Hong Kong’s biggest arts festival in 40th year:

The 2012 Hong Kong Arts Festival is currently underway, with more than 170 performances over five weeks by international superstars as well as local acts.

http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20120201-hong-kongs-biggest-arts-festival

The festival, which runs from 28 January to 8 March will include a series by the Lyon Opera Ballet that pays homage to three great choreographers: George Balanchine, Maguy Marin and Benjamin Millepied.

Hundreds of people have staged a protest in Hong Kong against what they claim is a bid to replace the widely-used Cantonese with Mandarin, China’s national language. Protesters say protecting the dialect is crucial to the survival of Cantonese culture. Cantonese is one of 14 Chinese dialects and the third most popular with over 70 million speakers. Other dialects include Wu, Min and Hakka.