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Ocean Park
OpinionComment
Brian Y. S. Wong
Brian Y. S. Wong

Opinion | How Ocean Park can rebrand itself as the face of new Hong Kong

  • Ocean Park could be Hong Kong’s next cultural heart, with rent-free spaces for struggling artists and revamped theatres for major concerts
  • Its open spaces and gorgeous views could host fine dining and boutiques as well eco-tourism and extreme sports. The possibilities abound

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Brick Hill not only offers family-friendly hiking routes, but also a prospective eco-tourism site. Ocean Park must continue to open up the lush and vast terrain on which it is situated. Photo: Nora Tam
Brian Y. S. Wong

Ocean Park has been an integral part of our city’s collective memory and an invaluable piece of Hong Kong’s tourism-driven economy. But with the recent double whammy of political instability and the Covid-19 pandemic, many say that the theme park is on its last legs.

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In May, Hong Kong’s lawmakers approved a HK$5.4 billion (US$697 million) bailout to salvage the park, which reported a record deficit of more than HK$557 million in the 2018-19 financial year. The bailout would keep the park solvent for now but it remains unclear whether the government will play any further role in keeping it alive.

So what now? As someone who was enamoured with both Ocean Park and Disneyland as a young child, I believe that there is much that can be done to revive Ocean Park.

It needs to be rebranded and reshaped into a site that caters not just to those who relish nostalgia for the good old days of 1980s Hong Kong, but also to a younger crowd, to artists, to high-spending visitors looking for a boutique experience, and to tourists seeking an easy escape from Hong Kong’s concrete jungle.
Firstly, Ocean Park is at its best when it typifies Hong Kong. From its signature Halloween specials (with eye-catching, outlandish adverts featuring veteran actress Helena Law Lan), to its long-running hopes for a Hong Kong-born giant panda, the park thrived on its Hong Kong brand.

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Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade

Giant pandas in Hong Kong mate naturally for the first time in a decade

Yet being bona fide Hong Kong in 2020 is very different from what it was 30 years ago. The buskers at Star Ferry, the street performers and rappers in Causeway Bay, the fledgling troupes and thespians struggling to find permanent, affordable venues – to a young person in Hong Kong, these are the tribes that best typify Hong Kong culture.

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