THE YUNG SHUE Tau garden in Yau Ma Tei's Temple Street, famed for old men playing chess, and for drug addicts and pimps, has tonight been taken over by a troupe of people dressed like circus performers. Against a backdrop of four eye-catching pink mopeds, the six members of the Street Arts Carnival (SAC), as they call themselves, are playing joyful jazz music as curious onlookers gather around.
One SAC member, wearing a silver helmet decorated with a pair of flashing lights, introduces two others - stage designer Kelvin Tsang Man-tung and veteran performer Lee Chi-man - to the crowd through a loudspeaker. The duo duly put on a 30-minute show comprising Chinese traditional stage arts, kung fu, juggling and magic tricks. The audience is thrilled, filling the air with laughter and applause.
This isn't your average evening in Temple Street - in fact, it's not your average street scene in any part of Hong Kong. While the government is injecting vast amounts of energy into promoting the West Kowloon Cultural District project, explaining how it can benefit local arts and culture, local artists are complaining that more effort should be put into encouraging street performance.
'There are a lot of people who want to perform in the street, but there isn't any place to do it,' says Tsang, who, like Lee, has for years been performing on Hong Kong's streets. They say bureaucratic obstacles to obtaining performance permits force them to perform ad hoc, inviting problems with the police.
'We always have to prepare to flee,' says Tsang. 'One time we were playing saxophone and drums on the bridge outside Polytechnic University. The police came within three minutes and kicked us off.'
Playing hide-and-seek with the police is part of local street performers' routine. Chau Chun-to has been playing guitar on the street in areas such as Causeway Bay, Mongkok, Tsuen Wan and Sheung Shui for a year. 'Sometimes, shops complain to the police saying my music is too loud,' says the 22-year-old, who used to play in Great George Street, Causeway Bay, every Friday night. 'When police stop me playing, I usually try a different spot. It's so disheartening to get chased off.'
