“Hakka” means “guest people” in Chinese. A group of Hakka settled in Mui Tsz Lam, a village in North-East New Territories of Hong Kong, since the Qing Dynasty during the 17th Century. The Hakka people are known for being hardworking and enduring. Since they farmed on less fertile terraces, their food grown is modest and practical. This culture is also reflected in festive foods like rice dumplings for the Tuen Ng Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival.

Southeast Asia has musical traditions for which the region can be described to have a massive cultural wealth of sounds. From the gongs of Vietnam to the woodwind Khaen of Laos to stringed pear- or boat-shaped instruments of Thailand and Indonesia, communities in Southeast Asia have all that.

Some people say orteke is a street theatre, others might claim it is a musical instrument, some would see it as a decorative art, and children perceive it as a toy and use for entertainment. The truth is that all of the statements are correct, orteke is everything altogether. It is an indigenous Kazakh performing art that combines theater, music, and puppetry. You may notice it from the introductory words of one of the masters in the video. He did not give single-worded description of orteke, because it is simply impossible.

As a rite of passage, lễ cấp sắc (literally means conferring a certificate of approval) marks the initiation of a Red Yao man into his spiritual maturity and religious efficacy. Filmed in a village of the Red Yao people, which is located in the mountainous area of Lào Cai province, 260 km north

600km away from Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, Boysun is the place surrounded by high canyon and valleys. Either you approach northerly from Termez, the city which is bordering with Afghanistan as the southernmost part of Uzbekistan or you run southward from Tashkent, you have to pass this rough and beautiful wonder.

The reason why the film was titled Festival is that the funeral serves as a place where wounds are healed through a person’s death, old and pent-up tensions are resolved, and family members reaffirm their blood ties.