THE under-construction West Kowloon Cultural District is expected to become a new cultural landmark of Hong Kong, with its multiple indoor and outdoor venues for various performances.

The first venue to open in 2018 is, surprisingly, devoted to xiqu, or traditional Chinese opera, the first of the kind in Hong Kong.

The district’s executive director of performing arts, Louis Yu, speaks to Shanghai Daily about his plan for the district, the recent trends in Asia, and his vision for preserving and re-innovating traditional Chinese opera.

Q: What kind of venues will West Kowloon Cultural District have and what kind of performances are you planning for the opening?

A: Hong Kong is very similar to Shanghai. Historically, people from Shanghai settled in Hong Kong and helped to create the unique cultural scene here. Now, with the booming cultural scene and new venues being built everywhere on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong doesn’t want to fall behind, and West Kowloon is the answer.

It is an ambitious cultural district because we will have multiple venues, including a xiqu center, a museum, and a theater complex. There is more to come from traditional Chinese opera and contemporary performing arts. This kind of experimentation will be very exciting.

For example, we will open a venue called Freespace in 2019 — a big box in the middle of the art park at the waterfront. It will be a very flexible space, perfect to host music and music-related performances, because Freespace and the art park will create a unique combination of outdoor festival culture and indoor performances.

Q: Why is Xiqu Center the first one to be opened?

A: Hong Kong has always been very cosmopolitan, so it surprised many people that the first venue we plan to open is not a concert hall or opera house. Hong Kong and the rest of China are sort of going in reverse directions.

Chinese mainland was more into traditional and local culture, and now wants to meet the West. Many cities, including second- and third-tier ones, are building concert halls and are looking to hosting the best Western performances.

The mainland has also become more confident economically and culturally. Twenty years ago, it was all Western, but now we want to be seen on par with other great civilizations and cultures in many different forms such as pop music, movies, rock and roll, stages, etc. The entire society encourages this kind of experiment.

For example, Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare both died 400 years ago in the same year. But only in recent years, we are starting to see the kind of cultural collision and comparison of the two playwrights.

The key is globalization — how to preserve your genuine self while creating something contemporary and innovative rather than just imitating the West.

Hong Kong, on the other hand, has been exposed to Western culture for the last 150 years. In the recent 20 years, people have been looking at the cultural roots, to think about who we are and where we came from.

In the colonial days, traditional culture was not well preserved. We have state-owned orchestra, or ballet companies, but we have never had a state-owned traditional Chinese opera company.

When the Xiqu Center opens, it will become the only one devoted to traditional Chinese opera in Hong Kong. I feel this is the right time to look back into our cultural roots, to track our heritage. We are not only Cantonese, but originally came from everywhere in China.

Q: Does traditional Chinese opera have a big audience in Hong Kong?

A: When I grew up in the 1980s, the young generation looked down at Cantonese Opera, calling it boring and old. It was something that grandmother did and watched. Now it is coming back. The young people are getting more interested in our cultural roots, asking who they are. You can find young performers doing traditional Chinese opera.

Traditional Chinese operas of different kinds have a lot of potential for development. It has all the elements of performing arts — dance, music, singing — it includes everything and has a lot of potential for contemporary experiment.

We still have more than 50 kinds of uniquely different operas, which are national treasures, but we should not only look at them as museum piece of work and only good for preservation.

It has to move forward. I see it as a new element to add to the very cosmopolitan cultural scene in Hong Kong.

This kind of opera has lasted for 500 years. It won’t go extinct now.

Q: How can we move it forward?

A: There is only one way to keep all these traditional arts alive — to let young people practice and learn it.

The younger generation will bring new spirit and energy into the traditional performances and attract audience from the same generation.

We have to encourage them by offering scholarship and opportunities to learn, to practice and to travel overseas.

Q: You have just staged your first show “Antigone” and hosted a live streaming of the show. Why live streaming and will you do it again?

A: Everyone in the world of performing arts are challenged by this small screen — the mobile phone. We want to find the answer on how we are going to interact with this.

UK National Theater Live (NT Live) has become a very successful model. They conduct professional and high-quality recordings of the show, and sell tickets in cinema houses to screen the recording. It is very close to live performance experience.

Live streaming is another trend that many people are experimenting with. We want to find our own answer.

Q: And what is the answer?

A: The response has been very good. We also found out that most users watch it on mobile phones rather than computers.

Live streaming makes live performance less exclusive, which is good. But how do you find the balance between allowing the performance to reach out to more audience and maintain the quality of live performance? There are also issues of copyright, among others.

It is only our first experiment, and we will surely do more live streaming in the future.

So far, I think it is a very different model from NT Live. Live streaming might be good for engagement, to let more people get a taste of the show rather than a whole comprehensive experience of it. It is more like a trailer of a movie.

Q: You started a producers’ network forum last year. One of the main topics this year was the trend of art performance venues in Asia. What is this trend?

A: In the last 20 years, China has been the biggest theater-building country in the world. Now, there is a second wave — building more specialized theaters, like dance centers, opera spaces, rather than a general performing space.

Now the problem is whether we can find enough good content and program to fill the new venues. It is a good problem because it offers many opportunities for producers and artists to create new generation of programs and shows.