13-01-22
What is Art all about? It is about the belief that there is something wonderfully creative which we can accomplish. Such a belief is necessary not only for artists, but also for any cultural society.
Philosopher Noam Chomsky said, “If we don’t believe in free expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” Author Sarah Ban Breathnach wrote, “Take a leap of faith. Believe in yourself, and believe that there is a loving source―a Sower of Dreams―just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true.” Great actress Audrey Hepburn left us with these words, “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” For any struggling artist, he must believe the above. He also believes that the gap between what he is and what he will be and what his audience are and whether the society of Hong Kong will like him or not does not matter. It is all manipulated by a little trick called luck. So, either you walk or go back. Art is nowhere you want to be and it is where you are fatalistically meant to be. As a writer, I always told myself, “I can write well. You are, of course, free to criticize my style and contents since I am also not pleased with myself. I will never give up writing. Let us keep writing for a better tomorrow of Hong Kong in which our people will be convinced to support art for a better part of our life!”
Art for an artist is a magical combination of 3 things that matter: a creative mind, great skills and what he can spiritually touch the heart of other people. Some suggested that violent and sadist subject matters can be art. Those may be, as a satire, ‘dark arts’. For most people, art is more about spiritual enhancement.
The commonly recongnised art forms in Hong Kong are 10 kinds: architecture, dance, drama, film, literary arts, media arts, music, visual arts, sculpture and xiqu(戲曲 Chinese traditional operas). The majority of the art events and activities here are government-subsidised. Most art groups are currently non-profit organisations that cannot be financially independent and rely heavily on donations. Very few art operators are commercial companies or private individuals and a lot of them are at the moment art galleries.
Some are worried about the lack of freedom of artistic expression in Hong Kong. ‘One Country, Two Systems’ (Mainland is socialist and Hong Kong remains capitalistic) is assuringly a constitutional principle which is functioning. Not overstepping the national security law, the bounds for an artist are actually not as tight as some claimed.
Art appreciation and education are the 2 important things in life for a member of the public. They allow us to explore the soulful meanings behind the normal and common. Irrespective of race, gender, age and wealth, people in Hong Kong stand out as equal and we used to and still have equal opportunities to appreciate art. Many art exhibitions here are free and tickets for art performance are cheap.
The Legislative Council member formerly representing art sectors Mr. MA Fung-kwok (馬逢國) said the future of art developments in Hong Kong depends on 3 directions: we must select and help the better artists to reach the top. This will imply extra resources being spent on the incubation of the ‘winners’ who can likely succeed and earn a great reputation for Hong Kong. The world of art in Hong Kong needs more commercial enterprises instead of merely NGOs to develop a better future. Art enterprises create jobs, export arts for revenue generation and stimulate local economy through tourism and consumer purchases. Arts and culture-related industries, known as ‘creative industries’, can provide economic benefits as a new force. The past art market was operated chiefly for the sake of community leisure and overseas cultural exchange. There is now a stronger justification for us to manage the art ecology from the perspective of a new and innovative economic model. Supply is not just to satisfy community demand. Commercial demands for art, local and overseas, must be stimulated so that the art supply from Hong Kong can be substantially increased for whatever needs correspondingly.
The role of Hong Kong as a prominent art centre is 3-sided. We have been an art production centre especially in the heydays when our films and music were popular in Asia. We are also the centre of cultural exchange. Visitors to Hong Kong freely enjoy new networks and interact with people from other cultures. In 2020, Hong Kong overtook London as the second-biggest contemporary art auction centre in the world after New York. Hong Kong had no currency control and we do not impose stringent rules for export and import of art pieces. The profit tax rate in Hong Kong is lower than 16.5%. In art exhibitions, we do not impose withholding tax on vendors. We should make ourselves the greatest place in the world for art transactions.
In the old days, art was treated and respected as mere self-expressions of artists. We shall continue that but on top of this, we must come to the awakening realization that some artists can now help Hong Kong refreshingly by generating economic returns for our city. This new kind of economic trend of art is very promising for Hong Kong as the combined powers of ‘pure art’ and ‘economic art’ here will attract more resources for local artists. It is not replacing the old system and art economy just simply puts on a new dimension to the already flourishing creative activities of our international city.
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