The New Arts Capital

On November 22, Tatler and the Upper House hosted the latest edition of House Stories, a monthly panel series at the hotel’s Sky Lounge. This edition of the series, moderated by Tatler’s features editor Zabrina Lo, dived into what it would take for Hong Kong to become a top arts city, comparable with cultural destinations like New York or London.

The panel featured four experts in the arts and culture industry, who spoke about their experiences and hopes for the future of Hong Kong’s entertainment scene: Paul Tam, executive director for performing arts at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA); Grace Lang, programme director for the Hong Kong Arts Festival; Lindsey McAlister, founder of the Hong Kong Youth Arts Foundation (HKYAF); and Tom Chan, producer, director and composer of Our Journal of Springtime the musical, which became Hong Kong’s first long-running musical in 2019 (see also p.62). “Hong Kong is definitely not a cultural desert,” said Tam. “In terms of activity, I think Hong Kong is as vibrant as any place else in the world. [Under the WKCDA alone], we have M+ museum, the Palace Museum, Xiqu Centre and FreeSpace. Hong Kong also has [major institutions] like the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and The Hong Kong Ballet, with lots of cultural SMEs too,” said Tam, who is mid-way through Creative Tomorrow, a first-of-its-kind, eight-month art tech festival that launched last autumn.