So Kwok-Wan, Hong Kong Arts Festival: "The soul of culture is the question of humanity"

At SIPAM 2026, So Kwok-Wan, Associate Programme Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival, reflected on Sibiu as an intense meeting point for the performing arts, on Hong Kong's position between East and West, and on why live performance remains essential in a world shaped by technology, crisis and changing audiences.

This is the first time, and I am here for only three days. I find it very much like a smaller Avignon. The difference is that you have this forum and conference, and there are a lot of very concentrated networking activities and conversations about topics that are very important. At the same time, you can see a huge variety of international shows. The schedule is very packed. I am quite admirative of the fact that there are so many shows and that you invite so many different companies from all over the world in such a schedule. It must be a lot of work. It is quite difficult for me, as a festival programmer, from that perspective.

I think the question of whether it is still the case is about identity and the specificity of Hong Kong. Basically, it is built on this, because we were a colony. A Western administration was administering Hong Kong at the time, and Hong Kong did not really exist as a real city 150 years ago. So we are built on this, and we evolved within this framework. I think the point is that nowadays the whole world is getting closer, so the whole world is built on this East-West conversation. The question is whether we will stay in the same direction, or whether we are going along and reinventing a new paradigm. What does East meets West mean?

The Hong Kong Arts Festival audience is an educated audience, basically. I think I would safely say that you will find the same profile as maybe in the UK, or in some advanced city, where we are at the same time a little bit classical, but we also want contemporary, and something in between. But not to the point where audiences come only to see something completely different. So I would say there is a mixture of a classical audience and an adventurous audience. Predominantly, Hong Kong audiences are quite young.

Difficult question. Of course, I have the audience in mind when I choose the work. There are different criteria when you look at different sorts of work. I think the main point is whether the work would find an audience in Hong Kong and whether this work makes any sense. It depends. If you do contemporary dance, it probably does not have any subject attached to it. But does this piece of contemporary dance introduce something that audiences in Hong Kong probably have not seen before? This is also something I need to think about, in the history of the Hong Kong Arts Festival and in relation to our audience. So there is continuity, but there is also an adventure that you need to propose to the audience. There is always, at the same time, a debate about whether you continue in the same way or break new ground.

Yes, I saw Long Day's Journey into Night. I think this is a show that I would not say completely broke me apart, but I have not presented something in this way, treating this in this kind of way and performed by such great actors. I liked it very much. The point is that I need to think about how this fits into our programme, maybe, and how I should introduce Romanian theatre working on an American classic at the same time. A lot of this would be very interesting for the Hong Kong audience to find out: okay, this is how a contemporary director and dramatist works. I also saw Valentina, and I found it very nice, but this is the kind of work that maybe I am more familiar with.

When we talk about Asia, it is so different whether you talk about Japan, China, India, Indonesia or Thailand. I can only speak about some cities, cultures or performing arts cultures that I am more familiar with, like China, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, and maybe a little bit of Thailand. We cannot know it all. As for whether there is a trend, I think that in terms of contemporary theatre or contemporary performing arts, a lot of Asian artists are finding their own voices. Whether it becomes a trend, I am not so sure, but there are many interesting voices in Asia doing different things. Of course, the main difference is that Asia knows Europe much more than Europe, or the rest of the world, knows Asia. So when I talk about whatever trend, you probably have no idea, because it is not what is chosen now to be seen in some festivals. Some Western festivals may go for something that is more relevant, or that they can understand, or maybe something more exotic. I do not know. So it really depends. But I am sure there are many new voices. Whether they will be heard in the rest of the world, apart from their own country, maybe.

Very interesting question. I think nowadays, with streaming technology evolving, performing arts seem to be much more present online, with very good filming. It can become a parallel thing to do if you want to reach more audiences who do not have the possibility to watch it live. But I think at the end of the day, the core of performing arts is live. If we lose it, and everyone mistakes the online or filmed version for the performance, we will be out of work. This thousand-year history of live performance, starting from Greek drama, would be dead, and it would be a great shame. We are now talking about AI and everything. I am not objecting to the existence of an online thing, which is in itself something else. When you film a performing arts performance, it is something else; it is a film. But unlike dance or theatre, or unlike a novel that you can consume at home, you need to be with many people at the same time in a live, mysterious space. Otherwise, it will all become self-isolated, and it will, in the end, lead to the death of many things.

Everything because you have seen something many times, and then, in this particular adaptation, presentation, direction and performance, a lot of it is surprising to me, because I have never seen or imagined it to be directed in this way. That is why you can continue to do a classic 50,000 times, and every time it will be different. Whether it is good or bad is another thing. But this is surprising. Every time, everything is surprising for me, unless it is really just copying everything. But still, I mean, this is a surprise.

The soul of culture, I think, is the question of mankind. The question of humanity is the soul of culture.

I would describe it as a passionate and intense meeting of performing arts in a very short time, in a city that you might not have heard of. But it is really worth it, because it is intense and you can find another way of making a festival.

I am not. Not in that sense. I mean, I am a pessimist-optimist. I think it is very important in today's world to be very pessimistic, because the world is not going well. Only when you are pessimistic will it drive you. If you are optimistic, then you just enjoy and go with the flow, and this is how civilization ends up repeating itself. When you reach the peak, everyone is so happy. This is the permanent crisis. That is why I say it is the question of mankind and humanity. If you do not ask the question anymore, then there will be no culture.