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A FOLK arts exhibition of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, an activity of the China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industries Fair, is being held in Bao’an District, showcasing folk arts products from the two SARS and nine cities in Guangdong Province.

Bao’an CBD Library, which is the main venue of the exhibition that runs until May 22, is showcasing bone-carving, wood-carving, jade-carving, glazed decorative porcelain and embroidery from Guangzhou, copper-carving from Shenzhen, glazed porcelain from Hong Kong, a mammoth tusk carving from Macao, micrography porcelain from Zhuhai, furniture from Zhongshan, brush pen from Jiangmen, ink stone from Zhaoqing and pyroxylin plastic from Bao’an.

The subvenue at Fuyong Feng-huang Arts Exhibition Center displays folk arts products from Baoji in Shaanxi, porcelain from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi and pottery from Yixing, Jiangsu.

The exhibition is being held by the Guangdong Folk Artists Association, Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Bao’an District Government. The organizers invited national and provincial arts masters, inheritors of intangible cultural heritages and folk artists to contribute their works for exhibition and to attend seminars on the evolution and carrying on of Greater Bay Area and Lingnan culture.

As an important industrial district in Shenzhen, 1,700-year-old Bao’an has rich historical and cultural resources. Historically, it administered the area that includes present-day Shenzhen, Hong Kong, parts of Dongguan, the southern part of Panyu and Zhongshan City. The district is known for its Fenghuang Ancient Village, Fuyong lion dance, Hakka folk songs, kylin dance, Canton opera and the oyster culture in Shajing. It is regarded as the root of Shenzhen and Hong Kong cultures.

It is on the central line of the Pearl River Delta industrial axis and is the joint of the Shenzhen-Guangzhou Economic Corridor, as well as a strategic point of support for the Maritime Silk Road. At the district’s Party congress in January this year, Bao’an set the target to be an influential and modern coastal Bao’an and a core engine for radiating and spurring Guangdong and even the Greater Bay Area through coordinated development with the Qianhai and Shekou Area of the China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Bao’an New Town and Greater Airport Area.

Premier Li Keqiang said that the government would draw up a plan for the development of a city cluster in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in a government work report to the national lawmakers in March. The region shares a similar folk culture and Cantonese dialect, which allows space for the cultural and creative industries.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year, will remarkably cut the driving time between Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Macao, and this will be an impetus for the greater integration of the region.