The “Hong Kong Arts Development Council” (ADC) has been arranging for Hong Kong’s participation in “Venice Biennale” since 2001. Except for the first time when participation was by invitation, ADC conducted open call-for-proposal for the five subsequent exhibitions. On 22 June 2012, ADC and and “M+”, Hong Kong’s future museum for 20th and 21st century visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (M+), concurrently announced on their respective corporate websites that the two public organizations would be collaborating to organize HK’s participation in the “55th Venice Biennale” (Biennale). Lars Nittve, M+ Executive Director, was to be the lead curator of the Hong Kong pavilion. Nine arts practitioners in HK set up a “We Want the Truth” concern group regarding this collaboration, and called for petition requiring ADC and M+ to explain why such a decision has been reached prior to public consultation. The concern group also urged the two organizations to explain the reason for their collaboration.

The establishment of M+ has given the Hong Kong art world a glimmer of hope. Aiming to build a world class contemporary art museum with a global perspective, the Museum Advisory Group advised the directors of M+ to build its collection on four categories, visual art, moving image, design and architecture, and public art. Furthermore, the M+ acquisition policy pinpoints that “Hong Kong has rich collections of ink art works. M+ should try to attract these collections, to showcase this important visual form and its interplay with other art forms.” Given that acquisition policies provide practical guidelines for museums to accomplish their mission and vision, looking at the M+ Acquisition Policy thus raises the question of what constitutes ink art works. Although any attempt to define a genre or category of art is an aesthetic and philosophical inquiry, from an administrative point of view, this is also a pragmatic question which governs the allocation of resources.

Recently the new genre (literally, a genre is a “type” or “kind” of art) of “ink art” has received considerable attention in the international art scene. As a new artistic category invented in the late twentieth century, “ink art” has long been associated with traditional Chinese art and culture and has been described as a contemporary art form derived from guohua. However, despite its popularity in the art world as well as on the domestic and international art markets, ink art has no clear and precise definition. With reference to various curatorial statements, the classification of ink art in different cultural institutions, the list of artists included in the ink art exhibitions, and the types of artwork selected under the category of ink art, it is clear that the definition and narrative of the development of ink art remains ambiguous and problematic. By adopting a sociological approach, this paper examines the discourse of ink art, attempting to offer a different perspective for approaching the genre and for advancing our understanding of how this new artistic category entered the contemporary Chinese art discourse, how it was consecrated by different authoritative parties and institutions from the Chinese and international artistic communities, and how the genre has been classified in the Hong Kong art world.

The essay is an attempt to delineate chronologically the development of Hong Kong arts between 1842 and 1960. The writer proposes different phases as: before and after the 1911 Revolution when the late Qing revolutionaries and Manchu adherents introduced calligraphy art to Hong Kong; after the establishment of the Republic of China, many overseas-educated calligraphy and painting masters came from Guangdong and settled in Hong Kong. They pushed forward art activities by forming art groups, establishing art institutes, publishing and holding exhibitions; during the Sino-Japanese War in the 1940s when popular media such as comics and woodcut were employed to spread anti-Japanese propaganda; between 1948 and 1949, art groups spreading United Front propaganda emerged; in the 1950s came the revival of community-organized art education alongside the government’s promotion of art education; and the introduction of undergraduate fine arts curriculum in the 50s and 60s. The writer also reviews the political, economic and social factors that affected the development of Hong Kong arts in the focus period.

Art is contextual. It changes through time and through social, religious, and political dispositions. The phenomenon of artists working reality, of engaging directly in real-life-changes, has been spreading for decades and gained ground in Hong Kong. Experience shows that frameworks for discussing and evaluating such projects have to be fostered so as to provide discursive spaces for sharing, reflecting, and building on the rich experience and know-how emerging in this field. This essay interrelates more general and Hong Kong-specific aspects and considers the relevance and outcomes of artists working reality. It highlights the need for in-depth descriptions of Art in Action and lays a foundation for further studies on whether the capability approach could be an alternative framework (among others) for measuring the achievements of action participation and learning initiated by artists working reality.

Among all the Lingnan seal carvers whom Huang Shiling has taught, instructed or inspired, Li Yinsang, Yi Ru and Deng Erya are so prominent that they are acclaimed as “the three main pillars supporting the seal carving world in the Lingnan Region.” Deng Erya did a better job of inheriting the style of Huang Shiling compared to the other two seal carvers. The style of seal carving Deng adopted from Huang Shiling, which is characterized by the quaintness in his flexible yet elegant composition of characters that stands the test of time, can be described by the fifth and sixth lines of his poem Written for Huang Shiling’s Album of Seals: “With the true essence of the spacing and composition of the characters; Using the carving knife as free as if it could defeat thousands of soldiers with great ease.” There have been a number of articles published on Deng Erya’s seal carving, with a focus on the artistic style and features of his seal carving. This essay will look at Deng Erya’s life and his relationship with Hong Kong, explore his journey to becoming a seal carving master and organize Deng’s seal impression books available to me, with reference to information from books such as Wenzi yuanliu (Notes on the Origin of Characters), Deng zhai yin ke鄧齋印可, Deng zhai yin ying鄧齋印媵 and Deng Erya shigao (Poetry Manuscripts of Deng Erya).

Studio,” the WKCD Authority’s (WKCDA) effort to building Asia’s arts hub began to take shape. However, what came as a disturbing decision was the decision to drop the proposal for the mega performance venue in the second half of 2016 for a medium-sized, multi-purpose facility. More astonishing was the sudden announcement at the end of the year to build the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) in WKCD, which caused much controversy in the arts field and beyond. The seemingly step-by-step realization of WKCD’s plans hence face increased uncertainty surrounding its future development.

Nowadays, the gap between arts and everyday lives is narrowing. When it comes to the arts, everything goes. But what makes good community arts? What are the aesthetic standards? How can we assess it? How can it be developed? Community arts is believed to possess the positive power to unite people and inspire them to reflect on social issues as well as to seek out more democratic ways to attain happiness. All these acts of joyous resistance do not only change the society, but they can also be considered as an aesthetics of community arts: an aesthetics of the pursuit of democracy, justice, equality, fraternity and freedom.

The writer gives an account of the development of the Hong Kong Chinese Art Club since its establishment in 1958 to 2016. The artworks of three founding members, including Li Yanshan, Zhao Shao’ang and Lu Shoukun, were discussed. The writer then points out the vision of the Club was to unite the settlers of Hong Kong from different regions and introduces early activities such as local small-scale exhibitions and collaboration with the British Council to organize a touring exhibition of Chinese paintings by Hong Kong artists in Southeast Asia. The Club set up its Ontario chapter in 1979 and arranged joint exhibitions with Mainland municipal parties after Hong Kong’s Handover. The writer proposes the impact and contributions of the Club as incorporating the painting characteristic of the Northern and Southern schools and modern and traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy; building the solidarity of South-bound artists settling in Hong Kong; promoting the establishment of other smaller art organizations. Appended to the essay is a list of exchange activities between HK and its neighbors in the 50s.

The 2016 Nomination of Representative of Art Interest for Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) was held in November, 2016. The nomination exercise has been taking place since 1997 and was organized every three years (every two years before 2001). The last one (i.e. 2013) started to attract more attention from art practitioners and media. A registration system reform is introduced in 2016, requiring all eligible arts organizations to re-register and the voter criteria were tightened. The total number of registered voters (including individual and group voters) was 5864, lowest since 2007, though the number of registered individual voters increased from 989 in the last nomination exercise to 2254 this year. Some voters expressed that they had not received voting notice and candidate information even in the polling week. Suspicious seeding votes were reported by the media. Six representatives of art interests, including that of “Visual Arts,” were contested. Candidates within the same art interest demonstrated sharp difference upon political stand. The results were announced on November 29 and the voter turnout rate increased by eight per cent compared with that of last time. Chan Kam-shing defeated his rival Lam Man-kong and was elected as the Representative of Visual Arts group, serving a new term from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019.

The handover of Hong Kong was a once-in-a-century historical transition amidst all the restlessness the city found itself in. “97” was thus considered a creative assignment given to many artists. This essay, through the works completed around the 90s by four artists, namely Choi Yan-chi, Lo Yuen-man Yvonne, Mui Chong-ki, and Fung Kin-chung John, intends to establish a framework for further discussion on the art of Hong Kong concerning the handover in 1997. Either born and brought up in Hong Kong or moved to Hong Kong from Mainland China/overseas, these four artists received their respective art education and training from the following: Hong Kong and the United States, the United States, Mainland China, and self-learning. All of them had experienced the changes Hong Kong went through in the 70s-90s and already been making art in a more organized way since the 80s.