bc magazine

Art Basel, Treasure or Trash

After a two-year absence, courtesy of covid Art Basel returns as a physical event… Although with travel quarantine measures still in place many of the regular Art Basel participants are not here.

If we’re being honest – among art aficionados, the amount of hot air often overpowers the strongest aircon – this year’s Art Basel was simply boring.

While art is very subjective and personal and what you like I may not. Art Basel usually has a fair number of pieces that even if you don’t like them they get you thinking or stimulate discussion. This year it was a bit like walking through Ikea it was all so bland, safe and derivative. Not to mention that most participating artists were of the idea that big, bigger and biggest will be ‘more better’ (and profitable).

Here are a few pieces that were less ordinary than the rest, more can be found here:

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220526-Art-Basel/i-wnPCBkm

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220526-Art-Basel/i-r5RN4cF

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220526-Art-Basel/i-mh9PWSW

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220526-Art-Basel/i-Q4K6J29

https://bcmagazine.smugmug.com/Bcene-photos/2022/20220526-Art-Basel/i-JzdkgxJ

Ghost Bikes Memorial

James Ockenden’s “ghost bikes” project remembers the nine cyclists who lost their lives on Hong Kong’s roads last year. White painted bikes with white silk flowers and a memorial card with details of the person who died were placed at each of the fatal accident spots.

Ockenden, who organised the ghost bike memorial after the annual Ride of Silence 2022 was made a virtual event, said of the people who died – I think it is important to remember that these accident victims were not racing, but just getting around in an easy and environmental-friendly way, and we should be supporting that as a community.

The Ride of Silence is an annual international bicycle ride that pays tribute those killed or injured when cycling on public roads. The ride had been held in Hong Kong on the third Wednesday of May for the last 16 years.

After the 2021 memorial ride organised by the Hong Kong Cycling Alliance, the police accused riders of violating Covid-19 social distancing rules and ticketed everyone.

The Ride of Silence 2022 livestream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NBihAt2Pao

Ride of Silence 2022
Date: 7pm, 18 May, 2022
Venue: Hong Kong
Tickets: Free

images: hkghostbikes

Press Freedom Plunges….

Hong Kong’s ‘press freedom’ has plunged 68 places to 148th (out of 180) since the implementation of the National Security Law as government critics are jailed and publications silenced.

The 20th World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reveals a large increase in polarisation amplified by information chaos – that is, media polarisation fuelling and feeding divisions within and between countries.

The spread of ‘opinion media’ and disinformation are amplified by the way social media functions and are creating extreme polarisation of views with an unrepresented and unlistened to middle ground.

“At the international level, democracies are being weakened by the asymmetry between open societies and despotic regimes that control their media and online platforms while waging propaganda wars against democracies.”

Reporters Without Borders defines press freedom as “the effective possibility for journalists, as individuals and as groups, to select, produce and disseminate news and information in the public interest, independently from political, economic, legal and social interference, and without threats to their physical and mental safety.”

In order to reflect press freedom’s complexity, five indicators are used to compile the Index: the political context, legal framework, economic context, sociocultural context, and security.

image: The Korea Herald

Gloria Ha Wins Silver Medal at World Bowls Indoor Championships

Twenty-year-old Gloria Ha won a silver medal in the women’s singles at the inaugural World Bowls Indoor Championships – after the merging of World Bowls’ (WB) and the International Indoor Bowls Council’s (IIBC) flagship events – in Bristol.

Ha topped the round-robin group stage and defeated Ireland’s
Lara Reaney in the first knockout round. She went on to face former World
Champion Alison Merrien from Guernsey in the quarter-final and needed an extra end victory to get through to the semi-final, where she defeated another Irish player Sandra Bailie comfortably at 10:3, 10:5.

In the final Ha faced Scotland’s Julie Forrest and struggled against some fine draw play and was never really in the match losing 9:4, 10:2.

In the men’s singles, Arthur Lam finished as runner-up in his group but lost in the first knockout round to Ian Merrien.

In the mixed pairs, Lam and Ha won two matches to finish second in their group, narrowly missing out on the quarter-finals.

Life in Hong Kong’s Prisons During the Pandemic

American lawyer Samuel Bickett recently deported from Hong Kong at the completion of his prison sentence, has written about life in Hong Kong’s prisons during Covid.

On 22 April 2022 Bickett applied to the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal to appeal his 2021 assault conviction.

“The Black Box: My Experience in Hong Kong’s Prisons During the Pandemic Lockdown

Prisoners have been harmed more by pandemic lockdown measures than by Covid

My intention is for this to be the first in a series of articles about my second stint in Hong Kong’s prisons earlier this year. In truth, I’ve found it more traumatic than expected to recall and write about these events, so I’ll make no guarantees about future articles. But there is a lot to tell, and I promise I will do my best to share it with you.

A cancer-stricken 75 year-old political detainee housed in the same cell as me at Lai Chi Kok Prison had his court hearing cancelled and was forced to remain locked up without bail, and without any indication of when he’d be able to seek release.

Hundreds of prisoners at Stanley Prison were locked alone in tiny cells for six weeks, only permitted out briefly every other day for a shower.

A dead prisoner’s corpse was left in a shared cell for hours, as other prisoners bunched together on the furthest wall in the small room to avoid getting too close… ”

Read the full article here samuelbickett.substack.com/p/the-black-box-my-experience-in-hong

Alternative Smoking Products Banned from 30 April, 2022

The amended Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap 371) which prohibits the import, promotion, manufacture, sale and possession for commercial purposes of alternative smoking products (ASPs) takes effect from 30 April 2022.

“The ban covers electronic smoking products, heated tobacco products, herbal cigarettes, and their accessories. Starting this Saturday, Tobacco and Alcohol Control Inspectors will conduct inspections, investigate complaints and carry out enforcement actions accordingly,” said a spokesman for the Department of Health (DH). Offenders are subject to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months.

According to the amended Ordinance, import of an ASP by way of parcels, cargoes or bringing in by incoming travellers is prohibited. Travellers bringing ASPs into Hong Kong, regardless of the quantity or whether they are for personal use, must declare them to the Customs and Excise Department.

The amendment also makes it an offence to smoke or carry an activated ASP in a statutory no-smoking area. Offenders will face a $1,500 fixed penalty notice.

The Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office (TACO) has published a pamphlet to assist the public, incoming travellers and traders in complying with the new legislative requirements.

If you wish to quit smoking you can call the DH’s Integrated Smoking Cessation Hotline on 1833 183 which offers professional counselling services on smoking cessation. Information on quitting smoking can also be obtained from www.livetobaccofree.hk.

Actor Kenneth Tsang Dies in Quarantine

Actor Kenneth Tsang Koon-yat 曾江 died in a quarantine hotel yesterday, the 87-year-old actor had flown in from Singapore and tested positive for covid.

Tsang was born in Shanghai and became an actor in the 1950s starring in many popular films during the 60s. In the 80s appearing with Chow Yun-Fat in A Better Tomorrow and its sequel, and films like John Woo’s The Killer and Rush Hour 2 raised Tsang’s international profile and saw him appear in The Replacement Killers in the James Bond film Die Another Day.

In his 50-year career, Tsang appeared in over 200 films, directing three.

Tsang has a star on the Avenue of Stars on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront.

Satirical Cartoonist Ah To Forced to Flee Hong Kong

Satirical cartoonist 阿塗 Ah To has announced that he has been forced to leave Hong Kong because he no longer feels safe…

A statement on Ah To’s facebook page explains his reasons for leaving so abruptly:

抱歉，離開香港，係因為我想繼續為香港創作。

呢句說話聽落好自相矛盾，但我內心又真係咁複雜矛盾。如今靈魂遺留在故地，肉體卻已經流亡，要咁撕裂地創作，只擔心往後的作品會魂不附體，難接地氣；但，留喺香港創作時事漫畫，精神壓力巨大，離別係逼不得已的抉擇。

畫咗十一年時事漫畫，2017年社運低潮時有諗過放棄；2021年有諗過轉型畫生活題材，但依家係香港最需要同時又最唔需要時事漫畫的時候，所以我更想堅持。原諒我軟弱無能，只能遙距透過創作繼續與香港同行。

因為離別匆匆，而且必須低調，遺憾無法同朋友一一話別。諗起再會無期的香港親友，諗起在囚或待審的戰友，諗起一直支持我的讀者，諗起要被迫陪我一齊走難的太太⋯⋯心裏非常愧疚。未試過出一個Post 會感到如此吃力，每一個字都令我難過。我會記住呢份愧疚，多替不能發聲的人發聲，希望將來香港歷史書上唔會留低一片靜默；日後提起呢個時代，唔會只剩當代人先能夠理解的零碎記憶，欠缺咗自由的表述，感觸或無從說起。

願良善的人珍重，以各種形式將良善存留下去。

English translation:

“I’m sorry. I’m leaving Hong Kong because I want to continue creating art for HK.

This sounds paradoxical, but that’s reflective of how I feel inside. My soul remains here, but my flesh has fled. I am concerned that my art may be detached from reality once I begin creating with my soul detached from my flesh, but the pressure of continuing to make topical comics in Hong Kong is too great, I am forced to leave.

I’ve been making topical comics for 11 years, I’ve thought about giving up in 2017 when the social movement was at a low point. I considered transitioning to more slice of life topics in 2021, but that was when HK least and most needed topical comics, I wanted to hang in there. Forgive me, I am weak, I can only accompany HK by creating art from afar.

I had to leave in a hurry, and must keep a low profile, so I regret not being able to bid all my friends farewell. I feel much guilt when I think of my readers who’ve supported me all the way, our comrades who are imprisoned or awaiting trial, and my wife who’s forced to flee with me.

I had no idea posting this would be so difficult, every word I type makes me so sad. I shall carry this guilt with me and speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves.

I hope that the history books of HK will not be filled with silence. In the future, as we try to remember what happened, we’ll have more to rely on beyond the fragmented memories of people who were there. Without expression free, it’s hard to express our feelings.

Take care kind folk, and may kindness be preserved in its many forms.”