Art world descends on Hong Kong as Article 23 security laws spur censorship fears

A new national security law has deepened fears about self-censorship in the arts in Hong Kong, one of the world’s biggest art markets.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong has been buzzing in recent days as it celebrates Art Week, an annual series of exhibitions and events that draw gallery owners, collectors and art enthusiasts from all over the world.

Lurking beneath the excitement, however, is growing unease over expanding national security provisions and the impact they may have on artistic expression in Hong Kong, the world’s third-largest art market after New York and London.

Art Week is taking place days after the enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also known as the Article 23 law. The local law is designed to supplement a broader national security law Beijing imposed on the Chinese territory in 2020.

Beijing and Hong Kong officials say both laws were necessary to restore stability after pro-democracy protests that roiled Hong Kong for months in 2019 and sometimes turned violent. But critics fear the new law will only further erode the civil liberties that Hong Kong, a former British colony, was promised would be preserved for 50 years when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Eric Wear, a member of the International Association of Art Critics and a former president of its Hong Kong chapter, said the new local security law was “so open-ended as to be incredible.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hong-kong-art-world-article-23-censorship-rcna145415

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