30-04-21
I pray there can be a term called ‘old-dult’, referring to the senior who are young at heart. I will sign up for this group. The prevalent description of a young person nowadays is ‘kidult’. A kidult is a young man or woman who lavishes on things meant for kids such as toys and electronic games. Some call them ‘eternal boys’. One of the extreme cases of kidult mentality is Michael Jackson. He stated openly that he did not want to grow up and owned a gorgeous collection of toy cars and a super amusement park called ‘Neverland Ranch’. This kidult died young.
There are 4 reasons why we have more and more kidults. The life expectancy for the world moved from 60 to 80 years. We have more people with younger mentality. There are also more and more rich people or people with ‘rich dads’. They can make costly purchases of ‘toys’. Modern society is characterized by individualism which is the prioritization of one’s own tastes and cultures. They do not see the need of identifying with the mature mentality. Finally, the toys, figures and art pieces of kidults mostly have speculative value. The result changed the beginning.
I got a young friend Matt Chung(筆華棋)who was born in 1988. He finished Form 2 of St. Joseph’s College and flew to Boston to complete his education up to Boston University. He then returned to Hong Kong and became a great reporter, editor and writer. Every writer has trouble adoring another writer and Matt is my exception. His famous books include La Dolce Vitasoy 賺錢買維他奶 and Playboy文. The stories successfully delineated the grossly depraved and despicable kidults who had rich dads. Matt said, “Money can buy a big car but money can’t make dream come true if your dream had nothing to do with money.” I commended him, “You are the teacher of your own soul. I can see the good route planning in your life. Classy is also my impression about you. You are considerate, intelligent and talented. You have a kind of self-control and self-mockery that your tomcat friends don’t have!” He laughed, “I still have art dreams and that might dilute my sin of chasing money.”
I asked, “You have shifted your focus from writing to art dealing. Why?” Matt laughed again, “As said, I am not a saint for letting good income out of my bed. Perhaps I am a kidult and do have ‘toy projects’ to make me awake. In particular, I buy and sell art pieces. Making a living as a writer is an impossible job.” I lamented, “Someone said this: being a writer is always you versus a blank sheet of paper(or a blank screen). Honestly, I sometimes don’t like this job as it is too stressful in competing with myself over deadlines. For such a tough career, what you can finally result in may be blank too.”
Matt concurred, “Writing is like swimming in a cage and you do not know where you can land on the shores. For contemporary art dealing, we have a definite market in which there are already ready young sellers and buyers and the job is to get them connected after me giving activity and advice to them. Writing may be just an expression but visual arts can be a possession with an investment value.”
I asked, “Are your customers mainly kidults?” Matt replied, “A lot of them are. They like trendy and cool Japanese and western contemporary art which includes figures and toys.” I was meddlesome, “Half the time, kidults bought art pieces for peer recognition, prestige and value enhancement?” He said, “It is inevitable. Improving for real taste and personal style is a process for the young. My art customers are around 25 to 45. They love contemporary art, usually of the artists who are famous overseas. Those arts are preferably with cartoons or portraits. Idols are such as Yoshitomo Nara( 奈良美智) from Japan, Banksy(班克斯) from Britain and Daniel Arsham from America.”
Matt remembered, “In 2019, I held an art exhibition for Futura from USA, the respectable man in the world of kidults, in Hong Kong. This managed to attract rapper Pharrell Williams, artist Takashi Murakami(村上隆) from Japan and hot Chinese star Shawn Yue(余文樂). I did not expect the exhibition to become an international event.”
I pursued, “What is the budget of kidult art lovers?” Matt kept his fingers crossed, “Some are below HK$100,000. Some are raising their budget to over HK$100,000 and some believe price is a silver bullet to ensure effective investment results.”
I joked, “Do you use honey instead of vinegar to attract flies?” Matt said, “The usual art marketing is quite traditional: exhibitions and cocktail parties. For kidults, I use more adventurous online marketing which makes it easier than ever to tailor my marketing messaging to different social media demographics. My Instagram account has to build up followers. I also need to do crossovers between products and art, such as an exhibition of Edgar Plans in the shop of ‘the WAREHOUSE optic’. For new ways, I need to roll with the punches.”
Life as an adult in the messy and conflicting modern world can be very tough. Revisiting the toyish childhood times is surely great escapism. The kidult market is on the rise in Hong Kong and will be a huge social phenomenon. The traditional art-world elites may no longer be able to define how art should be managed and which artists would be celebrated. The power of money of the ‘young rich’ is dismantling the old game. Emerging artists can leapfrog the entire gallery/ museum/ publication system. Mamma Mia!
This article can also be found at the following sites:
