November 14, 2013

Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing

With the strengthening of regional economic co-operation and the speeding up of economic integration, interactions among peoples in Asia continue to intensify and Asian cultures are flourishing.
 
As an international business, finance and shipping centre in the heart of Asia, Hong Kong also aspires to become a cultural hub. The West Kowloon Cultural District project, which is now making good progress, underlines our determination to promote long-term cultural development.
 
Blessed with an advantageous strategic location in the region, Hong Kong's cultural links extend far and wide, reaching out not only to the Mainland of China but also to the whole of Asia and the world.
 
The cross-boundary perspective is arguably one of the prominent features of Hong Kong literary works. The influx of a large number of cultural elites from the Mainland to Hong Kong during the first half of last century had resulted in our literary works being widely read throughout the country.
 
This influence helped Hong Kong develop deep cultural roots. Today, the cross-boundary perspective has taken on new meaning, and we see authors from Hong Kong expanding their realms of creativity to the Mainland, Taiwan and overseas, with their works manifesting even broader outlooks.
 
Hong Kong is a pluralistic society with our people coming from all corners of the world, carrying their different nationalities, ethnicities, accents and tastes. This, coupled with a free market economy, has given rise to a great variety of cultural products catering to the cultural needs of people in different periods of time.
 
East meets West
Hong Kong is also a bilingual community. While the Chinese language is the choice of most people for their daily communication, the English language is also our official language. Hong Kong's literature and culture are characterised by a fusion of the East and the West, as well as the past and the present. With the freedom of artistic expression in Hong Kong, diverse cultural areas are thriving.
 
Publishing is a major industry in Hong Kong. In terms of numbers, Hong Kong is at the forefront of the world for its publication of newspapers, magazines and periodicals. These publications are important carriers of literary works.
 
During the heyday of the local press, a new wave of martial arts fiction was founded and that has become our pride. Best-selling authors of this genre such as Jin Yong and Leung Yue-Sang, whose works in this genre uphold the ideals of Chinese chivalry, have made an impact on Chinese communities all over Asia and the world. Their works have earned them their rightful places in the pantheon of literature.
 
Hong Kong is also home to many essay and prose authors. Professor Jao Tsung-I, the great master of Chinese studies, also excels in literary works.
 
In the area of popular music lyrics, Canto-pop once took Chinese communities around the world by storm. Hong Kong lyricists have written a great number of excellent song lyrics, and if a collection of 300 all-time best Canto-pop lyrics were to be compiled, I believe it would be quite an enthralling read even though it might not hold a candle to the brilliance of The Three Hundred Tang Poems.
 
Literary arts in HK
The HKSAR Government has been adopting a multi-pronged approach in supporting the development of literary arts in Hong Kong. First, we have been promoting literary works and artists through various literature festivals, award schemes and competitions. The biennial Hong Kong Literature Festival organised by the Hong Kong Public Libraries since 1997 has brought together local and overseas scholars, writers, editors, commentators, teachers and literature workers to promote literary arts through thematic seminars, sharing sessions, poetry reading sessions and group reading workshops.
 
The Arts Development Council has also been collaborating with the City University of Hong Kong to organise the City Literary Festival in recent years to promote literary arts.
 
A number of award schemes have been in place to raise recognition of writers and their works that excel in the world of literature. To encourage creative writing and to help develop budding writers, we have also been organising writing competitions regularly, such as the Award for Creative Writing in Chinese, the Hong Kong Poetry Writing Competition, and the Competition on Story Writing in Chinese for Students.
 
Second, we have been promoting literary arts through setting up archives and conducting research. The Hong Kong Central Library has set up a Hong Kong Literature Room to collect, organise and archive information on local literature.
 
Over the years, our libraries have organised writing workshops and talks on different genres of literature, seminars on various topics, meet-the-writers events and other activities to foster appreciation of literary works.
 
Promoting literary arts
Apart from promoting literary arts and artists locally, we also promote our literary works to overseas readers. For this purpose, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council has provided funding to some local universities to undertake the Hong Kong Literature Translation Project to translate representative local literary works into English and publish them overseas.
 
Efforts have also been made by the academic sector in Hong Kong to promote cultural exchange on literature with other countries, for example, the International Writers Workshop organised by the Hong Kong Baptist University. Since its launch, the workshop has invited 80 writers from more than 40 countries to visit Hong Kong.
 
The Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum will provide us with an invaluable opportunity and platform to exchange ideas and share views on furthering cultural co-operation to promote literary arts. With our dedicated collaboration, I am confident the development of literature in Asia will go from strength to strength.
 
Secretary for Home Affairs Tsang Tak-sing gave this speech at the Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum 2013 - Asian Cultural Ministers' Panel Discussion on November 14.