Hong Kong’s Arts Hub Turns to Selling Land to Stay Afloat
In a city where real estate has long ruled the economy and the cultural scene remains fledgling, the West Kowloon Cultural District is deepening its reliance on property in order to generate revenues.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum at the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong on Sept. 1.
Photographer: Chan Long Hei/BloombergIn 1998, a year after the return of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China, the city’s government conceived an ambitious goal for the financial hub: to build an arts district to rival some of the world’s top cultural destinations.
Today, the West Kowloon Cultural District — a reclaimed area on Victoria Harbour around one-tenth of Manhattan’s Central Park in size — remains unfinished. Construction sites sit alongside museums like M+, which houses modern art, and the Palace Museum, an offshoot of the Beijing institution, as well as performance spaces like Xiqu Centre, a concert hall dedicated to Chinese opera.