Ten years, for an individual, is a long journey of life; However, in the flow of the fashion industry, it is only like a white horse. On January 26, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region** held a grand inter-departmental press conference to announce that it would promote the mega events economy, and Adrian Cheng was appointed chairman of the Hong Kong Cultural Events Committee. At the press conference, Adrian Cheng mentioned that in 2024, the Mega Events Committee will be committed to bringing international cultural events to Hong Kong. Shortly thereafter, Dior officially announced that it would hold its 2024 fashion show in Hong Kong.
Before Dior, LV set up a dazzling show on Hong Kong's Avenue of Stars for the first time, which not only injected new fashion vitality into this bustling city, but also demonstrated Hong Kong's important position on the international fashion stage.
The Avenue of Stars, which is a waterfront promenade that winds along the shores of Victoria Harbour and carries Hong Kong's profound history and culture, has become an excellent stage for the perfect integration of fashion and city with its unique charm and style.
After seven years of transformation, the former site of Hall is now full of vitality. "It's hard to find a plot of land like this in Tsim Sha Tsui anymore. Zheng Zhigang, the chief planner behind the $2.6 billion overhaul, said frankly. He renamed the land that his grandfather, Cheng Yu-tung, had bought that year as "Victoria Dockside". "Victoria" stands for Victoria Harbour, which Hong Kong people are proud of, while "Dockside" refers to the predecessor of this place, Hall, and the name is connected to Hong Kong culture.
If the office building K11 Atelier, which opened in 2018, is not yet known to most people, the Avenue of Stars, which was reopened two years ago, has achieved a new look and shine in the hands of Adrian Cheng. Different from the rigid design and lack of leisure facilities in the past, the transformed Avenue of Stars has added a new wavy railing to echo Tsim Sha Tsui Beach and the Hong Kong skyline. The addition of seaside seats and green pavilions makes the Avenue of Stars the best place to enjoy the sea view and fireworks. The Avenue of Stars, which is both aesthetic and practical, has become a new landmark for Hong Kong's arts, culture and tourism in the 21st century.
Adrian Cheng, the man at the helm of Tsim Sha Tsui Waterfront who once again became a place of world attention, has just entered the age of not being confused, and his smile is very friendly, and his family's unique thick black eyebrows, sloping downward, are like an eye-catching mark, attracting attention in the crowd. Prior to his tenure as Chairman of the Hong Kong Cultural Events Committee, he held various titles and capacities, including "Executive Vice Chairman and General Manager of New World Development", "Executive Director of Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Company", "Founder of K11 Brand", "Vice Chairman of All-China Youth Federation", "Chairman of China Youth Elite Association", "Honorary Chairman of K11 Art Foundation", etc.
I'm grateful. There is still a lot of undefined things in this world.
I choose to fight.
Rekindle the light of the Renaissance.
It's a special adventure.
It's like creating my story.
No matter how far away.
I'll run hard.
Times will tell.
In 2016, Zheng Zhigang wrote a poem in his first *** tweet, and in the following 8 years, he used his actions to create his own story, and time has indeed proved everything. Compared with the "successor" of the family, Zheng Zhigang is more like a family "entrepreneur". After founding K11, Adrian Cheng pioneered the "Artisan Movement" for New World Development, which the group calls "Cultural Vision", or "Philosophy of Life", hoping to incubate beautiful ideas around the world and awaken the ingenuity that everyone has always been there through "collect, connect, collide". It consists of 5 elements: Imagination, Bespoke, Craftsmanship, Heritage and Contemporary. As the initiator of the Craftsman Movement, Adrian Cheng seeks to eschew the "one-size-fits-all approach" and integrate creativity, craftsmanship, traditional and modern values into every project, aiming to recreate Hong Kong's "city" and "home".
Not only the material "home", but also the spiritual "home".
On October 8, 2020, New World Development 47After a $7.6 billion bid for the entire ownership of the Royal Cinema Building, an elite international and local architectural conservation team was hired to formulate a plan for both conservation and development, announcing the restoration, preservation, reshaping and revitalisation of the Grade 1 historic building. After the completion of the acquisition, Adrian Cheng once said on his website, "The past and present of the Imperial City Cinema represent the characteristics of Hong Kong's fusion of East and West, which deserve to be passed on from generation to generation, and conservation is not only about preserving old buildings, but more importantly, about being physically and spiritually." Our team will spare no effort to preserve this historic building and create a cultural oasis that inspires vitality and serves the community. ”
In 2018, New World Development began to collect and preserve the old items related to the cinema, including Otis manual lifts, movie projectors, cinema staff**, cinema chairs, shop signs, etc. At the same time, the foundation structure of the Imperial Capital Theater was analyzed, the structural condition of various places was investigated, and the exterior walls were repaired with non-destructive chemical materials. The two iconic designs of "Rooftop Flying Arch" and "Cicada Fan Dong Zhuo" are restored, improved and upgraded to the greatest extent, and it is planned to restore and build a unique atmosphere and immersion of the Imperial Capital Theater in 2026. According to Winshang.com, before the start of the restoration project, New World Development held an immersive historical experience activity at the Imperial Capital Cinema - "Looking for You, Me and His Imperial Capital", which attracted the participation of many staff and citizens who had memories associated with the Imperial Capital, and harvested some of the cinema's cultural relics, including the theater bridge used as a movie introduction in the 50s, a variety of different old theater tickets, etc., and enriched the historical puzzle of the Imperial Capital Cinema through the oral accounts of witnesses.
The renovation and creativity of the Huangdu Theater coincides with the development of New World's humanities and arts, and has a richer and far-reaching connotation. For Adrian Cheng, the "resurrection" of the Imperial Capital Cinema is different from the pure art, humanities and natural expression of its projects, and is a carrier practice of "telling Chinese stories well" in the true sense.
In order to build the spiritual home of Hong Kong and even Chinese, Adrian Cheng is also committed to protecting and inheriting traditional Chinese crafts. He founded the K11 Craft & Guild Foundation (KCG), focusing on the protection and inheritance of traditional crafts such as Baibao inlay, luodian, Guangcai, and gray molding. Under the influence of these traditional crafts, groups of young craftsmen have grown up strongly, injecting new vitality into the inheritance and development of traditional crafts. At the same time, he is particularly optimistic about the development of the Greater Bay Area, actively responds to the national development policy, continues to carry out cultural conservation work in the Greater Bay Area, helps the development and revival of Lingnan historical and traditional culture such as Guangcai, tea, handicrafts, and gray plastic architecture, boosts the inheritance of cultural heritage and spirit, and promotes the integration and in-depth development of the two cultures in an all-round way.
Ten years have passed, like a white horse passing through a gap, fleeting. However, in the past ten years, Adrian Cheng has left a strong mark on the fashion and culture scene in Hong Kong and even the world with his ingenuity and unremitting efforts. Every one of his projects and every innovation is a tribute to traditional culture and an expectation for the future. From the rejuvenation of the Avenue of Stars, to the rebirth of the Imperial Capital Theater, to the in-depth excavation and inheritance of the culture of the Greater Bay Area, Adrian Cheng has interpreted with his actions what is the true love and respect for culture. He is not only a family entrepreneur, but also a cultural inheritor. In the days to come, we look forward to Adrian Cheng continuing to bring us more surprises and touches with his ingenuity and innovation, rekindling the light of the Renaissance and leading the new trend of fashion and culture.