Sept 13-16
After a scholar is rescued from pirates by the abbot of a Shaolin temple, he goes about learning martial arts and later becomes a Shaolin martial monk himself. Thus goes the premise of Shaolin in the Wind, the multi-arts combo of drama, martial arts and classical dance that has its origins in the Shaolin temple’s home province of Henan. This award-winning extravaganza, whose performers number over 100, will be staged at the HK Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre to raise funds for the HK Shaolin Wushu Culture Centre. The premiere on Thursday, September 13, is by invitation only. However, tickets are available for the 7:30pm September 14 to 16 presentations cost $480 to $120 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

Sept 14-16
We dance; We live; We care; We act. These are the words that greet visitors to the website of DanceArt HK, the presenters of Butterfly Effect, a dance production taking its name from a scientific phrase in chaos theory describing how the flap of a butterfly’s wings might create changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado (or, as the case may be, prevent a tornado). Choreographed by Andy Wong, it seeks to make use of dance movements to tell a story about our choices and their results. The performances on September 14 and 15 are begin at 8pm while showtime on Sunday, September 16, is set for 3pm. The HK City Hall’s Theatre will be the venue for all three shows. Tickets are $160 and $100 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

Sept 14-Oct 21
Wednesday, September 26, is the designated day for the major celebration of abundance and togetherness variously known as the Mid-Autumn, Lantern or Harvest Festival this year. It is a public holiday, but official and unofficial homages to the harvest moon will go on for quite a while on either side of the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the Chinese calendar. After all, sales and consumption of mooncakes seem to go on all year round these days! And on the events front, the LCSD-organized Mid-Autumn Lantern Celebration includes four area lantern carnivals (one for each night of September 22 to 25) and two spectacular lantern displays (one of which – the Dragon Dance by the Ten Brothers – will be on view at the HK Cultural Centre’s Piazza from September 14 to October 21). All of the above are free to attend. For further details, go to www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Entertainment/
Entertainmentoffice/07lanterncarnival/index.html

Sept 14-Dec 2
The British Museum is one of the world’s greatest museological institutions. It is not only that it has over 7 million objects in its care but also that among those are what remains of two of the original Seven Wonders of the World (the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus). Around 5 million visitors from around the world enter its doors annually but don’t despair if you can’t be among them for, from September 14 to December 2, the HK Museum of Art will play host to the Treasures of the World’s Cultures from the British Museum exhibition that will showcase around 270 prized artefacts – some more than 2 million years old – normally only viewed in London. The HK Museum of Art is closed on Thursdays but open from 10am to 6pm on Mondays to Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and from 10am to 8pm on Saturdays. Admission to the museum is $30.

Sept 15 and 16
We who have been enjoying – or is it suffering through? – the hot summer weather in sub-tropical climes will realize that Hong Kong is as likely to freeze over as hell itself. That hasn’t deterred those folks who prefer their hockey on ice from organizing a tournament for the fifth year in a row that will pit eight teams from Canada, Japan, the Philippines, Macau and the HKSAR itself against one another. The 2007 International Amateur Ice Hockey Tournament is set to take place on September 15 and 16 at the MegaBox, Kowloon Bay. Organized by the HK Amateur Ice Hockey Club to help facilitate international exchange of sports culture and increase awareness of the sport in Hong Kong, the games are free to watch. For more information, go to www.hkahc.com/hkahc_tournament_main.htm

Sept 17-Oct 14
Ten recent Mainland Chinese productions – four of them 2007 releases while the other six date back to 2006 – are in the spotlight during the Chinese Film Panorama 2007 that will run from September 17 to October 14. Realism is the main theme of this year’s edition of what has come to be a bi-annual fixture on the cinematic calendar; with the programme including a documentary, Yuanmingyuan Park, that reconstructs the 150-year-old Qing Imperial Palace situated in the eponymous park from its creation to its destruction, and Gun of Mercy, an award-winning suspense-thriller, based on a journalistic piece, whose main characters are an old prison warden, a prisoner on death row, another convict, a third criminal, and a female village teacher. Screenings will be held at the HK’s Cultural Centre’s Grand Theatre, the HK Film Archive’s Cinema, and the HK Space Museum and HK Science Museum’s Lecture Halls. Tickets are $40 each from URBTIX, 2734 9009. For further details (including about individual screening dates and times), go to www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/ CulturalService/ filmprog/english/2007panorama/2007pa_index.html

Sept 23-Oct 10
Eighty films, 63 categories, 18 days. These are some of the raw numbers of the fourth Hong Kong Asian Film Festival to run from September 23 to October 10. What’s even more impressive is that the 2007 edition of “the biggest Asian film event in Hong Kong” will see the Asian – not just local – premieres of prestige efforts like Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution and Jia Zhangke’s Useless along with screenings of new features by renowned auteurs like South Korea’s Lee Chang Dong (Secret Sunshine), Mainland China’s Jiang Wen (The Sun Also Rises) and Feng Xiaogang (Assembly) and the Fragrant Harbour’s own Pang Ho-Cheung (Exodus). Also look out for classics like Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. Tickets for screenings at the Broadway Cinematheque and Palace apm are priced at $55, those at the AMC Festival Walk are $60 while at the Palace IFC they are $70. For enquiries call 2388 0002.

Sept 27 and 29
A sweet tale of young love set against a background of fading beauty in the exquisite drawing rooms of 18th century Vienna, Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) is a popular comic opera in three acts regularly recorded and performed all over the world. On September 27 and 29, the HK Philharmonic will present a concert take of this entertaining and glamorous German opera in the HK Cultural Centre’s Concert Hall. Performances commence at 7pm and run for 3 hours and 45 minutes (including two intervals). Tickets are $580, $440, $300 and $160 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

Sept 28-30
Many of us first came across the Cinderella story either via a Brothers Grimm fairytale or the Walt Disney movie. But for culture vultures, the most satisfying presentation of Cinderella may well be the ballet classic to music by Sergei Prokofiev. And that’s what, in the wake of six fully sold-out performances last summer, the HK Ballet will be effectively producing an encore of at the Tuen Mun Town Hall’s Auditorium. Showtime for the September 28 and 29 performances is set for 8pm while the Sunday, September 30 presentation will begin at 3pm. Tickets are $180, $140 and $80 from URBTIX, 2734 9009.

Monday, Oct 1
Celebrating with a bang (or more!) is a Chinese tradition. After all, the Chinese invented gunpowder (and fireworks) and China remains the largest manufacturer and exporter of pyrotechnics in the world. So how appropriate that the 58th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China this October 1 will be marked with a magnificent fireworks display over the Fragrant Harbour. This sure-to-be special sound-and-lights show is set to start at 9:15pm. Viewing is free; just make sure you find a good vantage point on either side of Victoria Harbour.