• Post 90s’ Art in the City of Casinos
    By Kam Leong, Anthea Tam, Cat Leong and Vanlita Lei

    What else is left in this city besides casinos?

    Many people questioned, while some others claimed, “We got more than that, like the culture and art industry.” Generation Y - a generation that grew up in the years of Macao is experi­encing a gigantic change. How do they see the development of art in this gambling city?

    Fok Hoi Seng is a 23-year-old local artist. Some pieces of his art series Paradise were selected in an international illustration exhibition, known as the Oscar’s in illustration field - The Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2013.

    As the first illustrator in Macao winning this kind of international award, Fok considered the de­velopment of art in Macao is still at the beginning stage though the subsidies from the government have increased in the recent years.

    “They are trying to bring art into society so everyone can see and learn about it. It is good for a long-term development of course. It may stimulate children’s interests in art and some of them may study art when they grow up,” said Fok.
    Fok perceived the root of the slow development of art lies in the fact that people have low interest in art. “Frankly, it is very easy to build a world-class art museum in Macao. However, how many people will visit there? From my experience, peo­ple in Western countries are more willing to pay a few hundred dollars for the entrance fee and queue for art exhibitions. Here in Macao, the entrance fee only costs a few dollars, but still, there are not many museum goers,” Fok said with a slight frustration.

    According to an online survey on generation Y’s opinions on Macao art industry, which was conducted by Year 4 English Communication students at University of Macau in October, nearly 80% of the 84 respondents hold positive attitudes to­wards the development of art.

    “I noticed the promotion of art events from the government is more visible than before. It helps attracting people to par­ticipate in these events, at least it works on me,” said Crystal Lee, a Year 1 university student.

    “As I observe, people here always complain about casinos blocking developments of other industries. I disagree with it. For the art indus­try, if you open your eyes wider, you can see there are tons of different kinds of arts in the casinos, even in their restrooms,” said Cristiano Tavares, a 25-year-old Portuguese who moved to Macao one year ago.
    Moreover, more than 50% of the respondents said they attended art courses outside schools. And nearly 60% said that schools did not provide enough opportunities for them to develop art.
    However, Fok noticed many schools in Macao are placing more re­sources in art. “When I was a high-school student, well, it was only a few years ago, there were not many schools having professional art facilities for students. But now, most of them have,” said Fok.

    Fok also pointed out that casinos actually boost the development of art, “The casinos hold art exhibitions occasionally. And they collect many pieces of art, most of which are very valuable.”
    According to the data offered by Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES), the number of freshmen registering in bachelor courses of culture and art keeps increasing each year. There were 638 freshmen in 2011/2012, around 30% more than that of 2010/2012.
    Apart from that, the number of attendance to culture and art exhibi­tions in 2012 reached almost 150,000, a big jump from 2011, when the number was only around 60,000, by Statistics and Census Service (DSEC).
    “The industry is getting more appreciated. Yet, to its well-developed stage, it requires efforts of more than one generation. We may only see this a few decades later, no one knows. Anyway, I am confident in the art industry in Macao,” concluded Fok.

     

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    The World-class Illustration - Paradise
    Paradise, a collection of illustrations created by Fok Hoi Seng, is a blend of Macao ancient maps and modern social problems.

    The idea appeared in Fok’s mind in 2011, when he wondered what it would be like if the traffic problems nowadays happened 100 years ago, “Two-thirds of land in Macao is reclamation. Macao was only a little fishing village many years ago. If you wanted to go to Taipa from Macao, you had to take a ferry. I wonder if people then ever imagined we could even walk to Taipa a few hundred years later,” said Fok.

    Facing the insolvable traffic problem, Fok decided to put numerous buses in one of the ancient maps, as a way of complaint. That is Paradise No.11, one of the illustrations selected in The Bologna Children’s Book Fair 2013.
    Macao not equals to casinos
    Everything Fok draws is about Macao. Hence, he wants to hold his exhibitions in other places so more people will know about this city. “In whatever places I have been to, when I mentioned Macao, people would say it is a casino city. I wish people would change to say Macao is a city of taste and culture one day,” Fok hoped.

    Everyone has their own paradise
    “For outsiders, Macao is developing very well. Everyone seems to have a stable job and a prosperous life. You can hardly be un­employed, but is this kind of the life in your paradise? It is easy to earn money in Macao, but can money buy happiness? Not really. You sometimes cannot reach your paradise even if you are rich. The paradise in everyone’s mind is different.”