Hong Kong to host first international expo on performing arts next year with aim of making city a trading centre for industry

The organiser on Wednesday said there had been superior expectations for the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo to develop into a significant-scale system not only for artists but also for policymakers and managers in the field to forge connections from a business enterprise point of view, specifically individuals eyeing the mainland China market place.

“We pressure that this is an exposition, we’d like Hong Kong to be a buying and selling centre,” reported Kenneth Fok Kai-kong, chairman of organiser the Arts Improvement Council.

“For a entire art and cultural ecosystem to be nutritious and to be taken to an international level, it will take a great deal of investment and options.”

Wilfred Wong Ying-wai, chairman of Hong Kong Arts Progress Fund Advisory Committee, added: “We hope this exposition can be a investing platform that permits overseas buyers, prospective buyers, and carrying out arts enthusiasts to see these exhibits in Hong Kong, then to come to a decision irrespective of whether they’d invite these teams to their respective nations around the world for performances.”

The HK$42 million (US$5.4 million) expo will choose location at various venues throughout the city involving Oct 14 and 18 upcoming calendar year with the programme involving performances, pitching classes, talks and an optional tour to Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Wong mentioned groups or person performers from Hong Kong, the mainland or abroad could utilize to participate in pitching periods in which they showcased is effective in progress to potentially entice traders and partners.

Requested how overseas groups could navigate the countrywide protection law in placing on shows, society minister Kevin Yeung Yun-hung reported it had no impact on the marketplace, pointing to many gatherings because the city’s borders reopened immediately after Covid-19, like performances in the Hong Kong Arts Festival and Le French May possibly.

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“[The national security law] will not have an affect on the improvement of arts and culture,” Yeung explained. “We proceed to have lots of space and liberty.”

He claimed an worldwide panel of adjudicators for the expo would equilibrium various facets this kind of as information and creative expectations, and select “the finest programmes” for Hong Kong.

The council did not reveal a goal trade quantity the expo was expected to create, but stated it was hoping for a lengthy-long lasting influence.

“Business and collaborations are not likely to take place suitable absent,” Wong claimed.

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“We will proceed to comply with the collaborating teams and see how lots of collaborations, exchanges, and visits we take care of to facilitate, and no matter whether particular teams or artists will continue on to acquire inquiries and invites in the two to 3 several years that stick to.”

Immediately just after the five-working day expo is the 2024 Greater Bay Area Society and Arts Festival, which will permit global groups which have travelled to Hong Kong to obtain access to the mainland sector.

The council said the expo was extra worldwide and small business-focused, when the festival was centred close to the 9 metropolitan areas of the Larger Bay and was a lot more viewers-based mostly.

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It extra the expo was strategically organized to take place in October up coming 12 months.

“Before us will be the doing art sector in Seoul, which has been likely on for a lot of many years. So we can see the motion of these practitioners and also buyers, and directors,” Fok claimed.

“They can go to, for case in point, Seoul very first, and then come to Hong Kong and then the Higher Bay Space.”

Drama, dance, xiqu – or Chinese opera – songs, and multidisciplinary arts performers from across the earth could utilize to take part in the expo. There is no set proportion for proposals from Hong Kong, the mainland and the rest of the planet, in accordance to the organiser.

“It is dependent on the market, which destinations significantly emphasis on high-quality. So we’d target on that,” Fok stated.

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Banky Yeung Ping-kei, artistic director of FM Theatre Electric power, stated Hong Kong teams involved in dance or songs could have an edge as plays in Cantonese may have minimal reception abroad.

But there could now be a current market abroad for performers from Hong Kong mainly because of a wave of emigration, he noted. “Recent illustrations include performances at festivals in Edinburgh in the Uk and Taiwan,” he said.

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Yeung pressured that flexibility and space had been indispensable for creativeness and for the uniqueness of the city’s doing arts to glow. He observed several teams experienced started off self-censoring considering that the imposition of national stability law.

With a lack of distinct crimson lines, he mentioned, it could occasionally be confusing. “Performance groups will start off taking part in incredibly protected, and there will not be any inventive explorations.”

He explained fears about countrywide stability were unlikely to prevent intercontinental teams from taking aspect in the expo since it was popular for various places to have their personal necessities and principles on performances.