Presentation of our ethnic minority/asylum seeker participants

The recent project video of “Africa in Hong Kong: Cross-ethnic Community Building Through Creative Collaboration in Yuen Long” made me think about representation in the community and socially-engaged arts.

This is an exploratory reflection on a difficult subject with no obvious take-away: Does our community and socially-engaged art projects represent participants in ways that subverts the mainstream media’s representations?

Many community and socially-engaged arts projects focus on working with people and the process. But every project eventually faces the public, or some sort of outsiders. The artists must consider how other people view the participants and their participation. This is especially true if the project receives corporate funding.

The recent project video of “Africa in Hong Kong: Cross-ethnic Community Building Through Creative Collaboration in Yuen Long” is one such example.

Official description: Under the guidance of university academics, this project provided students, African citizens living in Hong Kong, and local residents with the opportunity to work together on different forms of African arts to promote cross-ethnic understanding, engagement and community building.

This project received funding from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, and a video was created that captured the process and interviewed different participants and artists.

Here is the video: https://vimeo.com/273844118

This video is atypical in that it features one of the leading artists, Kaze Ndassi Afritude, asylum seeker from Cameroon. Since I am not film critic, you can see for yourself below or in the video (1:30 to 3:00min) the shots and locations during this feature.

Impressions from the Video

The impression I got from this video is that he is a serious and great guy/musician, focused on this meaningful and enjoyable work. He is vocal, thoughtful and hopeful.

That is certainly a positive image. If I were to nit-pick, it is that fact that he was alone on the beach. Why?

1) Alone vs Group: Being alone makes him too unique and less relatable to others. A group on a beach is more preferable if the goal is to represent asylum seekers as a whole.

2) Beach setting: The setting of a beach is certainly scenic, but would the beach’s association with transience, fringe or solitude be the preferred message to the viewer? Actually, playing music on the beach as a group can to a certain extent counteract these associations.

That being said, I think it is about time more locals get to know this wonderful artist Kaze.

Hunter gatherer attire: Acknowledging one’s roots or fuelling stereotypes

I have seen Kaze walking in Wan Chai in this hunter-gatherer attire, as seen in the video. As a western-trained-local-urban guy, I have always thought that showcasing ‘African drumming with African wearing African costume’ (damn this is so generalized that it hurts to type) would over-emphasize this seemingly stereotypical and one-dimensional image. Yet there is clearly a strong connection and pride for Kaze with his roots that I cannot understand. But it would be unfortunate that others like me, due to our presumptions, not do take his attire seriously.

Accurate image?

For me, accurate images are those that come from everyday lives, where people go about their day instead of dressing up for the camera. The range of ‘accurate/everday’ images of ‘black’ people for me includes the followings (these refer to anyone with skin tone and hair resembling ‘black people’ in general):

• A neatly-dressed young lady who seemed to be rushing to work in Wan Chai with a bright smile on her face
• Several kids speaking a mixture of English, Cantonese and a third language in a McDonald in Yuen Long
• Businessman in neat but slightly over-washed suit conducting businesses in Tsim Sha Tsui
• Workers sweating through their shirts collecting old electronics in Sham Shui Po
• Drummers chatting backstage in a language that might be French

Combining all these images of black people I see around the city, one wonders how many are as vocal/visible with their connection to their roots as Kaze? Furthermore, it is my hypothesis that there exists a tension between this connection with one’s roots, and the yearning to look and feel local in an urban society. (While this probably calls for more psychological or anthropological research, I would rather see it explored in a fictional form).

Nothing tops human contact

As I stood backstage watching the ‘Africans’ and locals of Africa in Hong Kong prepare to go on stage at the HK Cultural Centre promenade, I realized I was witnessing people in everyday interactions. It was full of nuances that are rarely captured onscreen.

It is not to say that all mediated interaction in the community and socially-engaged arts provide genuine everyday interactions, but this is a uniqueness of the practice. On the other hand, the uniqueness of framed-media (film and photography) is to create a distance for people to watch.

I actually organized 2 less-than-successful performances of drummers from various African countries. Seriously, I invited the groups imagining it will be a guaranteed lively, energetic and engaging event. On those two occasions, I started to realize they are not usually happy and energetic. They are just everyday folks who were forced to flee their home and are now stuck in an unfriendly city that either ignores or caricature them.

Those two performances looked bad on photos and on paper, but it was an important lesson for me.