HKFP reports…
The managing body of the West Kowloon Cultural District cancelled an LGBTQ-themed play on Saturday, hours before tickets went on sale, after complaints alleging the drama “defames Hong Kong.”
The production team of the play We Are Gay, written by award-winning playwright Candace Chong, said in a statement on Saturday that the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) notified them of the cancellation at around 9am that day, roughly two hours before tickets were to go on sale.
…In an emailed reply to HKFP, the WKCDA said on Saturday that it had received “a large number of complaints,” which alleged the play “promotes confrontation and defames Hong Kong.”
“To be prudent, the Authority considers it inappropriate to stage the programme at [the West Kowloon Cultural District]’s venues,” it added.
Separately, the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau told HKFP on Saturday that it had been consulted by the WKCDA and that it supported and consented to the venue’s decision.
…State-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po published a commentary article on Saturday, alleging that Chong “stirred political confrontation under the guise of a cultural worker and incited social division.”
The article also criticised the WKCDA for allowing Chong’s play to be staged in the Xiqu Centre.
We Are Gay was first performed as part of the Hong Kong Arts Festival in 2022.
What’s going on here? You might think that Wen Wai Po, acting as a watchdog against ‘soft resistance’, drew attention to the drama because it dislikes the playwright, and someone took this as a cue to complain, resulting in the WKCDA and its government Bureau overseers hurriedly disowning the planned performances. But who knows?
The Wen Wei Po commentary is quite something. It mentions that Candace Chong worked with a group connected to the Hong Kong Alliance with Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung, reposted a statement by the authors of the lambs and wolves cartoon book, ‘fled’ Hong Kong, having the backing of a ‘red-bearded, green-eyed foreigner’, writing plays aimed at Hongkongers in the UK, and being among the ranks of ‘shameless people who call themselves intellectuals but are actually accomplices of evil’.
“What’s going on here?”
The Party are traumatized by the very idea of pee-pees in boy bum-bums, not unlike most of the western world 50 years ago. It horrifies them almost as much as gray hair.
In addition, they are absolute masters of the Streisand effect.
“A red-bearded, green-eyed foreigner” – crude racial stereotyping from people who’d be the first to complain if a western publication called them “slitty-eyed”. I wonder how many of the “large number of people” complaining have actually seen the play?
Wait. If I’m not wrong, it was first performed in 2022. How is it more dangerous now than 3 years ago at the same festival?
Makes you wonder how much Grindr is surfed on in government offices during the workday and in the chambers of Legco?
No wonder West Kowloon is bleeidng cash. This is the second gay event it dumped recently, Pink Dot was cancelled because the organizer was denied the venue without explanation.
Turning away this affluent, mostly DINK, sector of the community makes no sense whatsoever from a revenue perspective.
As for the ‘moral’ angle, this in a city where prostitution is rife, gambling encouraged by the government and drugs delivered to the door .
Any pretensions to be ‘the cultural arts hub of Asia’ down the toilet as it is clear that any event can be victim to the whims of a bunch of ALWAYS ANONYMOUS bigots.
Like LKF, best to steer clear of the district.
@Theatre Critic
It’s to do with the The Ladder of Privilege. White able-bodied straight male at the top, white able-bodied straight females underneath, white male able bodied-gay about the same, and so on down until you get to disabled female lesbian person of colour. The basic rule is you can punch up but not punch down.
So it’s allowable for an Asian to slag off a male Caucasian but not okay the other way. (I guess it could be a problem if it’s a straight able bodied Chinese male having a dig at a gay disabled white guy as they would have about the same number of oppression points, but hey.)
So according to the brain-dead hacks at Wen Wei Po, the hated Candace Chong had the backing of a “red-bearded, green-eyed foreigner”.
Well all I can say about that is that it’s nice to see Prince Harry doing something useful for a change.
Makes you proud.
@reductio
That ladder of bullshit is part of the reason the west is declining and increasingly uncompetitive. Lots of stupid hand wringing when the reality is we live in a competitive world where CCP is quickly overtaking the west through aggressive competition that the certified euroweaniers and incompetent MAGAs are unable to push back on.
So I’ll punch up, down and all the way around and ignore pointless niceties if someone is being a cunt.