Opinion | Art and sexual taboos: when Hong Kong Museum of Art censors local works, what does it say about equality and inclusion?
- An award-winning video depicting a woman in a vagina costume is hidden behind a curtain at the Hong Kong Museum of Art
- The heavy-handed censorship shows the city has a long way to go in the fight for equality
Critics of M+ insist that, national security law aside, its collection is problematic because it features “pornography” and portrayals of homosexuality that they consider to be indecent and obscene.
There will always be art in any city around the world that can upset social conservatives. But here in Hong Kong, I fear the latter are winning the battle, to the detriment of our cultural life.
Over the past year, my nine-year-old son Jet and I have regularly visited the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) except for when it had to close between waves of Covid-19 case spikes. Yet, every time we came close to our favourite work there, which is in the “Hong Kong Experience. Hong Kong Experiment” exhibition that has been extended until May 30, we were inevitably discouraged from even going near it together.
In a small corner of the second floor is Rati version 3.2 (2001), a video by Hong Kong artist Phoebe Man Ching-ying that is hidden behind curtains where a uniformed security guard stands sentry. When we went, a large sign read: “The video explores gender issues and contains sexual content. For persons aged 18 years or above only.”