I have a soft spot for music of every sort, a passing interest in drama, an exuberance for all things historic, a desire to understand the finest of arts and a love of wide, open spaces. British architect Norman Foster's winning design for the West Kowloon Cultural District has promised to lavishly cater for all these likes, so I should be delighted that a slice of my idea of nirvana is finally in the works. Yet there's this feeling that all those government announcements, the consultations, the competition and the vast cost are less about celebrating Hong Kong's rich art and culture and giving us a window on what's happening in those worlds elsewhere, than to make yet more money for those perpetually bulging government coffers. Yes - at heart, I'm just a big sceptic.
No one should blame me for such an attitude. As long as I've known Hong Kong, first as an infrequent visitor and then a resident, the buzz in the air has been about getting rich. There's a perpetual search among all and sundry to get a better-paid job, to jump into a business opportunity, to switch investments to a higher-yield risk and, in the absence, to win the lottery. Flat owners know the value of their homes at any given minute; memories, what has been created and proximity count for nothing when the price is right.
I'll admit to also thinking this way. It took a while for me to be sucked in, but it was inevitable. I've come to regret that day 22 years ago when I ignored a work colleague's suggestion that I lay down the 10 per cent deposit for a flat in Taikoo Shing that at the time had a HK$675,000 asking price. Just 26 at the time, from Australia where I was used to a house, lawn and garden rather than what I perceived to be a small box in a tall building, I passed on the offer. The lesson has made me conform - I now religiously watch valuations and transactions.
At fault is the government - and not just this one; it merely perpetuates a policy that has been the basis for public funding for the past century and a half. Land, we're told, is our most valuable asset and it has to be used wisely. That's another way of saying that the Lands Department has to sell it for as high a price as possible. Unsurprisingly, the non-transparent system of auctions through which it does this leads to exorbitant property prices and rents, stamp-sized flats and shops and a handful of firms with the means to satisfy such demands dominating the residential and commercial sectors.
The consequence is that scepticism abounds whenever a new project is announced. Invariably, the sense is that the economy is being put ahead of people and their needs. That was how I felt when the idea for an arts and cultural hub was raised for the 40-hectare West Kowloon site a decade ago. Soon, it seemed there was less talk about concert halls, museums, galleries and exhibition space than shopping facilities, hotels and apartments.
Controversy has since dogged the project. Authorities have resolutely pushed ahead. Foster's design, with a 19-hectare waterfront park, has triumphed, in large part because of its 'flexibility'. That, my cynical mind tells me, is code for 'ability to slip in a shopping mall or three, a few more hotels than planned and half a dozen apartment blocks full of expensive flats when no one is watching'.