Artists and performers from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas orchestrated a chorus of unity rooted in shared origins at the Greater Bay Area Film Concert 2026 in Macao.

The long-awaited concert, held on Sunday at the Galaxy Arena, showcased a diverse program of music, film and dance, paying tribute to Chinese traditional culture and to a kinship that stretches across the Chinese-speaking world.

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Now in its fifth year, the annual arts and cultural showcase — held each year near the Mid-Autumn Festival, a time for family reunion in Chinese culture — has stayed rooted in the cultural character of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, an economic powerhouse in southern China, and in Chinese people’s shared origins.

Themed “We, One Family”, this year’s gala ran for around four and a half hours and unfolded across four parts, gathering renowned filmmakers and musicians from across the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

A night of homecoming

Its first chapter, framed around the theme of building a shared home, picked up vitality as a group of eight young Chinese performers shared one stage for Tide, a new theme song. It’s a moment meant to represent unity, the organizer said.

The second segment, anchored by displaced people’s attachment to home, showcased a sequence of works performed jointly by artists from the mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The third chapter keyed up the nostalgia, with performances from a host of Taiwan’s artists, among others.

One of the highlights was Going Home, a co-production by filmmakers from the mainland and Taiwan. When its short preview appeared on screen, the room seemed to lean in.

Drawing on the real-life story of Liu De-wen — a community official in Taiwan who devoted decades to a voluntary mission to return the remains of deceased mainland-born veterans to their birthplaces on the mainland — the film speaks to a longing for home shared across the Taiwan Strait.

The closing acts carried a narrative of hope for solidarity, with the song Ode to Passion, a tribute to Chinese soldiers, and the song May Peace Embrace The World, to pay tribute to the International Day of Peace, which falls today Monday, following Sunday’s concert.

Unity held dear

The Hong Kong singer Pakho Chau Pak-ho was among those who performed the theme song Tide.

One line in the song struck a particular chord — a reference to the old Lingding Channel, which today stretches from Dongguan’s Humen in Guangdong province down to Hong Kong and Macao.

“When I was young, it took hours to get to my mother’s ancestral home in Dongguan. Now the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge makes it a remarkably convenient trip,” he said. “Born and raised in the Greater Bay Area — I’m proud of it.”

Macao singer Vivian Chan Wai-man joined artists from the mainland and Hong Kong at the concert to perform Valley of the Wind, an original song she wrote after a solitary journey in 2019 along the Karakoram Highway — otherwise known as the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway — built jointly by the two countries and completed in 1979, which later became a key historical underpinning for the Belt and Road Initiative.

She said that traveling had given her a firsthand sense of the warmth, kindness, and love that people in different places show one another. “That feeling of not ‘you’ and ‘me’, just ‘us’, and ‘love’ — that’s what I wanted to convey to the audience,” she said.

She added that occasions like the film concert — which gather artists from different regions under one roof for deeper exchanges — are the ones she treasures.

“All of us together — learning, influencing, encouraging one another. That matters,” she said. “And I hope through such exchange, we could together produce more beautiful work.”

Backstage, Liu, the inspiration for Going Home, also talked to reporters. The Mid-Autumn Festival, he noted, is a time for reunion. He shared a treasured memory: a veteran in his community, on a night of the full moon, pointed toward it and told him, “My home is right there”.

“I was deeply moved by those words,” Liu said. “Taiwan and the mainland share one moon. We’re all Chinese people; we share one culture, one language — bound by blood.”

Since 2003, Liu has brought the ashes of around 460 deceased veterans back to the hometowns they left behind. His goal, he said, is to see 1,000 of them return.

Also in the line-up were Hong Kong singer Jackson Wang Ka-yee and mainland actor Guan Yue.

“The Mid-Autumn Festival is, precisely, a day for reunion — it’s, precisely, a time to bring everyone together,” said Guan. “And the songs we sing, we hope, can bring people joy and warmth.”

Having just come offstage, Wang told China Daily that “the whole family together” was something he held dear. “For me, happiness comes down to family,” he said.

Ida Xue, Flora Ni, Amber Li contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com