Hong Kong's Creative Types Head For The Exits

City tries to pull financial execs back with November summit, but has no trick yet to stem the exodus of artists

Jun 1

Hong Kong’s Art Central 2022 has just wrapped up, with 52 galleries in three sectors celebrating the territory’s position as Asia’s “World City” with a glittering display of sculpture, canvasses, and other art and performances including a brooding, coal-black junk sailing the waters of Victoria Harbor.

But other action is taking place elsewhere that marks an unsettling trend. Beset by the stifling National Security Law imposed on the city by Beijing along with the equally stifling restrictions to control Covid-19, artists and other creative types in advertising, public relations, and other fields are leaving, as are the bankers who made the city Asia’s premier financial hub. Political developments and the pandemic have served as a double whammy to the art industry that belies Art Central 2022. A local member of the art scene who requested anonymity said the pandemic has squeezed the finances of artists, with NFTs (nonfungible tokens) serving now as a much-needed lifeline for income.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority is seeking to lure the bankers back with a summit of top investment banking executives in early November to coincide with the popular Rugby 7s tournament, which has traditionally drawn thousands to the city to not only watch the international teams compete and to drink copiously in bars in the Wan Chai and La Kwai Fong districts. But it remains to be seen if the HKMA will persuade the professionals who have abandoned the city for more salubrious climes…