The West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) is a major cultural and artistic infrastructure by the HKSAR Government. The prospect of the Project is to establish a comprehensive cultural district that is equipped with world-class facilities, talents, landmark buildings and top-notch programmes, in order to attract tourists from both home and abroad to bring about creative economy and make Hong Kong an international city in Asia. WKCD has become a major cultural project since the 1998 Policy Address. A Concept Plan Competition was organized in 1999 to invite conceptual proposals for the development of a prominent waterfront area in West Kowloon into an integrated arts, cultural and entertainment district. In 2003, the Government issued the Invitation for Proposal to invite development proposals from the private sector; however, it was subsequently turned into a series of discussion and controversy. In 2004, the Government selected three proposals among the submission, and organized consultation activity and exhibition later the year. In 2005, the Government was criticized for the idea of constructing a gigantic canopy and adopting single tendering method. Planning and discussion on the WKCD Project was resumed in 2006. A gigantic museum called Museum Plus (M+) was planned to establish. In 2007, the government disclosed the consulting documents of the development WKCD to the public.

Last year, a notable event in Hong Kong’s art scene was Chow Chun-fai, a painter, ran for Legislative Council (LegCo) election. It was notable because in Hong Kong, one doesn’t always see artists getting involved in politics. It was notable also because it was characteristically Hong Kong, an event that would not have happened elsewhere. In a modern society, those getting into politics are more likely to be lawyers, merchants or soldiers. On relatively rare occasions when artists do run for elections, we imagine them to be eloquent critics, theatre actors or literati — thosewho know how to press the hot buttons of their audience’s. Painters normally do not go onto the political stage. They do not make their living by writing. They observe and express their thoughts with their works, made with their hands. They do have an influence on the society, but indirectly. Chow explicitly stated that “I do not buy into the concept of ‘political art’ all the way… why must artists show concern on social issues through their works? They can do so more effectively by casting their votes or joining demonstrations.” What he meant was that artists could also take the initiative to strive for changes in policies and the society they live in. Hence, on 26 July 2012, Chow entered the LegCo election at the Registration and Electoral Office. Together were his friends and supporters with one of his signature “paintings on movie”: a scene from Enter the Dragon when Bruce Lee said “To me there is no such thing as an enemy.” To Chow, there are two types of visual art practitioners, “some artists actively take part in social movements at the expense of art productions…..some, on the other hand, are totally ignorant of politics.” By saying so, Chow would probably like to find a golden mean, a middle ground between the two poles. In this opinionated era, very few want to take the middle way, which is the hard way. Therefore Chow’s running for election is an event that is worth documenting and understanding.

The Academy of Visual Arts (AVA), Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) was established in 2004. A year later, its Bachelors of Visual Arts program commenced. In 2006, the University rent an eighty-year-old colonial building from the government, which was to become the “Kai Tak Campus” of HKBU. When the campus’s lease expired in 2012, the government decided to hike the once “symbolic” rent to the “market” price of $300,000 per month. University Management planned to relocate the AVA to the main campus but the alumni and the students of AVA protested against the proposal. They founded the “HKBU AVA Campus Development Concern Group”, collected signatures, organized open days, forums and docent tours as well as charity auction, and took part in the July 1st protest. The government finally consented not to raise the rent so that tenancy could extend for one more year. By firstly introducing the article “A policy-less Cultural Policy – Government-led Cultural Activities in Colonial Hong Kong” by Chow Fan-fu, the writer proposes that Hong Kong put its emphasis on performing art and understates visual arts. She then discusses three revelations of the Kai Tak Campus incident as being: 1. fundamental procedural injustice; 2. the colonial mentality of Hong Kong’s visual arts education; and 3. change can only be brought about through a civil society.

The essay begins with a brief introduction of the education Yuen Hung-Shue, calligrapher and painter (1910-2012), had received from his father and different teachers. After settling in Hong Kong in 1949, Yuen had made impressive contribution to art promotion and education. The writer then draws a thorough picture of Yuen’s Chinese and oil paintings and calligraphic works, providing numerous examples to illustrate the characteristics of Yuen’s calligraphy in regular, seal, clerical and running scripts. Yuen had befriended a lot of esteemed artists and received many seals from these friends. This indeed reflects his people network and fame. Yuen’s chronology is appended to the essay.

The writer lists off a series of questions at the beginning to bring out the argument that the rationale behind traditional prints and their production means are challenged by the emergence of high and digital technology, as she thinks that this trend provides more possibilities for the development of printmaking and blurs the definition of the craft. The essay then analyses and compares the features of two exhibitions of prints, “Imprint of the Heart: Artistic Journey of Huang Xinbo” and “Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal”. The writer continues to examine the inclinations of Hong Kong printmakers for the concepts of printmaking and creative approaches in recent years, categorizing the development of prints over some ten years into “the typical” and “the cross-media”, quoting artists from each category and their artistic features. She ends the essay with her thoughts on and hopes for the future development of printmaking.

At the beginning of the 20th Century, photography that had entered public life fundamentally changed the direction of art development. The traditional art forms were declining continuously, becoming barren. The ideas of Dadaism and Surrealism stormed our thinking, and were catalytic in generating various new forms of art. Their criticism and negation of art heralded what was to be referred as performance art. After the traumas and the despairs generated by the two world wars, artists had a thorough reflection on the culture of mankind. There were thoughts and also actions. Performance art was born out of the constraints of the traditional art forms. With an independent spirit of resistance, performance art directly questioned the dominating mainstream culture ofcapitalism. The Viennese Actionists, Yves Klein, Joseph Beuys, John Cage, etc. were rapidly and independently shaking up the culture of the time.

The great freedom and liberation of performance art (with respect to the constant subversion ofitself as an art form, the inward gaze of spirit and mind, the self-awareness of the body, the location of one’s existence….) forges well with the tradition of the oriental poetics of China. It is not easyto define performance art but to us, performance art is the use of the body as the medium, to experience people and things and to interact with the environment and society. The performance artist makes use of the process of the action and its result to express his feelings and to construct certain meaning. The art is not simply an actualisation of aesthetics at a visual level. It tries to express some kind of ideas.

Mr. Laurence C.S. Tam, the first Chief Curator of Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMA), passed away in March 2013. The writer, then Chief Curator of HKMA, pays his tribute to his predecessor by tracing the origin, history and development of HKMA. Previously called “City Museum and Art Gallery” and renamed in 1975, HKMA saw progressive developments in areas of collection, curatorial professionalism and education after Mr. Tam had taken the rein in 1985, establishing itself as the major visual arts museum in the region. Another important contribution by Mr. Tam was the establishment of “Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre.” He continued to work on art promotion and education after his retirement. The writer also introduces several major exhibitions and collections received under the leadership of the following curators. Last but not the least, the writer shares the memories of his encounters with Mr. Tam, donators and artists whom the Museum curators deal with on daily basis.

In 2004, the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) rented the former Royal Air Force Officers’ Mess, a grade 1 historic building, with the HKSAR Government at concessionary monthly rent HK$50,000. The tenancy period was 5 years. In 2005, the Mess, dubbed “Kai Tak Campus,” was deployed as the Academy for Visual Arts (AVA) campus. The deployment of this historic building for academic purpose was in 2009 credited the UNESCO “Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation (Honourable Mention)”. Since the first agreement, the tenancy had been twice renewed and would be expiring in September 2012. The Government Property Agency requested HKBU to renew the tenancy at HK$300,000 per month, an amount comparable to property market rate. HKBU Administration hence planned for releasing Kai Tak Campus and relocating AVA to the Communication and Visual Arts (CVA) Building at the HKBU Kowloon Tong main campus cluster. AVA students were apprehensive of the sub-optimal facilities at the CVA Building. They formed “HKBU AVA Campus Development Concern Group” to lobby for the conservation of Kai Tak Campus. The Group organized artworks auction to fund-raise rent for the Campus. In August, the incident was resolved with the Education Bureau taking over as landlord and renewed the tenancy agreement with HKBU for 1 year. Monthly rent remained at HK$50,000.

2012 was election year for the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). Three Chief Executive candidates, namely Leung Chun-ying, Henry Tang Ying-nin and Albert Ho Chun-yan, proposed that there should be a ““culture bureau”” in the new administration (to commence operation from July 2012). Their proposals triggered heated discussion in the culture sector on the architecture of the bureau, the terms of reference, and candidates for the secretary for culture. Experienced members of the culture sector recalled that twenty years ago, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) was established according to the same objectives of the “culture bureau” proposed by the Chief Executive candidates. For two decades, the establishment of a “culture bureau” could not be materialized so the sector looked eagerly forward to its potential set up. Leung Chun-ying was elected Chief Executive in March 2012 yet his proposed administration structure comprising of “5-Secretaries-14-Bureaux” was not approved by the Legislative Council (LegCo). The proposal for establishing a “culture bureau” was shelved.

2012 was the election year of the Legislative Council (LegCo) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, through which interested individuals could run for membership of the LegCo. 35 of the 70 LegCo members were returned by functional constituencies (FC). Fok Tsun-ting Timothy had been the member of “Sports, Performing Arts, Culture and Publication” FC for the past 14 years. In the report released by the “Catholic Monitors on Legislative Councillors” in February, Fok had not initiated any motion or amendment for 10 years. There was no interrogation from him in 2010, and he was absent in 23 of the 52 meetings in 2011. A group of culture practitioners thus suggested that this FC needed a new member. The group also encouraged its fellow practitioners to register as voters. Three people run for the FC membership, namely ex-ADC president Ma Fung-kwok, visual artist Chow Chun-fai, and solicitor Siu Sze-kong. Ma won and would hold the membership for 4 years.