The golden era of Hong Kong films and Cantopop was in the 1980s and 1990s, when directors such as Wong Kar Wai and actors like Tony Leung and Jackie Chan took to Western theatres while superstars such as Leslie Cheung and Anita Mui led the region’s pop culture.
Last year, the Christmas holiday slump for Hong Kong films sent a worrying signal, with a 20-year box office low. One reason is a surge in Hongkongers travelling again after three years of COVID-19. Border reopening also means more choices for pop concerts outside the city.
CHINA’S LONG SHADOW ON CREATIVITY?
But with the sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 that curtailed civic freedoms and silenced dissent and another new security law in the brewing, the long shadow on Hong Kong’s creativity remains.
Domestic films have been barred from public screening locally under a 2021 film censorship law. Over the past months, two of Hong Kong’s most prominent lyricists have moved abroad.
And earlier this month, a leading performing arts academy in Hong Kong abruptly cancelled a scheduled drama performance of the Nobel literature prizewinner Dario Fo’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, citing “legal risks”.