Hong Kong’s fears for its freedoms can inspire an arts and culture boom

Vivienne Chow believes Hong Kong is entering a golden era of creativity, amid fears of political censorship, as artists are inspired to tell local stories to the world

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Published: 6:28pm, 9 Dec 2016Updated: 6:40pm, 9 Dec 2016

As long as freedom of expression remains in our Basic Law and helps keep Hong Kong on the world map, the city’s artistic and cultural freedoms still stand a chance of survival. Illustration: Craig Stephens

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times. The political turmoil that Hong Kong has experienced over the past five years might have been sending shivers down the spines of many who fear Beijing is tightening its grip on the city’s freedoms. But the reality is that there is no better time for Hong Kong to showcase its unique brand of creativity to the world; in short, no better time for a cultural boom.

This logic might seem peculiar, but think again. Thanks to the political crisis, Hong Kong has been in the global spotlight. Arts and cultural productions inspired by recent events have been earning a great deal of publicity around the world, even more so than in the heyday of the city’s entertainment industry in the 1980s and 1990s.

Our situation isn’t rosy, by any means. Chris Patten, the last governor of Hong Kong, once described his anxiety over the city’s autonomy, which he feared would be “given away bit by bit by some people in Hong Kong” instead of being “usurped by Peking”.

Hong Kong should expect to see some of its best artworks and cultural productions in the next decade or so

This is precisely what is happening in the city’s cultural realm. Although Article 27 of the Basic Law stipulates that “Hong Kong residents shall have freedom of speech, of the press and of publication”, political events following the dissolution of the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests continuously threaten our artistic and cultural freedoms. Such threats, however, are mostly people’s response to the fear of the authorities, rather than being imposed by a superior force.

Cinema has been among the first victims. Hong Kong has a three-tier film classification system, which allows the authorities to categorise films according to their suitability for different age groups, rather than asking filmmakers to leave potentially sensitive footage on the floor of the editing room. The government, in theory, does not stop anyone from making any films.

Yet, if it wanted to limit political content in films, it would succeed without needing to draft a new law because it could rely on the cooperation of Hong Kong businesses. That is what has happened. Operators of commercial cinemas, many of whom have large-scale business operations in mainland China, quietly dropped the dystopian film Ten Years from their roster after Beijing made clear its displeasure, even though it was named best film at the Hong Kong Film Awards this year and was well-received at the box office.

Ten Years can be tedious but its theme about Hong Kong’s paranoia is not far off the mark

Then there was Yellowing, a documentary that captured the experience of a group of young people during the “Umbrella protests”. Directed by young filmmaker Chan Tze-woon, the film failed to get a slot for general release in Hong Kong, despite the fact that it was screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival and was nominated for best documentary at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan this year.

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