1993

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arts. Although the Urban Council is not a major arts education agency, the activities organized and also the arts education provided by us complement what is done by other arts education bodies. Some people have criticized that literary arts and visual arts are ignored by the Government. But our museums and libraries in the past have played a major role in educating the public in these respects. Hence, although the Government intends to promote arts education courses and to allow more youngsters to learn instrumental music so as to promote arts education on a long term basis, our commitment in these areas should be further enhanced in order to complement what is done by others.

Thirdly, I want to talk about creation. The crux of arts is in creation. Creation requires a lot of time and it does not mean that for every trial there will be success. So if we give the artists more chances and right to try things out, innovation is more likely. This is particularly so with regard to independent artist or small scale artistic bodies. Therefore, a free artistic environment, and adequate financial subsidy are important factors in bringing about innovation.

With regard to our position in artistic creation, we only play the role of a supporter. Besides sponsoring these activities, we do not have a clear direction towards creating an innovative environment and providing adequate subsidy. Some local artists and artistic bodies have lacked experience in organizing local performance. It is therefore necessary for us to give them more opportunities to try things out and to correct in performances. Only by so doing, can we bring local arts to fruition. Therefore I call upon the Government to seriously consider providing more subsidy to creative artists and artistic bodies so that local arts will be developed. With regard to literary arts, the biannual creative literary competition organized by the Council is definitely not enough in boosting more creative writings. On this front, we need to put in more efforts. With regard to movies and videos, I think the Urban Council should consider organizing short film competition. Starting from next year we should organize the video competition so as to develop more creative innovation and new arts media.

The fourth point is preservation. Development of arts means that we will have to carry a torch forward so that cultural legacy will be the reference point for future creation and re-sparkle for inspiration and we also help to nurture artistic talents. There are many overseas examples, e.g. in the UK, we have the cultural estate or legacy ministry. They systematically preserve items of arts and they also help to promote arts. They will also attract overseas visitors who can know the fine points of their cultural legacy. The revenue can be used to further develop nurturing of local arts. Our libraries and museums have stored many visual and literary items. With regard to artistic works of contemporary artists, we do not have a consistent policy yet and we do not yet have a modern arts museum that we can be proud of. Regarding the film archive, many people have agreed that this is one of the good works done by the Urban Council. It is necessary for us to take the initiative in collecting, categorizing and analysing in order to boost the innovation and comment of the Hong Kong film industry.

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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

With regard to exploring the direction in which the Urban Council will go in promoting arts, I have to mention the setting up of an Arts Council proposed in the Arts Policy Review Report. As to how this Arts Council will have its work coordinated with that of the Municipal Councils, I believe that Councillors will comment on this later. The Urban Council is an autonomous body in terms of policy making and finance, but we still have to be accountable to the public. When we review what we did in the past and look forward to what we will do in the future, we should look at the role and terms of reference of the Arts Council so that there will not be duplication of work and a waste of limited resources.

Mr. Chairman, with these remarks, I move the motion.

MR. JASON YUEN KING-YUK (in Cantonese): Mr. Chairman, after having studied the consultation paper on Arts Policy Review, there are a few points that I may not agree, but on the whole, particularly when the Council's autonomy in framing its own cultural policy and operating its own resources could be retained, I would support the formation of the setting out of the Arts Council. I also welcome the Government's initiative in trying to strike a balanced development of the different forms of art... i.e. visual, performing and literary. I hope that with the publication of this Report, it can arouse the public and the cultural sectors to express their views enthusiastically so that a final, balanced and fair guideline for cultural development could be reached for the 1990s. What I want to say now can be broken down into two aspects: firstly, criticisms, secondly, suggestions. There are three points of criticism and four points of suggestion.

Criticism first. Firstly, the report lists in detail the major cultural venues completed or almost complete during 1980s, e.g. the QE Stadium, the H. K. Coliseum, the H. K. Cultural Centre, and the Museum of Art, etc. and contentedly conclude that the civic venues provided by the Council have already reached a saturation point and that the Government (and the Urban Council) should have no need to build any more similar cultural facilities. I think that this is a great mistake. This conclusion is only an official observation. As to whether the cultural venues have reached saturation or not should be judged by facts, and by the views of the public and Members of this Council. The Arts Policy Review Report only mentions the construction of venues, but it is silent on the contents of the various types of venues or whether they are of a balanced provision and meet the actual functional demands. Don't forget that all these above-mentioned 'cultural venues' mostly catered for entertainment and performing arts. Venues catered for visual and literary arts are very limited. For museums, completed venues mostly belong to the 'Art Museum series' and those needed for the 'History Museum series' are in serious shortage. That is why the Hong Kong Museum of History and its branches have been neglected. In spite of being a well-known international city and navigation centre, Hong Kong has still not even a maritime museum and therefore not even being comparable to Macau in such a cultural provision. Hong Kong occupied a first page of the history of World War II, sharing the same historic event and destiny as those of Hawaii and Singapore half a century ago in December 1941, but still

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