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countries around the world, in the past when you worked from dawn to dusk we are now progressing to a situation where we have radio and television and all sorts of cultural entertainment and we are still trying to promote our needs from basic needs to spiritual needs. Thirdly, the change in the demographic pattern of Hong Kong. In the earlier days, the family size is on the decrease. According to the latest census we have the average household figures of 3.3. In other words, you have a couple and then you have one or two kids. This is the average family composition. In other words, the fewer the children the more parental care you can expect. Similarly the parental expectation in terms of learning instruments and so on. Against this background, let us look at the present situation. Whether we are talking about private or public housing units, there are a lot of private tutors who are teaching children in various forms of arts, ballet, painting, dancing and so on, and this is a very clear trend. If we just rely on private tutors, I doubt if we can really meet the needs of the public. I see two problems with these private tutors. Firstly, a wide range in standards of these tutors. There is no coordination regarding the standard of various forms of arts and culture and there is no uniformed scale of charging fees.
The Report suggests abolishing the MO and rather asking the APA to take over its work. I think this is not a good thing and it will be a blow to the popularization of various forms of art. My reasons are the APA and the MO are rather different in their functions. The APA is to provide professional musicians, e.g. training music teachers and tutors whilst the MO is to provide music training in various districts i.e. training the youngsters and the students. So they are different but supplementary. So if the MO is done away with and its work passed over to the APA then it will add to the heavy load of the APA and also goes against the original aims of the APA. The MO is the only unit dealing with music under the Government. Its work is already very small. But in section 6.28 of the Report, we are told that in many other countries Government is not doing similar thing. This is the reason advanced by the Government to abolish the Music Office. In fact many countries including developing countries, they do not use the MO as such, but rather the cultural and arts activities are instilled in their primary education. These are done through these education channels, but not so in Hong Kong. I am rather disappointed that the Government intends to abolish the MO which is the only body left. It will deprive the general public of the chance to reach the second tier.
I have one suggestion. I suggest that the Urban Council or the Regional Council to take over the work of the MO. If we are successful we should further promote activity to extending it to sculpture, painting and dancing and not only music. Why are the two Municipal Councils suitable? There are five reasons.
Firstly, we have the venues. In all districts we have our centres in Urban Council buildings. Within these civic centres, we have the proper occasions, special function rooms, so we can take on the work immediately.
Secondly, we have the experience. The MO has five areas of work as I mentioned earlier. If you look at these five areas of work, we are all experienced in all of them whether in organizing classes in lending instruments or organizing district or international festivals, the Urban Council has a lot of experience and we can do it just like that.
Thirdly, we have the required staff. The Urban Council is one of the five largest departments in Hong Kong with staff exceeding 15,000 and we can deploy enough manpower to take over all the work of the MO right away. If you just tell me to do it today, I can do it tomorrow.
Fourthly, we are relatively financially well off. If the MO is to be transferred to any other government departments including the APA they will have to ask Government for additional subsidy. We have to do that as well, but I believe that the amount we need to ask for would be less than what the APA has to ask for because we already have quite a bit of money in our hands.
Fifthly, this is something that all other government departments are lacking. There are people's representatives sitting in the Urban Council. Out of the 40 Urban Councillors, 25 are directly or indirectly elected and these people's representatives live together with the public and they understand public needs and what they want and also their financial ability. And with these people's representatives we can better reflect people's views and how they want to go ahead in arts and culture development.
With these five abilities I see no reason why Government can say no to the promotion of these activities to be handed over to the Urban Council.
With these words, I support the motion.
THE HON. MARVIN CHEUNG KIN-TUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, I am a strong supporter of the role of the Urban Council in promoting the arts in Hong Kong. And as Chairman of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society, I welcome this opportunity for the Council to reaffirm publicly its continuing commitment.
I believe that the history of the Philharmonic illustrates one of the Urban Council's greatest successes: a fine example what is a sensible yet imaginative approach to the arts can achieve.
The Philharmonic originally an amateur orchestra turned professional in 1974 when it was funded jointly by the Government and the Council. Since 1989, it has been funded solely by this Council. Annual subvention to the Philharmonic over the last three years amounts over $120 million.
With the support of the Urban Council the Philharmonic has grown into an international recognized orchestra with 94 highly competent players and a world-class Music Director in the person of Maestro, David Atherton. It is able to attract performers of the highest calibre: whenever a vacancy occurs, the Orchestra is inundated with applications from talented musicians from all over the world.
Under the continuing patronage of the Urban Council, all the signs are that the Philharmonic is going from strength to strength. Its repertoire, for example
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countries around the world, in the past when you worked from dawn to dusk we are now progressing to a situation where we have radio and television and all sorts of cultural entertainment and we are still trying to promote our needs from basic needs to spiritual needs. Thirdly, the change in the demographic pattern of Hong Kong. In the earlier days, the family size is on the decrease. According to the latest census we have the average household figures of 3.3. In other words, you have a couple and then you have one or two kids. This is the average family composition. In other words, the fewer the children the more parental care you can expect. Similarly the parental expectation in terms of learning instruments and so on. Against this background, let us look at the present situation. Whether we are talking about private or public housing units, there are a lot of private tutors who are teaching children in various forms of arts, ballet, painting, dancing and so on, and this is a very clear trend. If we just rely on private tutors, I doubt if we can really meet the needs of the public. I see two problems with these private tutors. Firstly, a wide range in standards of these tutors. There is no coordination regarding the standard of various forms of arts and culture and there is no uniformed scale of charging fees. The Report suggests abolishing the MO and rather asking the APA to take over its work. I think this is not a good thing and it will be a blow to the popularization of various forms of art. My reasons are the APA and the MO are rather different in their functions. The APA is to provide professional musicians, e.g. training music teachers and tutors whilst the MO is to provide music training in various districts i.e. training the youngsters and the students. So they are different but supplementary. So if the MO is done away with and its work passed over to the APA then it will add to the heavy load of the APA and also goes against the original aims of the APA. The MO is the only unit dealing with music under the Government. Its work is already very small. But in section 6.28 of the Report, we are told that in many other countries Government is not doing similar thing. This is the reason advanced by the Government to abolish the Music Office. In fact many countries including developing countries, they do not use the MO as such, but rather the cultural and arts activities are instilled in their primary education. These are done through these education channels, but not so in Hong Kong. I am rather disappointed that the Government intends to abolish the MO which is the only body left. It will deprive the general public of the chance to reach the second tier. I have one suggestion. I suggest that the Urban Council or the Regional Council to take over the work of the MO. If we are successful we should further promote activity to extending it to sculpture, painting and dancing and not only music. Why are the two Municipal Councils suitable? There are five reasons.
Firstly, we have the venues. In all districts we have our centres in Urban Council buildings. Within these civic centres, we have the proper occasions, special function rooms, so we can take on the work immediately.
Secondly, we have the experience. The MO has five areas of work as I mentioned earlier. If you look at these five areas of work, we are all experienced in all of them whether in organizing classes in lending instruments or organizing
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district or international festivals, the Urban Council has a lot of experience and we can do it just like that.
Thirdly, we have the required staff. The Urban Council is one of the five largest departments in Hong Kong with staff exceeding 15 000 and we can deploy enough manpower to take over all the work of the MO right away. If you just tell me to do it today, I can do it tomorrow.
Fourthly, we are relatively financially well off. If the MO is to be transferred to any other government departments including the APA they will have to ask Government for additional subsidy. We have to do that as well, but I believe that the amount we need to ask for would be less than what the APA has to ask for because we already have quite a bit of money in our hands.
Fifthly, this is something that all other government departments are lacking. There are people's representatives sitting in the Urban Council. Out of the 40 Urban Councillors, 25 are directly or indirectly elected and these people's representatives live together with the public and they understand public needs and what they want and also their financial ability. And with these people's representatives we can better reflect people's views and how they want to go ahead in arts and culture development.
With these five abilities I see no reason why Government can say no to the promotion of these activities to be handed over to the Urban Council.
With these words, I support the motion.
THE HON. MARVIN CHEUNG KIN-TUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, I am a strong supporter of the role of the Urban Council in promoting the arts in Hong Kong. And as Chairman of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Society, I welcome this opportunity for the Council to reaffirm publicly its continuing commitment.
I believe that the history of the Philharmonic illustrates one of the Urban Council's greatest successes: a fine example what is a sensible yet imaginative approach to the arts can achieve.
The Philharmonic originally an amateur orchestra turned professional in 1974 when it was funded jointly by the Government and the Council. Since 1989, it has been funded solely by this Council. Annual subvention to the Philharmonic over the last three years amounts over $120 million.
With the support of the Urban Council the Philharmonic has grown into an international recognized orchestra with 94 highly competent players and a world-class Music Director in the person of Maestro, David Atherton. It is able to attract performers of the highest calibre: whenever a vacancy occurs, the Orchestra is inundated with applications from talented musicians from all over the world.
Under the continuing patronage of the Urban Council, all the signs are that the Philharmonic is going from strength to strength. Its repertoire, for example
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