Hong Kong’s 2016 arts highlights: countdown clock flap, HKPhil maestro’s New York job, some sublime Shakespeare and Wicked
Fuss over Hong Kong artists projecting a countdown to 2047 onto ICC provided biggest drama, Jaap van Zweden’s recruitment by New York Philharmonic and Palace Museum for arts hub were big news, and top-class troupes marking 400 years since Bard’s death provided performing arts highlight
The year began with news of the appointment of Jaap van Zweden, music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, to head the New York Philharmonic, succeeding Alan Gilbert. The Dutch conductor will serve as the prestigious ensemble’s music director designate in the 2017–18 season. It was subsequently announced van Zweden’s contract with the HKPhil had been extended to 2022.
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It was a year without much high drama bar a light installation by visual artists Sampson Wong and Jason Lam that turned Hong Kong’s tallest building, the International Commercial Centre (ICC) in West Kowloon, into a giant timer counting down to July 1, 2047 during a visit to the city by senior Chinese leader Zhang Dejiang in May. This was a statement about the city’s anxiety over the end of the 50-year “one country, two systems” formula for its governance.
The Hong Kong Arts Development Council, which presented the exhibition for which the installation was commissioned, later issued a statement, saying that the two artists changed the title of their work (from Our 60-second friendship begins now to Countdown Machine) without consulting them or the show’s curator.
This “disrespect”, the council said, “put at risk any future possibility to work further in the public space”.
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One of the best original local dramas this year was a Hong Kong Arts Festival commission. Chinese Lesson, written and directed by Tang Chi-kin, is a timely and relevant exploration of the psyche of Hong Kong millennials in the wake of the 2014 Occupy protests that blocked key thoroughfares for 79 days. Witty and mature, this piece looks at how young people today can still learn life lessons from ancient Chinese wisdom and virtues.
A scene from Chinese Lesson, an original commission for Hong Kong Arts Festival 2016, directed by Tang Chi-kin and featuring actor Chu Pak-him.
Less successful was Tang Shu-wing’s Cantonese adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, also part of the Arts Festival, which suffered from miscasting.
