Barun Roy: Hong Kong's different stroke

Once sneered at as a pirates' den, Hong Kong is on its way to become not only an economic hub but also a centre of cultural excellence

As I was writing my last column on the lack of a strong museum culture in India, I was reminded of Zubin Mehta's regret, not too long ago, that India's capital doesn't yet have a proper concert hall. That shows the extent to which we care for our international cultural image. I remembered also his glowing tribute, on another visit, to Guangzhou's stunning opera house in China, the latest showpiece of that country's rapidly spreading cultural infrastructure, and how it stood out like an open invitation to the world's performers. That shows how far behind we're lagging as a culturally active society.

Culture is for China, as for much of the rest of Asia, an integral part of its strategy of "Going Out, Inviting In," which basically means showcasing its culture more actively to the world while giving its own people a chance to know what's happening in the big world outside their boundaries. It's a two-way traffic, like two-way trade, which broadens the horizon, pushes modernisation, and adds to economic growth on a variety of fronts. But one has to have the infrastructure for such exchanges to be worthwhile. Once the infrastructure is there, the rest will follow.

One place in Asia that understands this equation well is Hong Kong, now a special administrative region of China. Once sneered at as a pirates' den, then branded as a place where nothing else matters but money and rank consumerism, Hong Kong is in the process of a cultural transformation that's nothing short of remarkable. It's all part of its new, and what many would say is unlikely, ambition of becoming a world city, as much an economic hub as a centre of excellence in art and culture.

Its cultural roots aren't quite new, though, for a place whose history sort of began only 173 years ago when the British came to settle there. Hong Kong had its first art museum 50 years ago, which sponsored a Henry Moore sculpture exhibition as early as 1970. That exhibition marked Hong Kong's first serious foray into public art, with two gigantic Moores permanently ensconced in the important Exchange Square business district in Central. Then, 35 years ago, came Hong Kong Arts Centre, which shot into immediate fame as an incubator of arts and culture, providing a wide variety of year-round programmes to enhance art awareness among the public. Another big step was taken in 1989, when Hong Kong Cultural Centre opened across the harbour in Kowloon's Tsim Sha Tsui.

With three major performing venues - the Concert Hall, the Grand Theatre, and the Studio Theatre - plus an exhibition gallery and four foyer exhibition areas, the centre today is Hong Kong's foremost artistic link to the world. Its oval-shaped concert hall can seat over 2,000 people in its two-tier auditorium, and its 8,000-pipe Austrian organ is one of the largest mechanical tracker-action organs in the world.

At the same time, especially over the last decade, many other initiatives have been and continue to be taken to strengthen Hong Kong's cultural identity. New art spaces and cultural centres are coming up in many parts of the territory, such as Kowloon East, Shatin, and Island East, bringing art closer to communities. Public art and sculpture gardens are now a visible feature of Hong Kong's new self, with some 320 outdoor sculptures and installations already placed all over town. Even business houses have jumped in to install sculptures in their open spaces.

And, following in the footsteps of global auction houses such as Sotheby's and Christie's, foreign art galleries have started to descend on Hong Kong to seize on growing business opportunities. Some 80 contemporary art galleries are already there and more are eager to come. Last year's takeover of Art Hong Kong, a popular art fair held annually since 2008, by Art Basel, acclaimed as the world's premier art show for modern and contemporary works, has bolstered Hong Kong's position as the dominant art hub of Asia. The 2013 fair was curated by Yuko Hasegawa of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo and featured 245 galleries from all over the world.

But the masterstroke is a massive $2.8-billion project to create a vibrant cultural hub out of a rather barren promontory in west Kowloon. Described as perhaps the biggest initiative of its kind in the world, work on which began last year, West Kowloon Cultural District will include 17 new cultural venues, including a great opera house, a museum of modern art called M+, concert halls, and a 15,000-seat arena with an expo centre below. The museum, designed by the renowned architectural firm of Herzog and de Meuron and due to be ready by 2017, will focus on 20th and 21st century art, design, architecture, and moving image and is meant to be a key Asian venue for interdisciplinary exchange between visual and performing arts.

rbarun@gmail.com