St. Regis Shenzhen hosts Shakespeare salon in the sky

The St. Regis Shenzhen hosted a literary and artistic salon on its 99th floor yesterday, partnering with ACSBOOKS, the imported-book retail brand under ACS Creative Space, for an event titled "Art Gathering Under the Moon: An Artistic Encounter with Shakespeare."

The event, part of the St. Regis "House of Celebration" autumn program, was held in the cloud-level Astor Mansion and featured Lao Yuan, a host of the Chinese-language podcast "SisReads," as guest speaker.

Organizers said the cross-brand collaboration was intended to explore the intersection of literature and art with the luxury lifestyle embodied by the St. Regis Astor Mansion.

The event transformed the private dining room of the 99th-floor Elba Italian restaurant into an art reading space suspended above the city skyline. The exhibition layout was minimalist and restrained, displaying literary and artistic volumes.

ACSBOOKS brought British artist David Hockney's monumental limited-edition monograph "A Bigger Book" to the event, marking its first exhibition at The St. Regis Shenzhen. The SUMO-format volume offered guests an immersive visual experience.

"A Bigger Book"

Published by TASCHEN in 2016, "A Bigger Book" is conceived as a "definitive visual autobiography" surveying more than 60 years of Hockney's work, from his early days at Bradford School of Art and his iconic 1960s Los Angeles pool paintings, such as "A Bigger Splash," to his later Yorkshire landscapes, multi-perspective photo collages, stage designs and iPad drawings.

The book measures 50 by 70 centimeters (about 20 by 27.5 inches), weighs 35 kilograms and spans 498 pages with 13 fold-outs. It includes more than 450 works personally selected by Hockney and features a handwritten programmatic statement by the artist. The Collector's Edition was limited to 10,000 numbered copies, each signed by Hockney, and was accompanied by an illustrated 680-page chronology book and an adjustable bookstand designed by Marc Newson.

Lao Yuan, the keynote speaker, drew on two works — Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" and the 1997 film "Comrades: Almost a Love Story," named one of Time magazine's top 10 films that year — for a cross-era comparative analysis. From the doomed love born of family feud in Shakespeare's play to the meeting and parting in the film, the discussion examined the predicament of individual love within real-world constraints.

The talk concluded with the St. Regis signature champagne sabrage ritual. 

The St. Regis Shenzhen said it draws on its landmark high-altitude setting and the century-old St. Regis heritage to integrate literary appreciation and artistic salons into the Astor Mansion celebration experience, expressing the brand's artistic luxury identity. The gathering served as the opening of the "House of Celebration," and the hotel said it will continue to offer diverse cultural and artistic experiences, inviting the city's elite to ascend to its cloud-level art realm.