John Nicholas Brown Center: Information on Hong Kong

Some preliminary links for our relationship with the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Program in Cultural Management. ---

The University
The Program in Cultural Management
Guangdong Modern Dance Festival
Community Museum Project
The West Kowloon Cultural District
Our Life at West Kowloon project
Here's some tentative thoughts on the trip to Hong Kong in January. So far, we've got confirmation from three good guides for us.

Sidney Cheung, an anthopologist at CUHK and head of their cultural heritage program, writes: We can go to some abandoned villages or wetland area (including fishpond on the buffer zone and the mudflat). You might want to have a look at the fieldtrips I led before which can be found at the fieldtrip session at: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/ant/culturalheritage/
Howard Chan, of the Community Museum Project, has offered to show us his work and also writes: "Do you also want to meet some activists? Heritage preservation, both tangible and intangible, is a big issue in HK now. Maybe you would like to hear another persepective." I think we'll spend two days meeting with him and preservation activists.
And Oscar Ho, head of the CUHK Program in Cultural Management has a public art program in January that he's interested in having us work on. No details yet on date or place; that will determine the dates of our trip, I think.

As far as costs: the JNBC will cover the costs of the academic side of this--arranging for our guides, and local transportation, and perhaps more. I'm hoping we can arrange for housing at CUHK. I'm not sure what that will cost. And you'll have to pay for food and airfare (roughly $1600, I think) unless we can find some support for the trip as a whole from Brown's CUHK funds.

More as I figure things out. And add comments to provide advice.
Here's a copy of the grant I wrote to the Provost looking for some funding:

removed

Here's the latest from Oscar Ho, 10/15:
The visit of your students in January is certainly welcomed. I would be glad to help,if needed, to look into arranging programmes for your students. There has been a very interesting cultural phenomenon developed since last December, after the government destroyed a heritage site 'the Star Ferry'. Since then, we have seen numerous campaigns protecting heritage buildings and districts everywhere, frequently artists worked with social activists in consolidating local cultural identity thru art projects. I can introduce your students to some of these artists and organizations. One of the more interesting one is the project, please take a look at http://www.soco.org.hk/117/e.htm.

As for public art projects, I am working with a Taiwanese Art Foundation which plans to install a public art exhibition at the City Hall in Central (we did a similar project last year). Tentatively we hope to open the exhibition on January 12, 2008 (I should be able to confirm by the end of this month). To make it even more interesting is that on January 18, Channel is commissioning a huge installation by numerous international artists at the parking lot next to City Hall. The installation will be opened on January 18. I don't know how long will your students stay in Hong Kong. I would suggest they come a few days before our opening and help with the installation, then do some visit and talk to people, wait til the opening of the Channel's show and then leave.

I will look into the cost of having the students staying at the guest house of the university. Would they mind sharing rooms? As for suggesting names of people to meet, I will give some thought to it.

ADDED 10/30

The most recent note from Oscar:

Dear Steve,

Got back last week, been loaded with work, sorry for this late reply.

For your students' visit in January, please let me know if you need any help in arranging. There has been a lot of public/community art activities going on the recent months since the government dismantled the Star Ferry Pier and triggered a series of social movement in protecting not just heritage building, but also the communal ways of life. In fact, this coming weekend, there is a street festival at one of the oldest street market at Hong Kong Island, which is to be cleared up for development. There will be exhibition, fashion show, food tour, convert, etc. going on. Events like this popping up a lot since December last year, and there might be some events like this going on by the time when your students visit, or at least I can introduce them to the organizers.

As for our own public art exhibition, I am afraid that for operational reasons, we need to open the exhibition in December, which means by the time when your students arrive, the exhibition is on already. Naturally I will be more than happy to talk to them about the exhibition.

Please give me the number of students visiting Hong Kong and the dates of their stay, I will ask our staff to reserve the rooms. The University guest house is quite popular, we need to book it in advance.

For my visit to Brown, I would be happy to talk about West Kowloon and the M+ (in fact, this is what I did in Germany). As for the talk on heritage conservation in China, this is not my area of specialty; I would prefer to talk about the situation of heritage preservation, its social and political implications within the post-colonial context, and the community responses through cultural activities, as I have been quite directly involved with some of these activities.

Meanwhile I will look into the arrangement for formal partnership from our side.

Regards,

Oscar

Posted at Oct 19/2007 07:55AM:
Clarissa J Ceglio: Would each person arrange his/her air travel separately or would flight plans be coordinated through a designated university travel agent who, presumably, might have access to lower group fares?

IF I can go (that’s a big if!), the Community Museum Project is definitely of interest, but it all sounds intriguing and thought provoking.

Posted at Oct 22/2007 06:09PM:
Would love to know the dates so I can start checking airfares!

Posted at Oct 22/2007 06:13PM:
Also, I am sad to hear Oscar's report about the loss of the Star Ferry. It was a truly lovely icon of the city. Here's the only photo I took while aboard a couple of years ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/_sumimasen_/54596306/in/set-1183333/

Posted at Oct 24/2007 10:15AM:
Al Lees: I'm ready to go. It would be helpful to pin the dates down as soon as possible.

Posted at Nov 03/2007 01:59PM:
Miranda: I'd definately be interested in going. Keep the information coming!