It's been two years since Louis Yu Kwok-lit took up office as the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority's executive director for performing arts, but the 46-year-old arts administrator says the real work has barely begun.
Much of the project is about breaking away from 'the government way of doing things', he says, which takes time - and lateral thinking.
'How things are built, how venues are managed, how new relationships with artists are forged ... all these need time to roll out and are not going to happen within the next couple of years,' Yu says.
'I feel the biggest challenge of my job is to invent something [new]. New ways of thinking, new methods to operate as well as new ways to promote and support culture. Hong Kong is very reactionary and the desire to stay with the status quo is very strong, [and] that applies to its cultural development. The existing government model is also overwhelmingly [deep-rooted].
'Not only are our arts administrators working within this mental framework, artists and audiences also have the same set of expectations and prejudices about what culture should be,' he says.
'For instance, audiences here think HK$200 to HK$300 is very expensive for a local theatre show; if the ticket price is any higher, it's not worth paying for unless the show is from out of town.'
