“Hong Kong is a cultural desert.” How many times have you heard this old chestnut? It’s not true, and as Enid Tsui notes in her illuminating new book Art in Hong Kong, it never has been.
The axiom is attributed to Chinese writer Lu Xun, who wrote in the 1920s that “Hong Kong is not a cultural desert”, inadvertently setting off a century of haughty dismissals of the art and culture that have always thrived there.
What Hong Kong did lack, for many years, was the infrastructure to support its creative talent. That is no longer the case, as museums, galleries, auction houses and art fairs have proliferated, turning Hong Kong into a pillar of the global art market and a destination for international collectors and curators alike.
But Hong Kong is a place in constant flux. The National Security Law passed by Beijing in 2020 has raised concerns about free expression, while China’s latest five-year plan supports Hong Kong becoming an “East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange” and the city government is committed to telling “good stories of China and Hong Kong” through culture.
What does that mean for a city whose artistic culture has long straddled the line between freewheeling creativity, the mercantile impulses of a city driven by trade – and now a new political environment?
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