Floating Island

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I’ve refined my sub-topics on Hong Kong’s cultural policy into the following categories:

1) Cultural Policy 10 Years After the Handover - This section will provide an overview of the different institutions that have emerged to direct cultural policy since the handover, along with assessments of their relative success.

2) Non-Profits in the Arts: Creating a Civil Society for Culture in Hong Kong - This section will introduce the main non-profit arts organizations in Hong Kong, with particular emphasis on the Para/Site Art Space, whose curator I have interviewed.

3) Dream Deferred: The West Kowloon Cultural District - This section will trace the troubled history of the failed West Kowloon Cultural District Project and discuss where Hong Kong now stands on creating more institutions for the arts.

4) Hong Kong and Mainland China: An Uneasy Search for Identity - This section will review the formal structures that exist for arts exchanges between Hong Kong and mainland China and explore the level of interaction between Hong Kong and the mainland. (This topic may also be integrated with one of the other sections).

5) The Spectacle of Reunification: The Handover Anniversary Celebrations - This section will review the celebration plans for the 10th anniversary of the handover (particularly with respect to arts and culture events) and compare these with the events that commemorated the 1997 handover.

Audio

This week I interviewed Tobias Berger, curator of the Para/Site Art Space. On Saturday I will interview artist/filmmaker Robert Iolini, who is a visiting scholar-in-residence here at HKU for the 2006-2007 academic year.

I have also requested meetings with a manager at the Arts Development Council and with the director of HKU’s Cultural Policy Research Centre. Hopefully at least one of these will pan out by early next week.

Photos

I’ve selected, cropped and resized about half a dozen photos to illustrate my project.

Hyperlinks and References

I’ve compiled the list of websites and references for further research on Hong Kong’s cultural policy. I plan on dividing the list of websites into several categories, such as government institutions, non-profits in the arts, galleries, performance and exhibition venues, research organizations, and blogs.