Casting cultural pearls before swine

Ever since it announced its joint bid with Cheung Kong to develop the West Kowloon art hub, the Sun Hung Kai group has been laying it on thick with art trips for reporters.

Not only have the property giants organised a controversial junket to fly local journalists to six world cities from tomorrow to expose them to some real art such as the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Sun Hung Kai took a bunch of hacks this week to the Cultural Centre to watch the National Ballet of China. I hope no one snored.

Accusations about conflicts of interest have been raised but what alarms me is that all these trips are threatening to become a certifiable art appreciation programme for us uncultured hacks. Instead of swearing at each other, I can see my colleagues will soon be discoursing on Nijinsky and Picasso.