The administrative culture of Hong Kong government is a combination of the British colonial culture and traditional Chinese culture on top of our own "harbor-desert culture" (which indicates that we do have the resources, but are lack of ideas of making use of them.) Being the hands of Hong Kong, the colonial culture allows the smooth running of the government administration. On the other hand, the traditional Chinese culture constructs the hidden core values in the heart of Hong Kong, and the "harbor-desert culture" functions as the brain and help Hong Kong think. These three cultures have been around and wrestling with each other. Depending on the political and social situation at the time being, one of these cultures would dominate over the others from time to time. The culture of "others" that construct the hands and heart actually is national characteristic. The "harbor-desert culture" for the brain has a strong locality though: it involves many dreams, but not enough self-esteem, and, therefore, can never escape from its own self-contradiction. With the dysfunction of its brain, the Hong Kong government has to let its hands and heart to go ahead of its brain most of the time.

In the example of the West Kowloon Cultural District, the government has a strong desire to make the district "international." It is willing to spend lots of money to buy the "international" hardware, but does not acknowledge the fact that the "international culture" vision cannot be bought at the same time. Another example is the proposal for bidding to host Asian Games in Hong Kong. Again, spending a couple hundred billion would allow us to build facilities with international standards, but fail to purchase an athletic culture with an international stance.

As a matter of fact, if the government does not impose obstruction on the development of local arts and culture, it is doing a favor for the local culture already. Not able to acknowledge this is one mistake of the government. Another two significant weaknesses are the lack of interdepartmental integration and coordination over the issues of cultural policy, and the lack of knowledge of the development of contemporary art. With this simple-minded culture ruling from above, a revolution by the people underneath would be the most rational reaction.

The topic of the "Cultural District" has been brought up for more than a decade. "Hong Kong culture" has been interpreted as the "bureaucratic culture," and the "consuming culture." After all , what kind of cultures our "Cultural District" needs? The answer probably lies in the hearts of those who work in the cultural scene, but not those who sit at the government office all day long. Many artists have had certain expectation and strong concern over the West Kowloon Cultural District, but are disappointed to learn that this "Cultural District" does not involve much cultural elements. The "Cultural District" may not be able to help develop " Hong Kong culture" in the future, but sure is able to expose the weaknesses of our simple-minded government. In order to give a brain-surgery to the Hong Kong government, it is essential for artists to start a bottom-up Cultural Revolution at West Kowloon today.

The current exhibition is the beginning of the Cultural Revolution at West Kowloon, and will exhibit provocative art pieces with prospectiveness. The exhibition opening will start at 6pm on the 19th November, 2010 (Fri) and the seminar will start at 6:30pm till 8pm at C&G Artpartment, and the exhibition will continue through 17th January, 2011. It is free of charge. The public is welcome to visit.