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Coronavirus Hong Kong
Hong KongHong Kong Economy

Covid-19 pushes Hong Kong arts groups to embrace technology, with help from HK$20 million fund

  • Sixty-eight projects get funding for ‘art tech’ experiments, with events lined up from later this month
  • Pandemic shut down arts events, but also spurred practitioners to get creative by using tech

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Dance Virtual@Tai Po, a performance combining Indian and Western dance, is expected to debut later this month. Photo: Handout
Denise TsangandKathleen Magramo
The show will go on at last for Benis Cheng’s dance project, after two years of delays caused first by the social unrest of 2019 and then the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dance Virtual@Tai Po, a performance combining Indian and Western dance, is expected to debut later this month. It will not be the on-location show she planned originally, but a digital production.

“It’s heartwarming that we can still create something positive when it seemed like the whole world stopped, especially in the arts industry,” said Cheng, a former banker who, in 2015, co-founded BEYOND Bollywood, a cultural exchange platform focused on dance.

Her group received HK$300,000 (US$38,460) last September from the Arts Development Council for its first digital performance. The statutory body which promotes art and culture selected 68 projects to share about HK$20 million in funding and test “art tech”, bringing together the arts and technology.

Cheng’s production features 10 professional dancers based in Hong Kong, including Indian and Nepalese performers. But half the funding went towards partnering film companies, web developers and virtual reality production firms.

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