Playwright Candace Chong and artistic director Chan Chu-hei worry that ban on word ‘national’ in Taipei university name in artist bio marks start of trend towards government interference
TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Wednesday, 23 March, 2016, 11:48am
Candace Chong (left) and Chan Chu-hei discussed the issue on on RTHK on Wednesday morning. Photos: Dickson Lee, SCMP Pictures
Hong Kong artists are worried that artistic freedom in the city could be under threat from political interference, a playwright and a theatre director said on Wednesday morning.
Freelance playwright Candace Chong Mui-ngam, spokeswoman for concern group Artists Action, and Chan Chu-hei, artistic director of Theatre Horizon, were speaking a day after Secretary for Home Affairs Lau Kong-wah was criticised for his “empty response” to public anger over the government prohibiting a producer from publishing the full name of her Taiwanese alma mater in a programme leaflet as it contained the word “national”.
It also emerged on Tuesday that this was not the first time such restrictions had been imposed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
The department had allegedly asked Suie Lo Shuk-yin, the executive producer of a play, not to use the full name of her alma mater, the Taipei National University of the Arts, in her artist biography.
Speaking on RTHK on Wednesday morning, Chong said: “I am worried whether this is another step to interfere and narrow down [our space], and that artists could wonder whether there are things they should not say in their work ... because many of them are government-subsidised.”
She said there had been concern over the political climate in recent years due to issues such as diminishing press freedom.
“I am very worried whether the shadow over the press, television and filmmaking is now spreading to us,” she added.
Chan said: “We have been enjoying freedom in the creative arts, and I believe there was no censorship of our content, or requests for us to change any content ... so we need to make sure if this incident is the start of a trend.”
Speaking separately on the radio programme, cultural sector lawmaker Ma Fung-kwok agreed that the government should come clean on the matter.
“It was only a factual description of an artist about the name of an university ... I don’t see why it could be problematic,” Ma said.
But he also said the incident had “little to do with artistic freedom”.
“It could be caused by some officials being too nervous because some radicals have been advocating the city’s independence recently,” he said.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was once again questioned by the media about the controversy before he left for the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference on Wednesday morning, but he said the home affairs minister had already responded on Tuesday.
“We will continue to review the matter,” he added.
Lau spent less than two minutes on Tuesday reading a prepared statement in Chinese and English, saying the authorities had maintained close relations with different art groups and would look into improving communication with them. He did not mention the controversy and refused to answer questions.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1929337/hong-kong-artists-fear-threat-artistic-freedom
