Interview

Transcript

Kacey Wong Well, some background about the real cultural Bureau a few years ago with the Hong Kong government. You could kind of go back to after 1997 when the Mainland Chinese government take over Hong Kong. They didn’t know what to do. So they did not do anything. They just basically left Hong Kong as it is, so in the first 10 years, after 1997 first, there was fear. And then they realized nothing changed. Oh, okay, everything is safe. And then the Chinese government realized, well, maybe we should start doing something, instead of waiting 50 years later. And then they start to push this thing called article 23, which is like an anti-terrorism act.

But we Hong Kong people are very smart. We can always see through beyond this act is actually taking our freedom away. So a lot of people went up to the street and protest against it. It is at that time, the Chinese government realized, Hey, we got to act fast. Otherwise, the Hong Kong people they’re not going to submit. They are going to continue to fight and get us into trouble. So ever since then, this kind of change, it’s getting more and more and deeper and deeper. A few years ago, the Hong Kong government tried to create this Bureau called a cultural Bureau.

And they were going to appoint a person with a communist background as the cultural Bureau director, and originally is off with intention. But then suddenly, you realize they’re not really honoring our true culture. I mentioned before the four types of culture. They basically try to erase all this old, authentic culture that is part of you and just replace it with this low-level communism, propaganda culture, which they don’t even understand themselves. Right? And if you look at what’s going on in mainland China right now. Okay. Who practices communism, true communism?

No, they are practicing ultra capitalism. Well, if Mao Zedong, and if Marx resurrects, they’ll be punished by death. So I think this is totally crazy. And so the whole cultural Bureau idea comes from that mindset of trying to go against the cultural Bureau. So that’s why I created this Bureau called the real culture Bureau and I’m the real culture director. I know my character was actually a real cultural director at Facebook. You can add him. Yeah. His name is called Ho Hue Yen, it kind of means who’s that guy?

And my wife really hates that character. Yeah. Because I basically like to put all my evil side into that character. I become this evil politician, you know, which I act quite well, I think. My wife really hated him.

Interviewer Yeah, it’s quite….

Kacey Wong So I know I’m successful because she really doesn’t want me to become like the huts. Right. So I think everybody has that dark side and I’m so glad that I…

Interviewer You can be allowed to embody it.

Kacey Wong Yeah, I just go a full hour and embody it. And it’s so crazy, but so wow. And nice. Yeah. Sometimes it’s enjoyable to be a bad guy, but if you do it for real, then yeah, a lot of mess, the savior for the artworld.

Interviewer Maybe that’s the purpose of the outward person.

Kacey Wong Yeah. You can just release whoever you think you are, the fictional side of you. So what’s… the story didn’t end there. It ended when a lot of people go against the establishment of the cultural Bureau. So finally, the government gave up and stopped the whole program secretly.

Interviewer I see.

Kacey Wong Yeah.

Interviewer Okay.

Kacey Wong But my Bureau, the real cultural Bureau, is still operational today. So I won. They lost. I’m very happy about that. But I was warned by my wife that you should not dress up like that and go to audit sufficient anymore. So I kind of retired him after showing him like six or seven times.

Interviewer Oh, really?

Kacey Wong Because I kind of split the tank and the person. So sometimes I go to events just as the person. Yeah. Because I think he’s already well-polished, the whole narrative history. I always go with my suitcase of cash. And now my banner and the Ray ban sunglasses.

Interviewer Do you want me to dress up like that tomorrow.

Kacey Wong Yes, just go [unintelligible 05:37]. And just pay people money; everybody has to kiss my ass in the shop and be harmonized. So I think I… but after a while, I think I’ve already done my duty. And so two years after that project, you know, today that is happening, a lot of local Hong Kong people using this parody idea to fight against the ridiculous situation that we have in the city right now, I can make one example. Yesterday 200 people went outside at a Japanese department store and they all dress up like Mao Zedong, with red books, the red flag and the white shirt.

And then what they do is when they curse at the midnight shoppers. Yeah. And then they shout at them and say, you midnight people. You are supposed to be a patriot of our country. You should stop using foreign products, stop buying frozen products and go back to China and use the Mainland Chinese products.

They do that because they want to stop these overflights of an overflood of tourists. That’s what happened before in Hong Kong. A lot of, you know, that you have to understand that the whole of China right now is under crisis, this national crisis. A lot of people don’t know that, you know, in mainland China, I read reports that a lot of the provinces already bankrupt, only like two cities have clean water. Most rivers are poisonous, not only the rivers but the air that you breathe, the food you eat, are poisonous and the people know it from mainland China.

And that’s why they all flat away from mainland China to Hong Kong, to buy everyday products. Not only just LV brands and stuff, you know, what they buy? They buy instant noodles. They buy Yakult, you know, the Japanese drink.

Interviewer Really?

Kacey Wong Yeah. They buy baby milk powder, to the point that we local people cannot even buy baby milk powder for our own babies. So they’re treating Hong Kong like a supermarket because they themselves are going through this crisis. So we, you know, a lot of Hong Kong people, they really hated this, because it’s disturbing our everyday life. Not only that, it dries the whole real estate market to the top and our cityscape is changing drastically. But if you work for the GDP, the whole of the kind of consumer retail is only like 4%, including hiring staff and hotel sector. 4%, is only 4% in sacrifice, in return, the whole street is changed for people with like luggage walking around, and this is totally in chaos.

And that chaos is going everywhere else. Not only get Hong Kong. So before they try to protest and then they get skull ads, and then finally they find out a way to go at that situation without getting too much trouble, is using this parody. This is what we call using red to fight against red, which is really spot on.

Interviewer Yeah.

Kacey Wong But actually, I’ve done it two years ago before already. So I won’t do it again. Let them do it.

Interviewer You just above. But you are the real culture director…?

Kacey Wong Yeah. I still am a fake communist party member. Food is parody, right? I didn’t see that because I was thinking, Oh, you’re not, we can do parody, but in real life, you can just go out there and shout and fuck you. You know, the dirty regime, you know, you can do that, but now I can see he’s getting closer and closer. The prison is closing up. And that really stimulates me to do as much and as fast as possible. So maybe in the future, I get really close, the art historians have more materials to talk about of that data. But I can sense that day is closing up. Really, I’m super sensitive.

Interviewer No, I think it’s very important to have a character like that, not only your character as a director but also your own characters as an artist, to speak out and voice out for it.

Kacey Wong I know that Hong Kong artists are like that. I mean, we are kind of slowly grow out of it. You know, we become more mature, like before we didn’t care. But now… because when the bridges were here, we are brought up to be apolitical. We are brought up to be totally economical. But once the British colony is gone and then you suddenly realize you don’t belong anywhere else. There’s nowhere else like this place. You know, if you go to Shenzhen, you will look like you belong, but actually, inside, you don’t belong there. You are totally a foreigner. And this happens a lot to mixed children. Yeah.

Interviewer Tell me about that in Korea? A lot of Korean have been raised in the U.S. and UK. When they come back to Korea, they look like…?

Kacey Wong The physically…

Interviewer The physically, yes.

Kacey Wong Not the same. And constantly being reminded.

Interviewer Oh, yeah.

Kacey Wong And people like me, of course, I can live in Mongolia or live in Beijing or live in Shanghai. I might look materialistically. I look the same because I have the same material. Right? But inside, it’s not the same. Their cultural upbringing is not the same. So a lot of us, artists, crowd and also Hong Kong people who were awakened, you know, it’s kind of like the matrix, the movie, like here’s the green pill, here’s the red pill. Right?

You take the red pill, you see the truth, but you cannot go back. You take the green pill and then you go back and forget everything and everything comes back to normal. I took the red pill. I woke up. It sucks, but I rather live in the truth than in a lie or deception because I think that’s what freedom really is about.