M. M. Kapustei and P. V. Slyusarchuk
Theor. Probability and Math. Statist. 99 (2020), 101-111.
Abstract, references and article information

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Cultural Centre, the Leisure & Cultural Services Department will hold a fun day from noon to 5.30pm on November 9.

The centre’s venue partners, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hong Kong Ballet and Zuni Icosahedron will use the latest technology in the foyer to present Western and Chinese music, a ballet performance and sound and scene recreation of the former Kowloon-Canton Railway Station.

At the piazza areas, more than 40 dancers will perform works by acclaimed and emerging choreographers and lead visitors to discover every corner of the centre.

Artist Enoch Cheng will curate "Unseen Scene" in the backstage area to display the magic behind a show through music, dance, projections and other special performances.

Additional programmes will include the Stage & Technology Workshop and the 30th anniversary exhibition "Traces of the Past & Future".

Besides free events on the fun day, the centre will hold a celebratory concert at 8pm on November 29 and 30. Pieces specially selected from the repertoire of the centre's opening concert 30 years ago will be presented.

Click here for details.

The East Kowloon Cultural Centre Public Artwork Commissioning Project is inviting artists, designers and architects to create an art landscape for the centre.

Presented by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department and organised by the Art Promotion Office, the project endeavors to capture and showcase the past, present and future of East Kowloon.

The commissioned artworks will represent five themes - memory, impression, moment, dream and imagination - aiming to display the district’s changing nature, and to manifest the local community’s cultural sustainability, aspirations and dreams.

Interested participants must submit their preliminary proposal with their curriculum vitae, documentation of their previous artwork and the artistic concept of the proposed artwork.

All proposals must be delivered to the centre’s Public Art Project Management Team at G/F, 50-54 Lok Ku Road, Sheung Wan before 7pm on May 4.

Participants shortlisted by the selection panel are required to submit detailed proposals before 7pm on June 30 for the next stage of the selection process.

Up to three proposals shall be chosen by the selection panel for commissioning and installing in the centre.

The Leisure & Cultural Services Department launched a one-stop online resources centre today for the public to view or participate in multi-faceted leisure and cultural activities from the comfort of their homes.

The online resources centre offers demonstrations of home exercises as well as videos of exercise demonstrations and Healthy Exercise for All Campaign interactive games.

The information portal carries knowledge on the plants and animals at the Zoological & Botanical Gardens, old and valuable trees at the department's major parks and colourful Hong Kong Flower Show archives.

The Museum of Art and the Heritage Museum are collaborating with the Google Arts & Culture Project to showcase exhibits in a digital format.

There are also virtual exhibitions that explore previous fascinating collections at the History Museum and the Science Museum.

While extensive content from intangible cultural heritage and modern arts integrating into life from Oi! is also included.

The Hong Kong Public Libraries offers vast e-resources allowing people to explore fun reading at home.

On the performing arts front, digital content covers concert archives from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta.

Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung said all the examination centres for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) Examination are well prepared to provide a very safe environment for candidates to take the exams.

Mr Yeung made the statement when asked by reporters this morning about the arrangements schools have made to prepare for the DSE to be held on April 24.

He said: “In terms of the distance between the seats, in terms of all the procedures for cleansing, and also the detailed arrangements including the toilet arrangement and other things, all the schools, all the examination centres, are well prepared to provide a very safe environment for our candidates to take the examinations.”

Regarding school resumption, Mr Yeung said the Government has not made any firm decision nor set any deadline for schools to resume classes.

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung today visited Queen Elizabeth School to inspect the preparatory work of an examination centre for the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (DSE) Examination.

Mr Cheung was briefed on anti-epidemic precautionary measures for candidates and examination personnel before they enter the centres.

They will be required to wear masks, make health declarations, undergo temperature checks, disinfect the soles of their shoes and clean their hands with alcohol-based sanitiser.

He then visited the school hall to understand the preparation required for an examination centre, such as disinfection and widening the distance between candidates’ seats to 1.8m as much as possible.

The Chief Secretary also learnt about the arrangements for candidates during the sessional break and the use of washrooms to help ensure that social distancing is maintained.

Mr Cheung was pleased to know that the Education Bureau had earlier distributed masks to candidates and made available about 200,000 bottles of alcohol-based sanitiser for candidates at examination centres.

The bureau has also set fallback dates, should the DSE examination be halted if the epidemic situation worsens.

He thanked the bureau, relevant government departments, the Examinations & Assessment Authority, principals, teachers and school staff for the additional work they have done to protect the candidates’ health and safety.

He encouraged the some 50,000 candidates to tackle the examinations positively and optimistically and reminded them to heighten their anti-epidemic awareness and strictly follow examination arrangements.

Additionally, Mr Cheung appealed to all employers to allow their staff to follow flexible working hours to divert passenger flows on public transport during the morning peak hours between 7am and 8am, thus enabling candidates to reach examination centres on time.

(Geological Society of America) The annual meeting of The Geological Society of America's North-Central Section, originally scheduled to take place in Duluth, Minnesota, will be held virtually on May 18-19, 2020, with technical sessions in the morning and student programming in the afternoon. The online meeting is open and available to everyone for free. No registration is required.

Mozart once called the pipe organ the “king of instruments” and Hong Kong has musical royalty sitting in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui.

It is hard to miss the pipe organ when you are inside the Cultural Centre Concert Hall. With its four manuals, 93 stops and 8,000 pipes, it can produce an exceptional array of timbre and volume.

“The pipe organ is the ‘pearl’ of a concert hall,” explained pipe organist Chiu Siu-ling.

“Its enormous range of sounds, coupled with a huge variety of tone colours, creates a remarkable musical experience equivalent to that of an orchestra. It is the king of instruments.”

Star performer

The four-storey tall pipe organ was hand-made by famed Austrian manufacturer Rieger Orgelbau and installed when the Cultural Centre was built 30 years ago. It has attracted several world-renowned performers to Hong Kong over the years.

“When we built it in 1989, it was the first, huge mechanically operated organ in Asia. I think it is still our biggest organ we have ever built in Asia,” Rieger pipe organ maintenance technician Gerhard Pohl said.

He added that the instrument is also remarkably versatile.

“There are many organs they are built just for one musical style. On this organ, you can play everything, even jazz music.”

Mr Pohl comes to Hong Kong once a year to give the 30-year-old organ its annual health check. In between visits by the manufacturer’s technicians, William Wen ensures the Cultural Centre’s star performer remains in tip-top condition.

Top tuner

Mr Wen is Hong Kong’s only pipe organ maintenance technician. He carries out routine checks on the instrument and tunes it every month.

“Keeping it in tune is my responsibility. I take care of it.”

Mr Wen was one of the first in Hong Kong to learn the instrument in the 1980s. He became interested in pipe organ maintenance after a visit to an organ manufacturing company in Europe.

He recalled that in the ‘80s, organists in Hong Kong were few and far between. He was called upon to test the Cultural Centre organ before the grand opening, making him one of the first organists to play it.

“It was dark in the hall, so at first, I only noticed the organ’s keys. When I got closer, I was astounded by just how big the instrument was.”

Mr Wen takes up to five hours per maintenance visit to thoroughly check the pipes and tune the organ. He explained that the organ is regularly updated and was fitted with an electrical coupler system, providing greater flexibility in switching between lighter and stronger key actions as desired by the player.

“It has been updated a few times. In 2010, the organ was installed with an electrical coupler system. I used to get someone to press the keys for me while I would tune it from inside. But now, I just need a mobile phone on which I can tune it by myself.”

Musical legacy

To promote organ music and nurture local organists, the Cultural Centre has been organising the “King of the Instruments” Pipe Organ Education Series annually since 1999. Now the programme’s principal instructor, Ms Chiu has been teaching from the outset.

“People are not allowed to touch the instrument in a lot of other concert halls, and they seldom hold pipe organ concerts. This is actually not good for the organ. It has to be played to keep it in good condition or the keys and parts will become hard and old. This inspires me teach and let more and more musicians learn and play the instrument,” Ms Chiu explained.

More than 300 organists have so far been trained on the Cultural Centre’s organ. But it has also played something other than music - it has played Cupid too.

Like-minded musicians

Pipe organist Simon Chan met his wife, Shirley Cheng, through the programme.

“I joined the Pipe Organ Education Series in 2000. After that, I continued learning the organ with Ms Chiu and eventually became one of the course tutors. I met my wife in 2003 on the course.”

Ms Cheng was also a student on the course. She switched majors from information technology to music and that fateful decision led to meeting her husband.

“He asked me to watch him play. He was playing a big piece which was powerful and loud, and that was when I fell for his charms.”

The couple decided to embark on a life journey together and now hope to pass on their love of music and the pipe organ to their children.

“I wish for my kids to learn music too and to find out more about the pipe organ. This instrument brought their father and mother together and I want them to know our story,” said Ms Cheng.

The organist-music teacher duo also hopes to share the joy of the pipe organ with the rest of the community.

The ambulance service has been part of the Fire Services Department since 1919 and its mobile ambulance technology is keeping pace with the evolution of technology in hospitals.

To aid ambulance crews in the race against time to save lives, the department installed automatic chest compression machines in all ambulances in October.

The advanced device helps medics respond to a cardiac arrest by delivering uninterrupted compressions at the right rhythm and the right amount of pressure.

Fire & Ambulance Services Academy Deputy Commandant (Ambulance Services Training) Terence Ng explained that the device enables paramedics to treat patients on their way to the hospital.

“It has other advantages as well, like reducing the compression pause significantly, lowering the risk of injuries suffered by ambulance personnel as a result of performing chest compressions in different environments, allowing ambulance personnel to perform chest compression continuously in a constrained environment, and releasing more ambulance manpower to carry out other treatment procedures.”

Keeping pace

Such advanced equipment was not available to ambulance crews in the past.

Retired Principal Ambulanceman Simon Wong and Assistant Chief Ambulance Officer Conrad Yung visited the Fire & Ambulance Services Education Centre & Museum to discover the century-long history of ambulance services in the city.

Both have witnessed the continuous improvement and development of equipment, knowledge and techniques of ambulance personnel.

Mr Wong joined the Fire Services Department as an ambulanceman in 1978 and retired after 34 years of service. He noted one of the major changes to the department was the implementation of the Paramedic Ambulance Service in 2005.

“When I joined the department, we were well trained to provide ambulance services. We would arrive at the scene and then transport the patient to the hospital as soon as possible. We rarely provided pre-hospital treatment. However, when I retired, there was an obvious change. Ambulance personnel now provide paramedic care for patients in ambulances.”

Mr Ng said the service provides medications and equipment to help improve the survival rate of emergency patients.

“Advanced treatments like airway insertion and defibrillation used to be confined to the hospital. However, paramedics brought them into pre-hospital settings. Paramedics administer advanced treatments and protocols to the patient at the scene or en route to hospital in order to stabilise the patient and increase the patient’s survival rate. This protocol allows ambulance personnel to treat a wide range of emergencies, including cardiac arrest, shortness of breath and cardiac origin chest pain.”

Mr Yung, who joined the Fire Services Department in 1960, noted that treatment methods have come a long way since then.

“I was an ambulanceman when typhoon Wanda hit Hong Kong in 1962. At that time, ambulances were only equipped with respiratory equipment, a medicine box and blankets. These tools are simple but important. But in the past, even though we knew that a patient had internal bleeding, we could not do anything to help. We did not have the tools and equipment for that.”

Ambulances these days are equipped with ultrasound scanners to detect internal bleeding.

Up-close look

The Fire & Ambulance Services Education Centre & Museum, housed inside the Fire & Ambulance Services Academy in Tseung Kwan O, has a four-story exhibition hall offering interactive and multimedia information facilities.

Visitors can get a close-up look at fire appliances and ambulances parked in the large exhibition areas, as well as uniforms and equipment.

The venue is open for group and individual visits which can be booked on its website.