Opera veterans on way out as work begins on Kowloon venue

Now that construction of the city's first dedicated Chinese opera centre has begun, questions are being asked about who will take the stage when the current crop of masters have retired.

Work began on the Xiqu Centre - the first building of the West Kowloon Cultural District - on Tuesday, and is due to be completed by 2016. It is expected to be a world-class venue, aimed at cultivating the art form's development through seminars and shows at its Bamboo Theatre.

But finding a new generation of top-notch performers is already a worry for those in charge of the arts hub.

"Succession is going to be a serious problem for this intangible cultural heritage," said the authority's executive director of performing arts, Louis Yu Kwok-lit. "The top-tier masters, who are 60 to 70, are still very active at the moment. They are sharing their experience with the younger generation, who are 20 to 30.

"But can we sustain this art form a decade from now, when the old masters can't perform any more? It's a problem that has to be addressed," he said.

Mastering the skills of Cantonese opera - singing, reciting lyrics, acrobatics and martial arts - can take 20 years.

"Each piece of music requires different skills. A performer at the very top would have to master the skills for each piece," he said.

The recent deaths of two respected virtuosos - Chan Kim-sing and Lam Kam-tong, at the ages of 64 and 65, respectively - has highlighted the succession problem. But Yu was optimistic about the future of Chinese opera, saying more young artists were choosing it as a career in recent years. That has been helped by the Hong Kong Academy of Arts setting up the city's first degree programme in Cantonese opera this year.

And two years ago, more than 90 young opera singers were admitted to a young talent programme run by the Chinese Artists Association of Hong Kong.

"These are good signs. But it will take more time and effort," Yu said, urging the government to give opera singers more recognition and encouragement. "We need to make them feel proud about telling people they are martial-arts actors."

Yu added that the Xiqu Centre would only put on top-class shows - unlike smaller venues such as the Sunbeam Theatre in North Point. "It will be a goal for those who aspire to be a master."

Alisa Shum, chief executive of the artists association, said those in the talent programme received training from the city's top performers and were paid a "very humble" fee of HK$350 to HK$500 a day. "But they will be extremely valuable when they become masters," she said.

Meanwhile, West Kowloon Cultural District Authority chief executive Michael Lynch said he had begun talking to the city's most affluent people about contributions for the arts hub. Construction costs have soared and the authority is trying to find a cost-effective way to build it.

"We are trying to give them some sense of 'we know what we are doing', that our organisation is very competent and that we will be able to deliver things.

"Every rich person should think that giving away money makes them die happy. That is an irresistible proposition."

In architect Norman Foster's plan for the arts hub's park, 5,000 trees were to be planted in an "urban forest". But the hub authority has said that only 60 per cent of the park would be green space.

Lynch denied that the trees were victims of cost cutting. "I've never said that there would be 5,000 trees, but there will be a lot of trees," he said, adding that they could not be planted until the drainage system was in place.

The government is responsible for infrastructure works at the arts hub.