in the ceremony that the launch of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) service of RTHK will bring more high-quality and diversified programmes to public. To provide a platform for community participation in broadcasting, RTHK would allocate some airtime from DAB for introducing a Community Involvement Broadcasting Service (CIBS). A public consultation will be conducted tomorrow (31 January, 2012) to collect more collaborative views regarding the issue. In long term speaking, he also revealed the development for Digital Terrestrial Television broadcasting service was currently in progress and will be introduced as soon as practicable.
In the first performance, all guests held their breath when they saw a seven-feet tall giant robot marched to the stage. A product exclusively made in USA, the robot accompanied with two dancers dressed as the God of Wealth gave an unusual performance “Robot Sing-along” by mimicking human voice with Lunar New Year music. This was a show in celebration of RTHK who had won the bid to host Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union Robocon 2012 Hong Kong in August.
The climax of the event was when everyone was invited to take part in “Performance Heralding the Major Events in 2012” session. Simon Li, current world record holder of memorizing 591 random images in sequential order, as well as champion of World Memory Championship 2007 (Australia Station) and 2011 Australian Open Memory Championships winner, had been invited to memorise 84 word cards in one minute before the hosts asked him questions related to current affairs, such as Hong Kong Chief Executive Election 2012 and London Olympics 2012 in London, and required him to reveal answers by flipping correct word cards. All word cards were posted on RTHK website and public are welcome to test their memorising ability. The whole performance was captured all-round with the latest technology GoPano Micro, a lens to make 360 degree panoramic videos. Public will be able to view the ceremony at any perspective by moving the mouse cursor on RTHK website later on. Following that was a magical music show performed by Radio 2 presenter Harry WONG and rap duo FAMA that brought lots of fun to audience.
In addition to the officiating guests, the event was also honoured to have notable figures in local media industry taking part in a toasting ceremony. These include, Permanent Secretary for Commerce & Economic Development (Communications & Technology) Elizabeth TSE, Commissioner of TELA Vincent LIU, Deputy Director of Broadcasting (Developments) Gordon LEUNG, Deputy Director of Broadcasting (Programmes) TAI Keen-man, Senior Vice President of Asia Television Ltd. IP Ka-po, President & Editor-in-chief of Digital Broadcasting Corporation Hong Kong Ltd. Albert CHENG, Director & CEO of Dim Sum Television Co. Ltd. (HK) Kit SZETO, Chairman of Hong Kong Broadband Network Ltd. Ricky WONG, Director & CFO of i-CABLE Communications Ltd. William KWAN, General Manager of Hong Kong Commercial Broadcasting Co. Ltd. Rita CHAN, Compliance & Operations Director of Metro Broadcast Corporation Ltd. Katherine KWOK, Managing Director of TV & New Media, PCCW Ltd. Janice LEE, Executive Head of Phoenix U Radio Carol YU, Executive Vice President & CFO, Phoenix Satellite TV Holdings Ltd. YEUNG Ka-keung, General Manager (Broadcasting) of Television Broadcasts Ltd. S. K. CHEONG and Deputy CEO of TVB Pay Vision Ltd. Jason SIU.
“RTHK Lunar New Year Celebration for the Year of the Dragon” was complimented by the Chinese couplet written by veteran media practitioner YEUNG Shui-sang, which expressed good wishes for the New Year. The event was hosted by Cuson LAW and Wilson CHING. It was broadcast live on Radio 2 (FM94.8-96.9) and webcast on RTHK website (rthk.hk) at 12 noon on 30 January, 2012. Edited video version will be broadcast in the programme “Pentaprism II” on 31 January, 2012 at 1:20pm on TVB Jade and at 3:00pm on ATV Home. Both audio and video archives can be found on RTHK website.
