The Hong Kong Arts Development Council is being sued for $100 million by an artist who claims it has a discriminatory funding policy that contravenes the Basic Law.
'It [the council] has systematically favoured and supported artists who are non-commercial, if not anti-commercial,' Andrew Kwong On-chiu, 39, said in a writ filed in the High Court yesterday. 'It is insidiously producing a generation of subsidy-dependent artists unprepared and unable to compete in a free and open market economy.' Mr Kwong, chairman of the Hong Kong Art Exposition Group, says he has suffered 'spiritual oppression, mental anguish, professional persecution and financial loss' at the hands of the council.
Mr Kwong filed the writ with a separate suit seeking unspecified damages from the council's arts administrator, Andrew Lam, and Fringe Club manager Benny Chia Chun-heng for 'slanderous comments' allegedly made in 1997.
Two years ago, Mr Kwong filed another suit claiming that Mr Chia, then council chairman, and six members of the council's Visual Arts Committee had refused to fund his art exhibition 'One Country; 2 Systems' for the handover.
In yesterday's writ, Mr Kwong accused the council of creating 'a fringe culture' because funds were allocated for 'an inclusive and unifying local culture'. The money in turn went to 'a handful of self-serving businessmen peddling personal influence and power over cultural policies that have little or no social significance nor redeeming value'.
Mr Kwong charged that the council threatened between April 1997 and last month to deny him 'his right and privilege to apply for future arts subventions' following his March 1997 lawsuit.
