Demise of City University creative writing course underlines Hong Kong's low regard for art

Regrettably, Hong Kong has become accustomed to labelling the arts as nothing more than a "hobby". So it came as no surprise when City University announced recently that it will cut its two-year Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing.

Were the tuition fees (HK$181,350) and selective student intake (fewer than 18 per year) really to blame? The programme's creator, Hong Kong-based novelist Xu Xi, said the programme was self-sustaining financially as of this year.

A letter of appeal signed by 25 writers, including Pulitzer-award-winning authors, said the programme was "the first truly global creative writing programme anywhere in the world … which will in turn contribute to Hong Kong's growing importance as an international centre of arts and culture".

If the programme's growing international recognition and outpouring of talent did not sway the university, then what tipped the scale?

There is a fair amount of snobbery attached to creative writing degrees. They're not for everyone. Many believe (and, in some cases, rightly so) that they're money-making schemes, persuading graduates, mature students or novices to undertake two or more years "experimenting" with genre rather than encouraging them to send their work out to publishing houses.

The first MA in creative writing in England, still ranked No 1 in the UK, was created by the University of East Anglia, where Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguro are among its more notable graduates. This course costs £14,200 (HK$167,650) per annum for non-European Union students. Oxford and Cambridge have joined the bandwagon: Oxford's course costs around £9,330 while Cambridge's comes in at £24,400. Tutors and visiting lecturers range from poet laureates to Booker-prize-winning novelists.

Bestselling novelist Hanif Kureshi, a lecturer at the University of Kingston, infamously proclaimed them "a waste of time".