Even Hong Kong's gateway role is being whittled away by China's increasing openness. What Hong Kong needs is to remake its image as a tourist attraction. Local tourism authorities could use infusions of both fresh blood and new promotional ideas. Already a formidable business center, the SAR should devote more resources to becoming a hub of arts and culture. Raising the SAR's cultural quotient will mean more than just importing world-class orchestras, musicals and dance troupes.
More money needs to go into nurturing the local arts scene.
Both Chinese and international culture should be made an integral part of Hong Kong education, so that making money is no longer considered virtually the sole meaning of life. Whether it is shopping-mall design, fashion, popular culture or culinary styles, the mainland is taking its cues from Hong Kong. For the growing number of people worldwide who wonder what the future China will be like, the SAR provides tantalizing glimpses of the answer. That, indeed, could even become Hong Kong's new mystique. All Rights Reserved.