Media

Against Manipulation – The Role of the Critic in Empowering the Audience

04 Mar 2010

 

 A Discussion about Arts and Culture Coverage in Hong Kong

Presented by Muse Magazine and the Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU
7pm to 8:30 p.m., Monday, March 8, 2010
Studio, the Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong

Hong Kong people need to strengthen their defense against manipulation that comes in different guises and from all directions in our increasingly dumbed-down society.

And the Hong Kong media need to cultivate more high-quality critics who are able to communicate well for a general audience so that Hong Kong can have a wider and livelier discussion about arts and culture that reflects its cultural dynamism.

Those are two of the themes that will emerge when three leading experts gather for a panel discussion at the Fringe Club on March 8 to talk about the importance of arts and culture criticism in creating a strong cultural environment.

"A culturally dynamic city like Hong Kong demands a lively, intelligent discussion about arts and culture in the media," said Frank Proctor, publisher of Muse Magazine, which is co-presenting the event with the Journalism and Media Studies Centre of Hong Kong University.

The three experts on the panel are:

• Perry Lam, Editorial Director of Muse and a regular columnist for Yazhou Zhoukan, the world's only international Chinese-language newsweekly; Hong Kong Economic Journal and the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily. He also is co-host of a RTHK talk show.
• Tang Shu-wing, Dean of Drama, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; he has been directing, acting, writing and teaching since graduating from Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris in 1990. As a director, he has directed over 35 productions of drama and dance.
• Christian Caryl, Muse Magazine Critic-in-Residence, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU; Contributing Editor at Foreign Policy and Newsweek; Senior Fellow at the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; contributor to The New York Review of Books.

Muse funded a Critic-in-Residence programme at the JMSC this semester after talks between Proctor and the JMSC director, Professor Ying Chan. They saw a need to cultivate intelligent criticism for a general audience and launched an international search that resulted in the recruitment of Caryl. He is now teaching a graduate course in critical writing about the arts that has proven popular with students.

During the discussion on March 8, Perry Lam will examine cultural criticism as a means to help the audience defend itself against manipulation while Tang Shu-wing will discuss the issue from the vantage point of someone who is both a critic and an artist. Christian Caryl will discuss how a critic exercises his influence as an opinion leader in the U.S.

A reception for invited guests will follow the panel discussion.

For media enquiries, please contact Velentina Ma, Journalism and Media Studies Centre, HKU at 2219-4012/91230252 or email velentinam@hku.hk