Rebooting Hong Kong’s creative menopause
- Hans Ebert
- Aug 4
- 5 min read
It might not have been headline news, but during these surreal times around the world, taking small steps small can be better, because there are no great expectations.
Reading how happy Kong based company Parents Parents was to have the popular football/soccer team from the English Premier League Tottenham Hotspur wear their Chinese calligraphy inspired and designed jerseys when they recently played against Arsenal at Kai Tak Stadium, showed that entrepreneurialism still has a pulse in Hong Kong.
It was refreshing to read a positive story in the news section about the creativity of Parents Parents when one often feels that those in Hong Kong with ideas are fighting a lone war to be heard and recognised and shoved into the Too Hard basket.
The seeming lack of quality creative talent in the city only takes the standard of everything else down with it.
This is certainly not the creative renaissance promised over two decades ago by then government mouthpiece in the rather controversial Duncan Pescod, below, and the promises made when launching CreateHK.
That was over two decades ago and where is CreateHK today?
It’s apparently still being funded by the Hong Kong government, but what exactly has it given back to the city?
What is and where is the ROI- Return On Investment?
Meanwhile, Chief Executive John Lee has ensured that the city is one of the safest in the world with none of those naive attempts at “fighting for democracy” and with no unhinged Blubber Man wreaking havoc by playing only within his rules.
Where Hong Kong might have tripped and fallen over itself is in its “creative by committee” modus operandi in the marketing of the city’s image.
How many even understand the question, let alone knowing what the brand personality of Hong Kong is?
The end result? Corporate clichés from the usual sausage factory of highly paid Yes People and things cobbled together with taxpayers money and with nothing much having any impact.
The campaigns produced to attract tourism have looked like “inside jobs” and something from the eighties- but at least the work from the eighties captured the mood of those times.
But to still keep wheeling out ageing singing and dancing local celebrities in 2025?
Didn’t I do this decades ago for a Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign called “Pitching In”?
The thinking of many in “marketing” is to err on the side of caution OR, perhaps those given this work have no idea what is effective advertising and communications?
Cities need to keep pushing ahead to progress though one must temper evolution with timing and being intuitive.
There’s always the need for a well thought out plan to show exactly what we’re investing in and leaving for the next generation- and being brave enough to ask ourselves if they might even want it.
Would they be impressed in having tea at the Peninsula or enjoying a dim sum lunch at the China Club?
How far might technology progress in the next couple of years- or would it have been reined in?
Even Nostradamus had off days and how the world turns out depends on who’s doing the spinning.
Let’s be honest here and admit that Hong Kong is mainly remembered for its glorious past- those golden years from the eighties to around 2010.
This was when Hong Kong was like that ABBA song called “Money Money Money” and greed was fed to the Oliver Twisted Mr Cresotes who came to this city from everywhere in droves- overnight celebrity chefs and hairdressers with nothing to show and various con artists with new shell games to sell.
There was always a new pea to shell and the art of selling an image by simply booking into the penthouse of a five star hotel for a few days and inviting the Hong Kong glitterati to feast on champagne and caviar, and perhaps indulge in some Bolivian marching powder.
Always there was the lure of nymphets from Eastern Europe being part of the travelling party and there for companionship.
It was no difference to what apparently went on in the naughty nineties between Blubber Boy and others from the privilege class on Mr Epstein’s island.
The illusion of power and money and being next door to Mainland China has always been an intoxicating and addictive cocktail and pretty tiresome conversation.
When with EMI Music, how many times did I get up onstage at worldwide marketing conferences in places like Munich, Dublin, Toronto, London etc etc and sell China as being “the potentially largest music market in the world”. I was always careful to use the word “potentially”.
Nothing was ever promised. Yes, “potentially the largest music market in the world”, but only if the music was sung in Putonghua.
This was never mentioned. It would have stopped the funding from Head Office and killed off personal plans to start up one’s own businesses.
As for Hong Kong today, it’s of course very different to what it was.
Today, there’s a very obvious push for sports events and sports entertainment- this is often what the crowds bring to the party- held at the Kai Tak Stadium with everything seemingly led by a Festival of football starring top international teams and their superstar players attracting the fans.
The recent matches didn’t have that messy Messi effect and just maybe we’re seeing a re-energised and creative and pumped up Hong Kong?
This focus on making Hong Kong appear to be seen as an important venue for international sporting events- even pickleball and what appears to be a renewed interest in reintroducing cricket in the city-augurs well for tourism and which could even spark new thinking in the retail sector.
All this, however, needs effective advertising and marketing by those who have the experience in knowing how to underline the importance of Made In Hong Kong brands- diverse advertising and marketing strategies for very different products because one size doesn’t fit all.
Does Hong Kong have the creative talent to produce this- professionals able to look beyond more drone shows, fireworks displays and the usual glut of exhibitions?
This is debatable because from everything I have seen, new ideas are not frequent flyers in Hong Kong, perhaps because the city has seldom had good mentors except perhaps for designer Henry Steiner, and, well, my mind just went blank.
During those halcyon days of Hong Kong, where nothing could go wrong even when it did, we made it up as we went along and the pieces somehow fit.
Those were the times when everyone was taking baby steps and finding out where they best belonged, what their talents were and who were the best hires.
If Hong Kong is lacking in highly experienced and inspirational mentors- and it is- invest in bringing these people in from different parts of the world and make their individual strengths work for all of Hong Kong.
Without everything mentioned above being part of a holistic OneTeam strategy, it could be the lonely sound of one hand clapping and Hong Kong talking to itself again and going around in circles with the Yes People using the latest nonsensical buzzwords.
For my money, Hong Kong is in a wonderful position by being small enough to travel under the radar and quickly make a name for itself as being a new nerve centre for creativity- and perhaps have this meeting place be somewhere like an outlying island like Lamma.
It’s time for Hong Kong to be seen by the world as The Little Engine That Could- a city committed to the creative product and able to deliver many things that people want to see other than Ocean Park, Disneyland, pandas and more talk about the Greater Bay Area project.
Talk is not only cheap, it’s a bloody waste of the taxpayers money and is excruciatingly boring.
For those who have had an easy ride on the Hong Kong gravy train, the next couple of years- two at the most- are going to separate those who can do, and those who know that their time is up- and why they’re done to a crisp.
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