Hong Kong City Guide - Culture

It may seem a laughable idea, but culture does exist in Hong Kong. The city's reputation as a brashly philistine capitalist paradise has not exactly enlarged its footprint on the international cultural scene, but it should be remembered that this is Greater China's film and media powerhouse and one area where Chinese arts and culture have flourished without political and ideological interference. For instance, the traditional Chinese opera at the China Club never had to struggle with all the Maoist impositions that afflicted it on the mainland.

HKTicketing (tel: 3128 8288; website: www.hkticketing.com) and UrbTix (tel: 2734 9009; website: www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Entertainment/Ticket/en/index.php) sell tickets to cultural events. Those looking for events and performance in the city should check the free listings in BC Magazine (website: http://hk.bcmagazine.net), Where Hong Kong (website: www.where-hongkong.com), City Life HK Magazine (website: www.asia-city.com) and Beats (website: www.beatsmag.com) for the latest details.

Music: The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (tel: 2721 2030; website: www.hkpo.com) is the town ensemble and its frequent showings at corporate galas at least bankroll a full year-round programme. The company is resident at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, 10 Salisbury Road (tel: 2734 2848 or 2734 2009 for tickets; website: www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/CulturalService/HKCC), from September to July. It is backed up by the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra (tel: 3185 1600; website: www.hkco.org). Visiting orchestras of all standards frequently tour through Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, 1 Gloucester Road (tel: 2584 8500; website: www.hkapa.edu), also hosts frequent concerts. Traditional Chinese opera is performed at the China Club, 13F Old Bank of China Building, Bank Street (tel: 2521 8888). It is very difficult to get in here but it is worth trying, if only to admire the display of modern Chinese art.

Theatre: The Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts (see above), the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (see above) and the Hong Kong Arts Centre, Upper Basement, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai (tel: 2582 0200; website: www.hkac.org.hk), are shrines of high theatrical culture. The Star Alliance Theatre, Fringe Club, South Block, Lower Albert Road, Central (tel: 2521 7251; website: www.hkfringe.com.hk), gets many of the more wacky acts.

Dance: Hong Kong's classical ballet troupe is the Hong Kong Ballet (tel: 2573 7398; website: www.hkballet.com) and preferred venues include the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (see above) and the Ko Shan Theatre, 77 Ko Shan Road, Hunghom, Kowloon (tel: 2734 9009). The Hong Kong Dance Company (tel: 3103 1888; website: www.hkdance.com) has a traditional Chinese repertoire, while the City Contemporary Dance Company (tel: 2326 8597; website: www.ccdc.com.hk) is the more modern dance ensemble. Both perform at a variety of venues.

Film: Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and director John Woo remain icons of the local film industry, which suffered a real downturn and creativity deficit during the 1990s. However, a new breed of ‘household name' stars and a growing demand for more creative cinematic fare has revitalised Hong Kong film. Released in 2000, Ang Lee's seminal Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon thrust itself onto the global stage. It turned Lee into one of Hollywood's most sought-after directors - leading him to make the Oscar-winning movie Brokeback Mountain (2006) - and made an international celebrity of Zhang Ziyi, who has since starred in, among other things, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). 2003's Oscar-nominated Hero featured the finest cast list of Hong Kong stars ever assembled, and crime thriller, Infernal Affairs (2002) (currently being ‘remade' in Hollywood). 2004 saw Fruit Chan Goh's creepy and deeply-disturbing movie Dumplings, and international hit House of Flying Daggers, revealing a new depth and breadth previously missing from Hong Kong cinema.

There are several cinema multiplexes including IFC Mall, Exchange Square, Central (tel: 2388 6268) UA Pacific Place, 1 Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty (tel: 2869 0322), UA Times Square, Times Square, Matheson Street, Causeway Bay (tel: 2506 2822), Golden Gateway Multiplex, The Gateway, Ground Floor, 25 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui (tel: 2956 2003) and Palace IFC, Podium L1, IFC Mall, 8 Finance Street, Central (tel: 2838 7380). English-language movies are mostly screened in the original language with Cantonese subtitles, although some screenings are dubbed. Likewise, Cantonese-language films almost invariably have English subtitles. Arthouse films are mostly screened at the Lim Por Yen Film Theatre, in the Hong Kong Arts Centre.

Literary Notes: Hong Kong has not left a deep impression on global literature. Perhaps, for too long in its history, it lacked the allure of neighbouring Shanghai and the recent economic dynamism has yet to find a literary expression. There is a rich tradition of Cantonese literature but this has not made much of an impact in translation either. Some of the best works on Hong Kong are histories or travel writing rather than pure fiction. Probably the best of the histories is Frank Welsh's A Borrowed Place: A History of Hong Kong (1997). Jan Morris' Hong Kong - Epilogue to an Empire (1997) is a typically lyrical summary of the territory's character in the twilight of colonialism, recently updated to cover the latest developments. Mark Roberti's The Fall of Hong Kong: China's Triumph and Britain's Betrayal (1996) is an understandably angry survey of events before, during and after the 1997 hand-over. East and West (1999) is a thoughtful and, often very angry memoir by former British governor Chris Patten, detailing the events leading up to and beyond the handover of sovereignty in 1997.

As for novels, Paul Theroux's Kowloon Tong (1997) focuses on cultural interaction and colonial legacies in the plight of a Hong Kong English trading family on the eve of the hand-over. Timothy Mo's An Insular Possession (1986) is concerned with Macau more than Hong Kong but nonetheless manages to be a subtle and polished work, describing the European enclave of a bygone era. Most recently, John Lanchester's Fragrant Harbour (2002) takes his characters, Englishman Tom Stewart and Catholic nun Sister Maria, through the turbulent trading years and Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in the 1930s and 1940s. Lanchester was born and raised in Hong Kong and provides his readers with a powerful insight into the city.

Otherwise, Hong Kong is a staple of genre fiction. John Le Carré's The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) is one of the better spy novels to deal with the territory. Any reader looking for the blockbuster view of Hong Kong should read James Clavell's Noble House (1981) and Tai-Pan (1966). The World of Suzie Wong (1957), by Richard Mason, conjures up a paradoxical, yet atmospheric, world of vice, prostitution and the quest for enduring romance in one of Hong Kong's seedier districts. The success of the film it inspired is probably testament to the fact that Hong Kong has been best captured on celluloid - Jackie Chan makes as good a swashbuckling cultural hero for the place as anyone.