[Benefits with grace] The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts should move to Ocean Park

The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts currently has two campuses, one next to the government headquarters on the waterfront in Wan Chai, and the other at Bethany Seminary, a former dairy company farm on Pok Fu Lam Road.

To further promote the Academy of Performing Arts as a platform for building Hong Kong's soft power, a strategic consideration is to move the Academy for Performing Arts to Ocean Park, making Ocean Park the campus of the Academy for Performing Arts to help it innovate.

The architecture of the Wanchai Academy for Performing Arts can no longer meet the needs of the development of contemporary performing arts, and the operation of Ocean Park and the Academy for Performing Arts have many intersections.

Ocean Park can convert part of the original dolphin training and killer whale training into a performance development venue.

In terms of arts and technology, film and television shooting, etc., Ocean Park can become a platform for different scenes and practice, helping the Academy of Performing Arts to strengthen production, education and research, create employment and train different types of work required by the performing arts industry.

The architecture of Wan Chai Academy for Performing Arts can no longer meet the needs of contemporary performing arts development.

(Photo by Huang Yongjun)

Performing arts soft power is a comprehensive soft power. It is not only about performing arts, but also about the quality of the entire entertainment industry.

If you look at South Korea and Japan, you will know that their soft power is comprehensive.

For example, in addition to filming TV programs, Japanese TV stations also operate many performing arts venues, host different types of activities such as concerts and drama performances, and introduce different types of international performances to produce programs and train talents. High-quality production-university-research integration capabilities.

The establishment of soft power requires the combination of production, education and research.

To make art and society interact, it is necessary to improve the overall society's cognitive ability to art; to build art cognitive ability, it is necessary to train more talents who understand art and have a professional art operation background.

If the Academy of Performing Arts wants to enter the Greater Bay Area, it should also update the colonial model of performing arts education. It should not unilaterally face the West, but should have the comprehensive ability to face Asia and China.

It must not only absorb the strengths of the West, but also focus on Chinese and Asian cultures.

There are several advantages to moving the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts to Ocean Park. First, the vacated Academy for Performing Arts can be transformed into an international venue, like the Lincoln Center in New York.

Another possibility is of course demolition. The value of land sales can bring in over 10 billion income. If a part of it is used to promote the development of the Academy of Performing Arts, why not do it?

In addition, the current MTR line has directly reached Ocean Park, so it will not constitute a traffic inconvenience.

Ocean Park can convert part of the original dolphin training and killer whale training into a performance development venue.

(Photo by Jiang Zhiqian)

The new Bureau of Culture, Sports and Tourism must also find some highlight projects and platform projects, not just events.

It should establish different types of creative industry parks in Hong Kong, combined with the concept of cultural and sports tourism, including culture, sports, and tourism.

Only by establishing such a comprehensive cultural and sports model can we truly enhance the competitiveness and attractiveness of Hong Kong in the long run.

Ocean Park is just about to become such a pilot.

Moving the Academy of Performing Arts to Ocean Park is exactly the way to provide a comprehensive development ecology and learning environment for Hong Kong's future arts and technology talents, performing arts talents, and related talents in all fields.

[Environment and Power] Make Ocean Park an Art and Technology Base

Hu Enwei

is a member of the National Hong Kong and Macao Research Association, a member of the Jiangsu Provincial Political Consultative Conference, and Zuni.

Icosahedron United Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer

The article is purely the author's opinion and does not represent the position of Hong Kong 01.