Hulu Culture
Hulu Culture () is a Hong Kong based non-profit organisation established in 2009 that endeavors to protect Hong Kong traditional culture and heritage. Based in Kwai Chung Town in the New Territories, it is partly funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. the organisation also received a grant of $1,515,600 from the Government of Hong Kong for their "Energising Kowloon East: Sustainable Development of Made in Hong Kong Project". Background. Etymology. The name "Hulu Culture" comes from a Chinese mythological story in which Iron-Crutch Li, one of the Eight Immortals, had a calabash or "hulu" (), full  of universal cures, which he used for the good of the common people. "Hulu Culture" represents a traditional popular sense of diversification and embraces a wide sector of the community, reflecting the myth. Mission. Hulu Concept was founded in 2004 to preserve and carry forward Hong Kong's traditional culture. It later became the organisation Hulu Culture, in 2009. The group assists local authors in the publication of their works and at the same time searches for stories and objects which usually go unnoticed or have been forgotten. Hulu Culture has held various large and small scale exhibitions and seminars  with community culture as their themes, to which artists, scholars and students have been invited to participate and share their expertise. Hulu's mission is to spread the message that Hong Kong is an interesting and colorful big city to a worldwide audience through its efforts to promote traditional culture and heritage. In addition, its goal is to contribute to renewing local culture in the context of urban economic development. Foundation. Hulu Culture was founded by Simon Go (), who grew up in Kowloon City, Hong Kong where he found that the old groceries stores and shops fostered a feeling of  nostalgia. He graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a design degree and had been working as a photo-journalist for over 10 years before he started his career in culture preservation. Go's photos focus on lower-class citizens and in the 1990s, he held an exhibition to show the true face of poverty behind social prosperity. Besides photography, he is also dedicated to recording the lifestyles of Hong Kong's people through interviews. Ho's wife, Iman Fok ( pinyin "Huò Tiānwén"), who is a social worker by profession, also decided to join Hulu Culture as the chief  executive to assist with cultural preservation. Funding. Hulu Culture has received over four million Hong Kong dollars in donations from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Some earlier activities were paid for by Simon Go and his wife. Activities. Hulu concept uses artistic and multimedia materials to present “themes” or “locations” of HongKong through words and images and is in the process of providing a research and online resource centre. Resultant research findings will become virtual exhibitions available via the organisation's web site. Expansion of such materials aims to allow the public, including artists, cultural workers and the younger generation  to get in touch with local community culture while also providing teaching materials for general education courses to aid in understanding community history and culture. Seminars and workshops are planned periodically where scholars speak on local culture while academic workshops will provide guided cultural tours as community events.