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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-Council will come to order.
MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held on 12.9.1978 were confirmed.
(Mr Kenneth T. C. Lo and Mr Edmund W. H. Chow arrived at this point.)
STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN
CHAIRMAN (in English):-The local cultural scene is now completely transformed. Quietly, the change has been going on for many years in fact. At first, with much credit, lovers of the arts took the initiative to promote various activities, generally at their own expense and as the opportunity arose. Then, with the opening of the City Hall in 1962, the Council started taking an interest too. Now, action is taken in a planned way on a sustained basis and for a conscious public purpose. Indeed, all activity is intended for the education of the young and the enjoyment of all.
Over the years since then, the management of the City Hall has acquired much useful practical experience while the Council has gained invaluable insight into its operation. In consequence, even the tight physical conditions are exploited to advantage for the community. At the start, without direct Council funding, private initiative was still helped in other practical ways for years on end; later on, when the Council came into its own, rapidly increasing financial assistance was given to reputable voluntary groups, commendably working on their own in various activities. Such intervention has caused a revival of some art forms and emboldened interest in new ventures. Hong Kong has now many thriving societies in the visual and the performing arts as a result. In reality, the Council has long taken effective measures to make Hong Kong a place of varied artistic activity all the year round. This approach has made life far more stimulating for those genuinely devoted to the arts. And so, both in scope and frequency, much is offered for public appreciation in many places here. While, in the Cultural Services Division, working double tides as it were, no good chance is missed to stage a play or to mount an exhibition, to present a dance or to sponsor a recital, or to put on whatever may be offering that is novel. By doing so, the people have been given an exciting opportunity never previously experienced here, certainly not in such diversity and intensity, though brave efforts were made in the early postwar years when there were no physical facilities adequate for the purpose. Public support has risen apace in the interval and so the Council has been encouraged to do more in recent times.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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All activity has not been concentrated on the City Hall, however, for there is also an innovative programme of outdoor entertainment without parallel here in times gone by. Necessarily handicapped by adverse physical circumstances sometimes difficult to overcome, and obviously slanted to different public tastes, these presentations are numerous and organized in all city districts. In effect, there are 733 events put on in 83 different locations in the current financial year. Response has been most heartening so far. As a result, when visiting performances are arranged for the City Hall and they can be held outdoors, the general public is given a chance to enjoy them without charge.
The Council's support of the arts has taken other forms as well. The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra was the first major challenge, with practical leadership and financial assistance as the swift response. The Hong Kong Chinese Music Orchestra and the Hong Kong Repertory Theatre Company are big commitments too. The International Film Festival is making good headway. The Festival of Asian Arts makes friends in the region and brings prestige to Hong Kong without doubt. There is still the promise of other ventures to come.
Meanwhile, for well more than a decade, the Council has struck out strongly in other directions with marked success. Important exhibitions have been held frequently by the Museums of Art and History. One following on the other in both places, and often with more than one going on at the same time, these ambitious exhibitions have drawn great numbers of people just as they have also attracted much esoteric interest here and abroad. Working energetically with numerous learned groups, art societies and private collectors, such enterprise is backed up by lectures, demonstrations and discussions. Also, our libraries are now organizing many more extension activities, as they become actual focal points for the mass of our people to learn and enjoy a wide range of subjects in their own districts.
Full and varied as have been these activities, taxing to the limit the halls and galleries now available, there is still more that the Council can do for community advancement in the arts. But they call for more human, physical and financial resources. In the coming eighties, there will be an even more exciting prospect for Hong Kong when the space museum is open and the cultural complex finally built. The entire project has been under very careful planning and patient preparation for more years than generally realized. But it is not the only significant project, for there is also the imaginative open-air theatre in Hung Hom now in the final stages of planning.
Thus, Hong Kong is changing resolutely into a community of quality in cultural pursuits and public entertainment as in other matters. And also, it is hoped, it will set in time to come new standards of excellence as local talent develops in measure, All this progress has not come about by sitting back, wishing and talking, but by dint of hard work and bold action on the part of many, with a clear objective constantly in view. In the local context
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