‘Understanding Hong Kong Art through Hong Kong Culture’ Frank Vigneron ‘Understanding Hong Kong Art through Hong Kong Culture’ Abstract Frank Vigneron 1 - Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta a – Hong Kong society and its language The historical conditions of colonization and migrations which created the territory's community have led to the establishment of a unique community, clearly different from the ethnic Chinese communities of the Mainland. The relationship of that community with the traditional base of Chinese national culture and colonial culture have shaped a type of local traditions profoundly influenced by the languages used in the territory. b – Larger regional context Hong Kong should not be considered as unrelated to the wider context of its surrounding region in terms of economic and cultural development. The influence of the region is particularly clear in the development of the Hong Kong urban context. Considerations on how to understand the concept of local culture with examples taken from Hong Kong. c – Larger global context Considerations on the differences and similarities between local and national culture and its relationships with the concept of art. Hong Kong art is often connected with the popular aspects of cultural creation in the SAR. Always threatened to be engulfed by globalization, local cultures can still benefit profoundly from that movement. Hong Kong has been at forefront of using the benefits of globalization for already a long time. 2 – An old stereotype concerning the arts in Hong Kong a – ‘East’ and ‘West’ in Hong Kong: an old stereotype Criticism of the concepts of 'East' and 'West' and how it has been applied in the context of Hong Kong art and the arts of the Pearl River Delta. b – ‘East’ and ‘West’ in Hong Kong: problems of interpretation Although 'East meets West' cannot be considered as a straightforward idea any longer, it has still been used productively in art making in the past. c – ‘East’ and ‘West’ in Hong Kong: more recent approaches Recognizing the problems created by the notion of 'East meets West' have also produced interesting results especially in contemporary painting. This tension can also be considered as a result of hybridization. 3 – Some important artists’ associations in Hong Kong A very brief history of art associations in Hong Kong. Some of the most important of these associations will be presented to show the changes that took place in the art world since the 1920s. This section concludes with a brief presentation of art institutions in Hong Kong, like funding bodies and art education institutions. a – Some major art associations in the history of art in Hong Kong b – Some more recent art associations c – Some art institutions: schools and organizations 4 – Hybridization a – Juxtaposition is not hybridization 1 Mixing and matching visual elements borrowed from different visual cultures does not constitute hybridization. b – Hybridization in books and on the walls of the gallery Hybridization is often less obvious and takes the shape of medium and presentations of artworks that have profoundly transformed the way Chinese art traditions have been practiced. c- Resistance to hybridization Some Chinese artistic traditions have, until now, resisted the hybridization that can be found in many other art forms. 5 – Some Other Themes in Hong Kong Contemporary Art Hong Kong art is not only about hybridization or 'East meets West', although artworks made in Hong Kong can still often be related to these issues, they are by no means restricted to them. This last section observes some other issues tackled by Hong Kong artists. a – ‘Chineseness’, the art market and being ‘in-between’ b – Video, body and city c – Cultural stereotypes 6 – Reference Books 2 1 - Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta a – Hong Kong Society and Its Language ‘Local cultures’ and ‘dialects’ have been rediscovered lately. In a world where commercial ties are more intense, more frequent and ignore frontiers, people are realizing more clearly that these frontiers only exist on maps and only have a political reality. Subsequently, many ‘local cultures’ and their languages have been revived. Very often, globalization has also led many people to live in other countries and it is in a foreign environment that these same people have understood their own cultural background: instead of being just French or Chinese, they understand that they are French from the north or Chinese from Hong Kong. Hong Kong, for historical reasons, has been defined as a separate territory from the rest of China and that situation has made it a very interesting example of that tendency brought by globalization. Hong Kong has therefore its own languages and its own culture, clearly separate from the rest of China. It is in this context that the old stereotype of ‘East meets west’ has been very productive, even though it is an idea that is not usable anymore as will be shown later. Because the creation of the colony of Hong Kong is a fairly recent event, Hong Kong culture also has a much shorter history than the ones of China or England. It is for this, and many other reasons that the local culture is also made up of domains that are not usually considered to be ‘cultural’, like comic books, songs, movies, etc. These ‘popular’ elements of the local culture are also very clearly represented by the form of Cantonese spoken in the territory with its many variations depending on social classes and education. It is all these elements taken together which form what we can call a ‘Hong Kong identity’. As for all ‘local cultures’ in the world, it is never simple to define it without comparing it to other cultures. It is for this reason that the easiest way to understand what is meant by a ‘Hong Kong identity’ is to compare it with what most people understand by ‘Chinese identity’. One will immediately see that none of these ‘identities’ can be easily defined but that there is still a clear sense of belonging to a community among Hong Kong residents, a sense that is very visible in the creation of the Hong Kong Heritage museum for instance, whose ambition and mission is well accepted by the people of the SAR. This sense of being different from the culture of mainland China makes Hong Kong culture a rather unique item in the study of Chinese culture as a whole. In that sense, it is possible to consider this ‘local culture’ as created in the context of a Diaspora. Since a large portion of the local population has arrived from other parts of China to live in an area ruled by a foreign power, it is logical to consider the Hong Kong population as largely Diasporic. But the other fact that the territory of Hong Kong is in China makes this proposition less viable: it would be saying that the Chinese Hong Kong people have left China… and stayed in China at the same time. That period of migration has come to an end many years ago but a large portion of the Hong Kong population is still attached to their ‘local’ roots: the many Chinese dialects still used in Hong Kong are a clear proof of that fact. But, at the same time, there is a sense of belonging to a unique community in Hong Kong and its society is not a real Diasporic society any more because very few people in the SAR feel they have to go back to their region of origin. In that sense, we can only call the people of Hong Kong a ‘second or third generation Diaspora’. 3 As for now, but this situation will probably change sooner or later, most Hong Kong people still feel so different from their mainland Chinese compatriots that they are certain of their unique and separate identity, an identity they are manifesting in their language and their cultural activities. Some outsiders might be surprised at the idea of a ‘Hong Kong culture’ because they find it difficult to identify something one might call ‘culture’ in the SAR, but it is probably because what has been created in Hong Kong is so unique, so different from what one can see in other regions of the Chinese world that they cannot recognize its originality. Similarly, this fairly small territory might seem an odd place to develop a unique culture, but it is precisely because of that difficulty that the Hong Kong community has been all the more determined to create its own: the more difficult the conditions to preserve one’s cultural identity are, the more vigorously the actors of that cultural identity will defend and cultivate it. This culture has found its roots in cultural productions that can be called ‘popular’ to put it simply: cinema, pop music, food, etc. The cinema especially has made Hong Kong world-famous, and the most obvious element which made these movies so obviously a part of Hong Kong culture is the language used in them. It is obviously not the only element, but it would take too long to write about all of them. Similarly, language is also an essential part of pop music in Hong Kong (Cantopop) and comic books, but it will be left aside for the same reasons. Cantonese is the language spoken by the people in the region surrounding the city of Guangzhou and who identify themselves with the culture of that area. This language, and the different forms it takes even within Hong Kong and the New Territories, is what constitutes the foundation of a ‘Hong Kong identity’ since any cultural production from Hong Kong will be shaped by its structure and its rhythm.