ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a study of the articulation and implementation of Hong Kong’s cultural and creative industries policies. The observations are as follows: First, against the backdrop of economic transformation, cultural and creative industry policies in Hong Kong are biased towards macroeconomic, industrial and hardware infrastructure and structural formation, neglecting the individual “units” of Hong Kong’s cultural and industrial industries, i.e. creative labour, both artistic and craft labour (Banks 2010). Second, under the global discourse of “creativity”, especially that of Richard Florida (2002) and Charles Landry (2000), cultural and creative industry policies in Hong Kong are based on the vague concept of “creativity” as a panacea. It is also assumed that “creativity” is a singular concept, as if there is an absence of any diversity and complexity concerning the concept. This results in such policies neglecting the different requirements, usage and expression of “creativity” by different cultural and creative sectors. Therefore, such cultural and creative industry policies neglect the status and needs of cultural and artistic workers, such as writers or visual artists. The chapter takes each of these observations in turn, following a brief discussion of the historical context for the development of cultural and creative industry policies in Hong Kong.
