"EUHKxSDBNSM Community Collaboration Program 3.0"
--The Great Pineapple Festival in Kobanta Village

Post-activity reflections on Hikaru Tamura - 3A - Yu Zi-Keng Gordon

 

This trip to Hikita Village was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, allowing us to celebrate the Great Pineapple Festival with the villagers, a festival that hadn't been held for many years due to the pandemic. We definitely wanted to make the most of this rare opportunity, and I also got to eat, drink, and have fun in the village! But as the saying goes, "work hard, play hard," our (the art team's) main purpose in visiting Hikita Village was to gather inspiration and create an artwork for the village. Therefore, we couldn't overlook any "details" in every corner we visited.

During this visit, I never imagined I would be able to try eating fresh honey at a bee farm. Actually, the honey-harvesting process wasn't as scary as I had imagined. We also learned some knowledge about plants and the history of the village. It turns out that this is a village formed by people who migrated from the mainland to Hong Kong.

Making smooth Tamura artworks

We used textured wooden planks as the material for our artwork, representing the ups and downs of the villagers' lives and the village's history, while also enhancing the three-dimensionality of the paintings. For the subject matter, I chose the village's welcoming area, the location of the pineapple festival. That place was full of character, inspiring many creative ideas, such as the cotton cloth hanging in the air. I also painted the main attraction and local specialty of the day—the pineapple—as well as dishes made with it, such as fried pineapple, pineapple pudding, and pineapple sticky rice. I also added some small patterns to enrich the artwork. The purpose of this creation was to promote the village's local specialty, because it's like a pebble in the ocean—numerous yet often overlooked. Although large pineapple trees can be found in many places, I think the large pineapple trees in Guangbantian Village are superior and more unique in terms of pickling, cooking, and cultivation methods. Therefore, we should promote the village's unique characteristics and ensure their long-term preservation!