HK Observer | HKIFF, Art Basel, and Rugby Sevens: connecting to the world

Robert Carroll

Unless it’s making rare headlines or in financial news, Hong Kong isn’t usually on the international radar but from February to April it’s been one major international event after another. This is when the world comes here and locals get exposed to a first-class array of cinematic and plastic arts from HKIFF, Art Basel and Central, and the Hong Kong Arts Festival, as well as participating in the most widely broadcast annual local sports event, the Rugby Sevens.
Let’s not undervalue the importance of these events, not least because the film fest brings an audience of 600,000 and the art fairs and the Sevens sell 150,000 and 120,000 respectively.
Firstly art. Whether exhibited, performed or shown through cinema, art has a role that goes beyond entertainment to be a crucible where imagination toils to exceed boundaries of ideas and techniques. The future belongs to the societies with the most creative forces at work where that can also be harnessed.
HKIFF and the art fairs are a two-way street with locals experiencing world-class events and overseas visitors left with imprints beyond a casual holiday experience, helping brand Hong Kong as an Alpha city. Surely that’s a welcome reminder to China that Hong Kong as a brand is valuable beyond its business hub role in terms of the prestige of attracting global scale events and as a cultural melting pot. That’s no small matter as Hong Kong vies to reposition itself vis-a-vis the mainland, adapting to China’s phenomenal growth; bearing in mind that these events could not be held on the mainland under present circumstances. Why not?
Well, heavy censorship is ubiquitous for events of any size. Then there is the heavy-handed bureaucracy and the numerous hands outstretched for baksheesh. Holding the Rugby Sevens in Beijing – or another also highly-polluted metropolis – risks rugby authorities and players’ reluctance to expose themselves to the horrific pollution. They’d be hosting a major rugby event too if there were more than a few local fans.
The Sevens is undoubtedly the most internationally publicized local event by a massive margin and has given Hong Kong a global platform par excellence. An outstanding success story, but the influence is limited to sport and tourism and the goodwill those bring. The massive wine fairs here are very important too as Hong Kong has become Asia’s wine hub, but hardly influential beyond the wine trade and wine education whereas art and cinema can change mindsets.
In regards to changing mindsets, here’s a man who does that: the visionary Elon Musk who was here earlier in the year to great acclaim for an official tech startup festival. He is the founder of Paypal and the first commercial space operator Space X, as well as being the CEO of Tesla. He has made innovation a byword for everything he touches, and he’s made his mark here too as Tesla upturns the car market.
Thanks to the brand’s popularity, electric cars are finally taking off here, re-assuring us that we’re one step close to clean air. With the beyond expectations success of the new Tesla mass market car, the brand’s popularity should continue to drive electric vehicle sales. Credit is due to the company which produces sexy electric cars people actually want to buy and to the government too for waiving ‘the first’ registration tax. Now getting back to that startup fair Musk attended. If local officials are so keen on feting a startup genius like Musk why not put words into action and make it easier to actually found a startup? We are greatly lagging behind Shenzhen in that area. Yes Shenzhen, where entrepreneurs deal with all the myriad obstacles of doing business on the mainland.