West Kowloon Cultural District

CUS512O Topics in Cultural Representation and Interpretation :Hong Kong Local Design more than commercial perspective (Vincent Maksiufung, e-mail:siufungmak2@ln.edu.hk)Lecturer: Pro. Anne Balsamo

Official Design West Kowloon Cultural District http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Kowloon_Cultural_District http://www.wkcdauthority.hk/en/what_s_new/index.html

The Government established in April 2006 the Consultative Committee on the Core Arts and Cultural Facilities of the West Kowloon Cultural District (Consultative Committee) and its three advisory groups to re-examine the need for the core arts and cultural facilities to be provided in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) and the financial implications for developing and operating those facilities. • The West Kowloon Cultural District photo Baycrest- Wikipedia user ("CC-BY-SA-2.5")

Design on the street http://www.bambootheatre.wkcda.hk/ http://www.heritage.gov.hk/en/whatsnew/events_24.htm West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre竹棚 Bamboo scaffolding/scaffold

West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_qHf0-Opi8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lWhtbTGOPA&feature=player_embedded The West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre is the first cultural event organized by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, it also marks the launch of the design and construction stage of the district.

The tradition of Bamboo scaffolding/scaffold and theatre for opera • Cantonese opera is one of the major categories in Chinese opera, originating in southern China's Cantonese culture. It is popular in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia. Like all versions of Chinese opera, it is a traditional Chinese art form, involving music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics, and acting. 粵劇 (Jyut6 kek6) should not be confused with 越劇 (Yuèjù), the theatre of Zhejiang.* • Beginning in the 1950s massive waves of immigrants fled Shanghai to destinations like North Point.Their arrival boosted the Cantonese opera fan-base significantly. However, a decrease number of Cantonese opera troupes are left to preserve the art in Hong Kong today. As a result, many stages that were dedicated to the Cantonese genre are closing down. Hong Kong's Sunbeam Theatre is still one of last facilities that are left standing to exhibit Cantonese opera.* • *Information from Wiki

The Implication of the comparison of West Kowloon Cultural District and the trial run West Kowloon Bamboo Theatre for Cantonese Opera Since Hong Kong Government want to establish a landmark of Art and Culture industry to promote the world –wide city such as some other country in the world. Government is developing a hardware in a newly reclamation land to build an art district which supposed to be landmark in Asia. This revealed that she doesn’t encourage the participation of the artists’ view on the ultimate demand of the art and culture users and even the true needs of the publics. In terms of customs and traditional Cantonese Opera, according to some research and articles by S.Y. Chan (Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong 神功戲在香港-1996),Tse Yin-mo, Xiao Kou and Poon Sze-man (Scaffolding . Viewing . Assembling -2010),those scaffolding bamboo theatre should be the original venue for the performance of different sorts of Cantonese Opera. This is a proof of the development of the local Opera performance initiated from the grass-root every life customs. Although the opera originally are performed to worship the ghosts in the ritual festivals like Tin Hau Festival and Bun Festivals. The construction methods is a local technical craftsmanship which is one of the Hong Kong local design .

Web based research Artech (magazine,website) http://www.artechpage.com/intro/ Magazine Editor in Chief: PingLing Cheung Designer: Vik Lai Company: A seed of http://vik.drawwithme.org/

Artech (magazine,website) This is a Website and Magazine Issued in Hong Kong and China in 2011. As the editor in chief Pingling Cheung said: ‘Just like a magazine, the world of architecture is both horizontal and vertical — this is why we connect them together.’* This architecture magazine and Website, designed and edited by Hong Kong designer and editor, concerns the issues related mainly on the relationship between the architecture, environment, urban planning and human living conditions. In traditions, magazine concerned architecture should be composed of building aesthetic and interior design issues. However, the concept of this magazine stresses on the relationship between human and environment as a whole which is opposite to the over development and rigid requirement of the contemporary Hong Kong and China societies. The so call ‘well being‘ in the modern life for the citizens of Post Capitalism societies is being questioned in the direction of consumerism nowaday. Moreover, one of the uniqueness of the innovative idea is the lacking of advertisement as the main income of this magazine make it stands alone from commercial editorial direction. *Information form Artech Website

Interactive design Art for All (community art organization) Evelyna Liang Yee WooArtist, Art educator, Community ArtistChairperson of Art for All http://www.art-for-all.org/ Photo: Vincent Mak

The Community art organization “Art for All” was established over 12years providing different areas art and educational workshops for the minorities group in local district and South Asia countries. The founder EvelynaLiangis the former lecturer in the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic. While she was the teacher of those young design students, she found that the aim of the design education at that time stressed only on the re-design and the luxurious products provided for the wealth. So she led a group of young designers and artists to run some artistic and educational project for the weak and the minorities. Her first project is some drawing workshops for the children and women in the Vietnamese asylumrefugee camp in Hong Kong in 1980s. After that her team work withthe hospitalized and various underprivileged communities, and finally founded Art for All in 2001. In 2009, I joined this organization to run some photo educational projects in various communities in the region of Sichuan.In 2010,we run the exhibition "Art Moves - Rekindling Hearts with Art and Love" (2010) in Hong Kong to re-aware the concern Hong Kong citizens about the need of the people after earthquake. Through working with the helper and teachers in the area, exhibiting the photo project with my own reflection showing the condition of the people living there, we are trying to facilitate and educate the people in both area with the interactive project. Besides, Art for All also provide some community art project for the local elderly and ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, e.g. "O! Mural Sports Challenge" (2008) and "Where in the World is Little J? Children Arts Day Camp" (2011).

Community museum project Technology Object http://www.hkcmp.org/cmp/index.html

I think “Community Museum project” as an example of local technological object with cultural significant because it is re-defining the concept of original design developed in Hong Kong. It is founded by some activists, Howard Chan (art curator), Siu King-chung (design educator), Tse Pak-chai and Phoebe Wong (cultural researchers) in 2002 . They are concerning the influence of everyday life under the urban renewal development in some districts. The Community Museum Project focuses not on establishing conventional "museum" hardware but carrying out flexible exhibition and public programs, often within specific community settings. As their website stated that ‘Through this process the Community Museum Project aims to nurture a platform to articulate personal experiences and under-represented histories. It can also be an occasion to facilitate the participation of the public and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The word "Community“ has three connotations: subject matter, settings and creative public interface.’**Information from Community Museum Project Website The argument of Hong Kong Design As Hazel Clark’s analysis (Back to the Future, or Forward? Hong Kong Design, Image, and Branding, 2009) stated that It take the concept of the community museum as a method to represent the everyday life and value of Hong Kong. It showed that the concept of Hong Kong design is not restricted to the re-design commodity. As Jackie Kwok’s other focus of research is Design History. In her book The Birth of Modern Chinese Design 《中國現代設計的誕生》(co- author So Kok) in 2007, stated that the original Chinese design is initiated in Shanghai from mid 19 century, when the commercial society was being formed and the printing technology was also developed. When we trace back the identity of Hong Kong design, we cannot not deny as those scholars included Wendy Wong’s point of view in her essay (Design Identity of Hong Kong: Colonization, de-colonization, and re-colonization ) that Hong Kong was undergoing the process of colonization which deeply influencing the our identity reflected through the style of local designers.

Those influence restricted the possibilities of local/regional development of cultural identity. Our design products may thought as West meet East in the past half decade in the design history in Hong Kong, which is a influence under the lacking of development related to self identity. Apart from those unique factors such as the low budget, high quality and efficient requirement in the industries which forced the local designer to develop the so-call characteristic, we are actually in the position of not Chinese and British at the same time. These unique identity make the local designer started to re-think of the cultural identity issue by the pre and post 1997, handover time period. However, as Ackbar Abbas commented on the identity of Hong Kong people in his book (Hong Kong,1997). He started from writing the title of the introduction of his essay as “Culture in the Space of Disappearance”. In Wendy Wong idea, she interpret Abbas comment as Hong Kong is being developed under the case from the British colonial rule to China’s patriotism. Thus, we are in the situation that we cannot adapt in those rigid change and we actually find no ground to develop so-call cultural identity under those rigid change of education systems and ideologies. As a result, if we want to seek our own cultural identity, the only way is to trace back the daily life pattern of our own community which the Hong Kong people live and grow up. Finally, it is why I decided to choose some local community art and design projects in recent years to raise the awareness and make argument about the issue of Hong Kong Design. I strongly believe that those unique aesthetics and knowledge are being developed locally without the colonial type thinking pattern may be the cultural identity indeed. So I see them as Hong Kong Design.

West Kowloon Cultural District