Robert Carroll
The Hong Kong International Film Festival is one of the few remarkable cultural events in the calendar here, in terms of a solid declaration that we are truly Asia’s World City as Brand HK has long proclaimed. Another phrase for a city that punches above its weight, and spells it out better, is Alpha City.
The HKIFF is remarkable not only in terms of having audience figures into the six-
hundred-thousands, making it by far the largest cultural event of the year in terms of citizens participation, but that its panoply of cinema also reaches out in a far richer and more diverse way than anything else on the calendar. Coming soon after Art Basel, this time of year puts HK on the map, especially in Asia. And by catering more to its home continent as much as the rest of the world, it takes advantage of the human resources and bridgehead to the mainland available to it.
Reaching out to the world is how another former British colony, with little land, no natural resources and even fewer advantages than Hong Kong, found its way not just out of poverty but to great prosperity, all under the leadership of the late Lee Kwan-yew. Although he was authoritarian and tolerated little opposition, the man had a vision, and he pulled the tiny backwater of a country up by its bootstraps and into the 20th century.
Under his watch, what had once been called a pestilential swamp became a mighty force in one generation, with living standards equal to those of the West. It was hardly a foregone conclusion; in fact, Yew himself had grave doubts that he could succeed when the tinderbox of racial tensions exploded in violence in street riots. It may not have the freedom of expression we have here, but the system has produced a largely middle-class society with high quality government-provided homes, arguably on par with the private sector standards that housed 60% of the population, and provides better birth to death care than we have. I would not swap the freedom and sheer energy of Hong Kong – not to mention the landscape and seasons – for the Lion City, but its achievements under Founding Father Yew must be given their due.
The big surprise of the day is that there was, reportedly, supposed to be a cure for the long drawn-out public saga; the painful and near fatal malady of mismanagement of Asia Television, or ATV as it’s generally known. But there was a catch. The “White Knight” the owner had been looking for, who appeared on snorting steed, sword in hand, was not just there to throw down the gauntlet to market forces, but to his arch-
enemy Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, and – even worse, according to conventional wisdom – to opponents in Beijing. Surprise again soon after: it wasn’t the Bogeyman after all, trying to sneak into bed with poor stricken ATV, but the AID Partners Capital firm that saved HMV from ruin.
It seems a pity that the man who was able to capture huge audiences with web series well above the quality of ATV and the second free-to-air TV station TVB, might for the third time to be denied the chance to raise up the dire standard of the local broadcasting duo that has dominated TV airwaves here for decades.
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