Hong Kong Chinese opera centre looks like woman’s private parts, as well as its name sounding like word for them in Cantonese

There was sniggering when Chinese opera venue at Hong Kong arts hub was named Xiqu Centre, given Putonghua word sounds in Cantonese like word for a woman’s private parts - now photos show entrance that looks like them

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The facade of the Xiqu Centre under construction. Photo: West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Published: 4:00pm, 31 May 2017Updated: 6:20am, 1 Jun 2017

Remember all the fuss in 2013 over the English name for the Chinese opera centre at the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) ? Instead of simply calling the 13,800-square-metre venue the Chinese Opera Centre (which is what it is), officials opted for the pinyin (and presumably politically correct) pronunciation of “Chinese opera” (in Putonghua) and called it the Xiqu Centre.

This was rather unfortunate, given “xiqu” sounds in Cantonese – the predominant Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong – exactly like si chue, the word for a woman’s private parts.

Just when we thought this was old news and the controversy no more than just some smutty schoolboy joke, it returned with a vengeance this week as images of the facade of the centre, which is still under construction, emerged on the WKCD website.

The Xiqu Centre looks grand and curvaceous in this artist’s impression of the design. Photo: Courtesy of BTA & RLP Co Ltd and West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

It doesn’t appear to look quite as envisaged in artist’s impressions of the late Hong Kong-born Canadian architect Bing Thom’s design – a grand, somewhat curvaceous structure. Most noticeably, it lacks architectural finesse.