Dr Jay Xu of San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum says the city needs to build on its deep sense of local history
OLIVER.CHOU@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Friday, 25 March, 2016, 9:07pm
Dr Jay Xu has great respect for Hong Kong’s role in the art world. Photo: Nora Tam
Hong Kong should strive to sustain its dual identity as a global platform based on vibrant local culture to stay unique and competitive, a top American-Chinese art expert has advised.
Dr Jay Xu, director and CEO of the San Francisco-based Asian Art Museum, said he was upbeat about the city’s combined traits that could be powerful and rewarding.
“What I’d like to see Hong Kong becoming is a global platform based on a deep sense of local history, and that could be very powerful for the globally minded people whose interest starts with unique and local culture. That’s the very strength of Hong Kong,” said the Shanghai native based in the US since 1990.
Xu, a Princeton PhD leading the Asian Art Museum since 2008, cited his home city of San Francisco as a case in point on dual identity.
“San Francisco is unique as a frontier city on the west coast with a long history of an Asian, especially Chinese, community. It’s not conflicting to focus on the local community and aiming to be a global leader. That’s how you compete,” he said.
“Globalism starts in one’s own neighbourhood, and I think Hong Kong’s unique positioning is very much a marriage of a strong local heritage with a cosmopolitan global platform. That’s something no city in this region can match,” he said.
All this, he said, put Hong Kong in a privileged position as “the gateway to Asia”, just as San Francisco was a major gateway to Asia on the other side of the Pacific.
The 52-year old was aware of the recent turbulence in Hong Kong, including last month’s Mong Kok riot. But he was undeterred.
“Regardless of what happens in life, art and artists always find their expression in challenging or peaceful times. It’s up to us to observe and discover,” he said.
“Of course major incidents grabbed people’s attention. But art is always happening and creating. It transcends all politics and difficulties. I look at art every single day,” he laughed.
A good example to show Hong Kong’s unique role that surpassed political barriers was the forthcoming exhibition in San Francisco of rare treasures from the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
“Without the Hong Kong-based Robert Ho Family Foundation, the exhibition would not have been financially possible,” said Xu, curator of the exhibition called the Emperors’ Treasures that feature collections from nine rulers from the Song to the Qing dynasties, including the exquisite “Meat-shaped Stone” which will be in the US for the first time.
The exhibition, which runs from June to September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the museum, will be the second collaboration the foundation has sponsored since the Ming Dynasty collections from Beijing’s Palace Museum were exhibited in 2008.
“We have no problem using the full name of the National Palace Museum, which is its legal name and we need to respect that,” he said, referring to the recent debate in Hong Kong on removing the word “national” in Taiwanese artist profiles.
Ted Lipman, the foundation’s CEO, said engaging both museums in Beijing and Taipei was a testament to Hong Kong’s unique role.
“I don’t think we could do what we do if we were anywhere else in China. These two museums can’t even lend [collections] to each other,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1930943/hong-kong-must-strive-maintain-its-dual-identity
