India by the Bay (IBB) — the annual, weeklong celebration of Indian arts, culture and heritage in Hong Kong — returns on Nov 8. Copresented by Teamwork Arts and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, the festival has served as a cultural bridge between Hong Kong and India since 2015.

“It has been an incredible journey,” says festival director Lakshmi Mahey Laroia. “We could not have asked for a better partner than the Asia Society and have enjoyed overwhelming support from our audiences in Hong Kong, including those from the city’s Indian community.”

Unsurprisingly, some of the festival’s most loyal backers are Hong Kong-resident Indians. Long-time sponsors Neville and Farida Shroff look back fondly on their sustained association with the festival. Their personal festival highlights include a celebration of the Parsi Zoroastrians in 2018. The themed dinner was designed on the lines of a traditional Parsi wedding feast, prepared by celebrity chef Anahita Dhondy.

“It was an amazing awareness exercise,” says Farida Shroff, recalling how her knowledge of “the small Zoroastrian Parsi community of India, which many are not aware of”, was enhanced even as she was having a great meal.

Reach out and touch

Over the years the festival’s remit has extended from staging an annual showcase of Indian culture to forging ties with Hong Kong institutions. IBB has held workshops at various university campuses, invited student groups to attend their events, and collaborated with the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation besides staging satellite performances at venues in the West Kowloon Cultural District.

“In the past couple of years, we’ve produced a number of collaborative shows that are a fusion of Chinese and Indian cultural traditions,” Laroia says. “We hope to amplify the scope of the festival with a much greater focus on collaborative pieces that serve as a cultural bridge. We also hope to keep entertaining and engaging the residents of this amazing city with the best of art and culture from India!”

Intercultural collaboration is a significant aspect of this year’s festival. Highlights include a fusion between Bharatnatyam, danced by Rukmini Vijayakumar, and Cantonese Opera, performed by Eliza Li Pui-yan. Named Kadal Kadal: Endless Love, the piece delves into the nuanced layers of human desire for love and acknowledgment.

“Both Bharatnatyam and Cantonese Opera are deeply rooted in tradition, with specific structures, themes and performance styles that have been passed down through generations,” says Vijayakumar. Kadal Kadal: Endless Love is about finding the relevance of these ancient art forms in modern life. It’s about honoring the past but also embracing the present, allowing these art forms to evolve.”

Li says that she hopes to have the audience see beyond the elaborate costumes and staging involved in performing Bharatnatyam and Cantonese Opera, and recognize the timeless quality of the two art forms.

Another anticipated cross-cultural performance is A Symphony of Sound — a collaboration between pianist and composer Utsav Lal, saxophonist and composer George Brooks and guzheng player Grammy Yeung Ching-ho. The show fuses Indian classical music with American jazz. Embracing a contemporary minimalist approach, the musicians create innovative new sounds, even as the distinct tones of the guzheng and tabla are heard throughout the performance.

Echoing Li, Brooks says that the aim of the concert is to help audiences experience how the traditional melodic and rhythmic frameworks in Indian classical music can open up new musical pathways “while maintaining the depth and beauty born out of centuries of musical evolution”.

“For those listeners more familiar with the role of the saxophone in traditional jazz, I hope they experience an aspect of the instrument that takes them on a new journey,” he adds.

“Music isn’t just the sounds that are being made, but everything that surrounds it — the stories, the history, the sociopolitical context, the meals eaten together after a great concert, the travel involved,” says Lal. “Great music always has a basis in empathy between the musicians, respect for each other’s traditions and lineages, curiosity and wonder for the stories of those musicians that inspire us.”

If you go:

India by the Bay 2024

Dates: Nov 8 to 12

Venue: Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty

https://asiasociety.org/hong-kong/india-bay-2024