The Fringe Club’s lease at the historic Ice House building expires next year. They can apply for renewal, but there are conditions. The tenant henceforth must ‘safeguard national security’ and…
…be able to terminate contracts with anyone they engage if their contractors acted “contrary to the interest of national security.”
“The objectives are to build a sustainable ecosystem for the arts, culture and creative industries to thrive so as to strengthen our role as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange as positioned by the Central People’s Government in the 14th Five-Year Plan” the [Culture, Sports and Tourism] bureau said.
The Fringe has not had any remotely political exhibitions in decades (that I remember). But there are some 20 other groups hoping to apply for the premises – and some of them might be more into Five Year Plans.
And should the government be providing space for art, anyway? The Security Secretary says ‘artistic creation’ is commonly used by those seeking to endanger national security.
In other NatSec stuff, in case you missed any of it… Nathan Law’s sister-in-law taken in for questioning. (In my limited experience, siblings’ spouses would more than happily grass on you, but maybe that’s just me.) And Anna Kwok’s brothers taken in etc. Remember ‘six degrees of separation’.
Some mid-week links…
Hong Kong’s ‘pro-business’ group the Liberal Party wants the government to encourage the middle class to have more children. No riffraff, please.
CMP on the London Brick Lane graffiti saga…
The graffiti in Brick Lane bore such a striking resemblance to the official, state-sponsored versions so ubiquitous in China that some wondered whether it wasn’t a form of “high-level black” (高級黑) parody — referring in China’s political culture to the use of exaggerated praise on the surface in what is actually an act of criticism.
RFA on Beijing’s efforts to displace critical Chinese-language media in New Zealand.
On a similar subject – from a few weeks ago in the WaPo, a (probably paywalled) story on how Beijing’s United Front influences Singapore’s Chinese-language media and community…
Propagating a pro-China line that “doesn’t distinguish between the Chinese Communist Party state, Chinese culture, Chinese ethnicity” creates “confusion over self-identification and where loyalties should lie, especially at a time where friction between the PRC, the U.S. and other U.S. friends and allies in the region are increasing,” said Chong, of the National University of Singapore.
…Elderly Chinese, who were Mandarin-educated and feel as if they’ve lost their place in a Singapore that is largely Anglophone, are the most easily swayed by Beijing’s messaging, analysts and residents said. One person who describes her parents, in their 70s and 80s, as having “extreme” pro-China views said the CCP has become like a “fictional hero.”
A think-tanker quotes a senior Chinese finance and social media figure…
“Jews have monopolized the US economy, media & film industry…half of silicon valley is owned by them…many US universities are basically financed and controlled by Jews” – Xiang Songzuo, ex-chief econ at the Agricultural Bank of CN and People’s Bank of China dep. Director.
Currently, Xiang is head of the Shenzhen-based Greater Bay Area Financial Research Inst. and a prof. at Renmin U’s School of Finance. The preceding and following quotes are said with genuine admiration for Jews, not malice, demonstrating the fine line b/w philo/antisemitism.
Map of the Day: none of the countries that surrounded Poland before 1990 exist today.
The Fringe is right next to that nest of subversion called, I believe, the Foreign Co-Respondents’ Club because of the number of adulterers, fornicators and barristers it houses. Expect the big stick to come out then. Sad inadequate HK policemen do like a new victim to bully, prod, document and harass.
On another matter, I was moved to a flood of tears to witness the heartfelt, stout and vociferous defence meted out to noble Dolly Parton by a commentator in your columns yesterday. I was wondering if the same commentator also admires the late Tammy Wynette, co-author and singer of that wonderfully inspirational ballad “Stand By Your Man”. Ms Wynette did indeed stand by her husband. All five of them.
“…centre for international cultural exchange as positioned by the Central People’s Government in the 14th Five-Year Plan”
Fucking GOLD. This kind of bullshit is just too perfect.
And what is even the point to “strengthen our role as an East-meets-West centre” when we all know EVERYTHING from the West is nothing more than evil foreign meddling???
Well to be fair, angelic Ms Parton has a still running 56 year marriage.
Another tidbit in that linked RTHK article about the Liberal Party: we should stage MAGIC SHOWS to save Hong Kong’s nightlife!
Foolish me! Of course, it was the severe lack of mimes and magicians that were stopping me from going out! And here I was thinking that it was the prohibitive cost/lack of value for money and the fact that any half-decent place inevitably shuts down the minute the landlord sees that it draws a crowd and jacks up rents. Glad my misconceptions are being corrected!
“High-level black” is good, and a good phrase. It is a kind of irony which is hard to recognize – one can never be sure.
After the businessman Xiao Jianhua was abducted from the Four Seasons Hotel, in 2017, he issued, from China, a statement saying: ““I think the Chinese government is a civilized, rule-of-law government, do not be mistaken! There was no such case of me being abducted to the mainland.”
What did he really mean?
What makes those nightlife entrepreneurs think that the taxpayers owe them a living?
Dolly Parton is no good. Check!
RFK Jr. is no good. Check!
Donald Trump is no good. Check!
Oxbridge LGBTQIAAP climate change motherfuckers? Our kind of people!
To your six degree of separation comment – it is only a matter of time before we’ve all been brought in for questioning. Surprised they haven’t just gone neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block like they did with COVID tests.
Good laugh during the late news.
DAB ‘stirring up quarrels’ outside the Jap consulate while down the street reporter asks yer typical blond callow youth if he will avoid seafood. Response, ‘doesn’t care if his sperm count drops as he is not going to have kids’.
They have their work cut out. Frozen sperm for blue grannies is probably the only likely boost to the birth rate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!