Portrait of HENRY TANG, chairman of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, at the Election Forum on the Rule of Law and Core Values in December 2012. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Henry Tang, chairman of Hong
Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA), has warned the
government that it must address the district’s funding crisis by August if its museums and performing arts center are
to avoid closure.
Home to M+ and the Palace Museum, as well as the Xiqu Centre, the WKCD recorded net losses that almost doubled,
from HKD 869 million (USD 111 million) in 2021 to HKD 1.56 billion (USD 199
million) in 2022. Despite a 40-percent cost
recovery after the pandemic, the arts hub has until now relied on short-term
loans to stay afloat.
“If the government is late on
announcing a plan [or responding to our proposals], we have an urgent need to
take relatively large action in terms of reducing expenses,” Tang told i-Cable News on Saturday. Tang’s latest ultimatum appears targeted
at government officials who have positioned the WKCD as a tourist magnet while
also being slow to respond to serious budgetary concerns.
Significant cost-cutting measures
could include reducing the number of days per week that the museums are open by two, as well as limiting operating hours of the opera house. “But will this be
fair to the public?” Tang asked in the interview. “After all, this is not a
commercial undertaking but a key public policy project.” He also suggested that
ongoing bankruptcy issues facing the arts hub could potentially impact the
city’s aspirations to become an international cultural exchange center under China’s
14th five-year plan.
The former Chief Secretary has been
voicing his concerns about the WKCD’s finances since last August, predicting
that its HKD 21.6 billion (USD 3 billion) budget would run out by June 2025.
He also described already-implemented cuts to programing as “lifeblood
flowing out like a stream.”
The WKCDA has actively proposed
ways to increase revenue, including reviewing service charges, ticket prices, and
venue rental fees in order to bolster its financial situation. A spokesman for the Culture, Sports, and Tourism Bureau confirmed that it is seeking independent counsel, but has yet to approve any measures.
Anna Lentchner is assistant editor at ArtAsiaPacific.
