Hong Kong’s contemporary artists deserve a bigger stage in its museums

There has been much hyperventilating over two recent controversies at M+, Hong Kong’s museum of visual culture.

The first was a series of mahjong social nights charging museum members and patrons up to HK$2,500 (US$319) for a package including an exhibition tour, a meal and social tile-shuffling in the members’ lounge. Mahjong may have had a Chinamaxxing makeover in the West, but in Hong Kong, the game is still considered a tad unwholesome for a museum even when no money changed hands.

Frankly, if M+ wants to hold pai gow tournaments or caai mui drinking games in its fabulous but underused members’ lounge to build community and generate revenue, let it. As for the “private club” claim, the HK$300-600 membership fee it charges for year-round admission and lounge access doesn’t exactly grant elite status.

The second incident was the last-minute cancellation of a performance by singer-songwriter Wong Hin-yan – who has a history of supporting local protests – in an evening music programme. This is more worrying as it bore the hallmarks of an opaque blacklisting of Hong Kong creative talent since the introduction of the national security law.

M+ has not provided any explanation; Wong has taken to social media to say it was not his decision to cancel. As Wong posted, “it is what it is”, and it may not be something the M+ team would necessarily have control over in the current political environment.

Meanwhile, there is a little-discussed scandal that plagues both M+ and the government-run Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), and one the institutions can fix. That is their chronic, baffling resistance to mount major, academically rigorous solo exhibitions for Hong Kong’s living contemporary artists – something that became painfully clear to Hong Kong visitors at the recent Seoul Art Week.

Rarely do you see Hong Kong shine the spotlight on individual local artists to help elevate them to the global stage. The two museums have had group shows of Hong Kong art, and M+ will have a major show on local cultural influences since the 1970s next March, but these do not go deep enough to allow for a proper appreciation of each artist’s practice. And while M+ in particular has presented solo shows of Hong Kong artists at the Venice Biennale, these are, alas, relatively small, stand-alone projects.