Greater Bay Area artists celebrate shared cultural roots, promote broader solidarity

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

The concert, held on Sunday evening at the Galaxy Arena, showcased a diverse program of music, film theme songs, 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 arts and cultural showcase — held annually 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

The first chapter, framed around the theme of building a shared home, picked up vitality as a group of eight young Chinese performers shared the stage to perform 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, featured 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 artists, among others.

One of the highlights was the short preview of Going Home, a co-production by filmmakers from the mainland and Taiwan. Its clips appeared on screen drew the audience 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 shared longing for home across the Taiwan Strait.

The closing acts convey a message of hope for solidarity, with the song Ode to Passion, a tribute to Chinese soldiers, and the song May Peace Embrace The World, paying tribute to the International Day of Peace, observed on Monday.

Unity held dear

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 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 — also 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 — bringing artists from different regions together for deeper exchanges — are the ones she treasures.

“All of us together — learning, influencing, encouraging one another. That matters,” she said. “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 helped bring the ashes of 453 deceased veterans back to their hometowns. His goal, he said, is to see 1,000 of them return.

Also in the lineup 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 a time to bring everyone together,” Guan said. “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, and Amber Li contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at wanqing@chinadailyhk.com