Geographically speaking, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are in the same region; politically speaking, the twin cities personify the best of the mutually exclusive systems of capitalism and socialism.
For more than 25 years, Hong Kong has been benefitting from its unique status under “one country, two systems”. As the city accelerates its integration with the mainland, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, or “one region, two cities”, are turning out to be the “dynamic duo” that are meant to be miracle makers with the spirit of innovation.
General Secretary Xi Jinping charted the route to modernity in the history-making 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as regarding “science and technology as our primary productive force, talent as our primary resource, and innovation as our primary driver of growth”. Both Hong Kong and Shenzhen boast the triple potential in science, technology and talents.
Technology is the fundamental driving force of social, cultural and economic development. The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with the twin cities as two of the biggest players among the city clusters, has a ready-made solid foundation of technological ecology, from manufacturing to a network system; from digital currency to the gaming industry. The region is now home to almost all key technological brand names in the world. The future of technological development goes beyond technology itself; it’s about upgrading technology from commercialization to cultural innovation.
Arts tech is the key to facilitate cultural innovation. The endgame is to build Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area soft power with a global impact. With the city’s rich tradition of content/arts making history, Hong Kong should play a leading role. The special administrative region, therefore, must partner with the tech capital city of Shenzhen and form a cross-boundary superhub of the burgeoning arts-tech industry.
A “Shenzhen-Hong Kong super arts-tech hub” should be the key strategy. The dynamic duo can complement each other by teaming the talents of arts, design and tech. To achieve the aforementioned goal, I hereby propose the following five approaches:
First, transform the new deserted border area, or the “Hetao” area, into a vigorous industry park housing arts-tech creative media companies. The park of creativity focuses on three areas, including extended-reality (XR) film and TV production, entertainment and stage tech, and smart city research and development. The park should offer a platform in which Hong Kong content talents could materialize their new ideas into media products adopting the latest XR production tech. The time-honored tradition of content creation that has been nurtured and treasured in Hong Kong needs a new platform that merges new tech with the traditional mode. The park of creativity should aim at serving the events and convention industry, and the large-scale sports and entertainment activities. The park can accommodate startup players in providing lighting, sound and events-production services.
The smart city design and research demands research labs to facilitate the experiments in audio, visual, motion capture and network integration. The cross-disciplinary labs attract the experts, including urban planners, engineers, designers and architects, to test innovative equipment and make experiments.
Arts tech needs artists and technicians to flourish. Setting up a “GBA Arts Tech Academy” for recruiting and nurturing talents in both arts and high-tech across China and neighboring countries would be an effective approach to pursue sustainable growth in the fledging art and tech industry. The teaching focus should be on the practical/applying skills in digital and analog creation that could serve the TV film, entertainment, theme park, gaming and animation industry. The endgame is to build up a talent pool and team of technicians and artists that can acquire the skills of both arts and technology. The strength of soft power lies not only in the gifted individuals but also can be unleashed through team building. Team building in this aspect, as we know, starts from education.
Another talent nurturing program I propose is setting up an academy for digital visual arts in the GBA. Currently, there are three national visual arts academies in China: the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. Hong Kong and Shenzhen should set up one of their own for the digital visual-arts education to boost the industry in the GBA. It’s worthwhile for the proposed academy to integrate the traditional Chinese arts with cutting-edge technology to reinvent a new culture of traditional Chinese visual art featured with the tone of digitalized post-modernity.
To expedite the development of arts tech, university-industry-research collaboration is the key. A research center with its branches established both in Shenzhen and Hong Kong would facilitate collaboration and commercialization. The research team of the duo cities is encouraged to examine the modes and methodologies on synergizing universities and the industries in a practical way. The Arts Tech Research Centre could cover various disciplines, including but not limited to artificial intelligence, immersive audio, mix reality ARXR, kinetic arts, wireless network integration and the MIT Media Lab.
A GBA arts and culture think tank would serve as a platform to incubate new ideas and experiment on different modes of arts-tech policy; to research and collect data, content and materials on other countries’ arts-tech strategy, e.g., AI, IP, big data. It’s essential for the GBA to deliberate on how to create an innovative public policy that could create better policy and a legal framework that allows new form of innovation to flourish and thrive.
It’s of paramount importance that the SAR government recognizes the necessity of positioning Hong Kong and Shenzhen as a super arts-tech hub. Once realized, the duet of the sister cities, with the input of Hong Kong artists in their content and arts creations, the SAR’s financial and legal potential to tap into, coupled with Shenzhen’s prowess in technology, will whip the two cosmopolitan cities into a true “international duo centers of arts and innovation” that will build the muscle of our nation’s soft power.
The author is a member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies and artistic director of Zuni Icosahedron.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.