Creative Brain Drain from Hong Kong to Mainland China

“I always admire when people spend time on something,” opened Chow Yiu Fai at this week’s NYU Shanghai Dialogue on December 4.

As a lyricist and assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, he has always been intrigued by what motivates people to do things. His most recent project, a documentary on creative class mobility, considers why many Hong Kong artists migrate to mainland China.

Chow interviewed 12 Hong Kong artists currently living in Shanghai or Beijing for the documentary. A common sentiment among young artists, especially women, was that Hong Kong has "no future," and the “overstraining” nature of Hong Kong work culture isn’t compatible with family life. Older artists tended to be drawn to change and the prospect of an extended career. Most artists who originally planned to go to China for a short-term project ended up staying there.

During the discussion, some members of the audience pointed out that although fewer people move from the mainland to Hong Kong for work, the migration is two-way; and also those who don’t succeed in China or abroad tend to go back home. Chow liked this perspective, and concluded that he was interested in researching these cases in the future.

Chow also talked about his own experience as an artist and played his song “Model,” written in 2014. He noted that he’d written more Mandarin than Cantonese songs.

(Text by: Laura Lehoczki, ‘19)