Hong Kong a future art tech leader? East Kowloon Cultural Centre to serve as a test bed for experimental uses of technology in performances

Live-streamed holograms, 3D projection mapping, immersive audio and virtual reality among the features expected at the centre, which is set to open in 2023

The more than HK$4 billion (US$510 million) structure spread over two hectares will include five theatres and concert halls and three rehearsing rooms

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The East Kowloon Cultural Centre aims to shake things up in Hong Kong’s cultural sphere by embracing digital technology for the arts. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:45pm, 12 Apr 2021Updated: 5:45pm, 12 Apr 2021

The West Kowloon Cultural District may be the cultural venue in the limelight in Hong Kong but just 9km (5.6 miles) to the east, another one is quietly taking shape.

The East Kowloon Cultural Centre (EKCC) lacks the former’s scale and international ambition, but it, too, aims to shake things up in the cultural sphere by turning Hong Kong from a laggard into a front runner in embracing digital technology for the arts.

The EKCC is a sprawling, more than HK$4 billion (US$510 million) structure spread over two hectares in a site created after the Lower Ngau Tau Kok public housing estate in Kowloon was knocked down.

The centre, with five theatres and concert halls and three rehearsing rooms, was originally conceived in 2006 as a venue offering high-quality programming to a number of woefully underserved, densely populated, working-class neighbourhoods from Kwun Tong to Wong Tai Sin.

The centre, which opens in 2023, is three years late. Photo: SCMP

The centre, which opens in 2023, is three years late. However, the new timetable has seen its construction coinciding with a pilot project devised in 2016 to turn East Kowloon into a “smart city”, as well as the government’s new “art tech” investments announced in Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s policy address last year.

The new focus on using technology to improve living and working conditions has brought new ideas and resources to the cultural centre, says Elaine Yeung Chi-lan, deputy director (culture) of the government’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the main official overseeing the project since its conception.