HK battles Beijing as dreams for culture soar
Hong Kong: At a sunny Hong Kong art studio Kacey Wong gazes out through the bars of a cage, painted communist red – his work a protest in a city struggling to square its vast cultural ambitions with an increasingly assertive Beijing.
Better known for its high-end commercial galleries – and glamorous fairs like this month’s Art Basel – Hong Kong is striving to turn itself into a cultural heavyweight through a spate of new multi-million-dollar public art spaces.
But local artists warn Beijing’s growing influence is creating a climate of fear that is stifling creativity and threatens the nascent grassroots art scene Hong Kong says it wants to enrich.
“The way I look at it is that all government-supported art space ... is already not safe,” said Wong, 49.
“The red line is invisible and it’s shifting all the time.”
Hong Kong has rights unseen on the mainland but fears they are being steadily eroded were compounded last year when a highlyanticipated show by Chinese political cartoonist Badiucao was cancelled, with organisers citing threats made by the Chinese authorities.
Talks by dissident author Ma Jian were pulled just a week later by the new Tai Kwun arts centre, before being reinstated at the last moment.
The freedom of the city’s publishing has also taken a hit, with five booksellers known for printing gossipy titles about China’s leaders disappearing in 2015 and resurfacing in custody on the mainland.
The unprecedented challenges to freedom of expression come at a time of staggering public investment in Hong Kong arts and culture.
As well as Tai Kwun – a US$484mil (RM1.9bil) renovation of a former colonial prison and police station led by The Hong Kong Jockey Club in partnership with the government – there is the 60,000sq m harbourfront M+ gallery due to open in 2020.
The city’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that West Kowloon’s success would “elevate the status of Hong Kong to among the great cities of the world”.
But others fear Hong Kong could follow the model of Singapore, which has a thriving, governmentsupported arts scene but is at the mercy of authorities who can withhold or withdraw funding if work is deemed to breach their guidelines.
Critics say this pushes locallybased creatives to self-censor and avoid delving too deeply into topics deemed sensitive by the government.
“Tai Kwun and West Kowloon will provide opportunities,” said Wen Yau, a PhD student researching artist participation in social movements at Hong Kong Baptist University.
“So it’s quite an easy way to get all these people in and they will be obedient artists because once you depend on the funding, it’s hard to say no.” — AFP