“Stop Over Hong Kong: The City Is a Cultural Melting Pot”

Before the first meeting with her team in Central Hong Kong, Angelle Siyang-Le goes surfing in Big Wave Bay. Afterwards, she walks back across Dragon's Back into the high-rise jungle of her adopted home. The path over the “Dragon's Back” winds its way through the hilly landscape of the global metropolis and is considered one of the most beautiful walks in the city. “Hong Kong is rich in nature and has many beautiful beaches,” enthuses the director of Art Basel Hong Kong. “But the city is also a cultural melting pot with a vibrant art scene. For me, it's the perfect place to live and work.”

The new M+ Museum of Contemporary Art in the Kowloon Cultural District only opened there in 2021. “The building alone is a work of art,” says Siyang-Le. “It was designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and is considered one of the world's leading museums for modern art.” According to the expert, you can get a good overview of what Hong Kong has to offer in terms of art by first visiting the M+ Museum and then the Palace Museum opposite. A treasure trove full of historical Chinese artifacts, where you can learn a lot about the country's rich art history.

When Siyang-Le, who was born in China, moved to Hong Kong in 2012 after living in London and Dubai, there were no more than ten art galleries there. “The cab driver who picked me up from the airport laughed at me when I told him that I wanted to work in the art scene,” Siyang-Le recalls. Things are very different today: “Over 30 galleries from Hong Kong are taking part in this year's Art Basel in Hong Kong. There are more and more museums and art is increasingly taking place in public spaces.”

For example in the new K11 Musea, a mix of cultural and shopping center and its own gallery called “Kunsthalle.” Or in Tai Kwun, an old colonial-style police station that was converted into a cultural center with galleries, stores, and restaurants in 2018. “The old prison yard is now home to a garden with installations and sculptures - and the exhibition rooms show progressive contemporary art,” says Siyang-Le. The special thing about Tai Kwun is that you are constantly moving between past and present. This is also the case in her favorite restaurant Madam Fù in a colonial building from 1880, which serves both Cantonese and French dishes. “I love the romantic retro flair of the restaurant,” says Siyang-Le. “And the Peking duck tastes fantastic there.”

For shopping, she recommends the Pacific Place shopping center: “An elegant mall that has been around since the late 1980s and now enjoys cult status.” There she goes shopping at Lane Crawford, the Chinese version of the British department store Harrods, or browses the stores of local fashion labels. For example at Shanghai Tang, a label that interprets Chinese fashion classics in a modern way. “I like to buy qipaos there, as the typical Chinese dresses with the high-necked collar are called.”

In the evening, Siyang-Le is often found at the Michelin-starred Duddell's in Central Hong Kong. “The owners of the restaurant are art collectors who show changing exhibitions in their premises. It is a meeting place for the Hong Kong art scene and serves the best dim sums in the city.” She likes to end the evening with a drink on the restaurant's terrace. “From there, I look out over the city's sea of buildings and am always delighted to live in a global metropolis with people from all over the world who make Hong Kong a place full of creativity.”

3 Favorite Tips

1) Take a day trip to the car-free, hippie retreat of Lamma Island.

2) Discover young art at the Cattle Depot Artist Village.

3) Sample Cantonese delicacies at the Michelin-starred restaurant Fook Lam Moon.

Producer: Carsten Kalaschnikow
Photos: Tracy Wong

About

Angelle Siyang-Le has been Director of Art Basel Hong Kong since 2023. The contemporary art fair has been held there every year at the end of March since 2013. Siyang-Le comes from China, but spent most of her childhood and youth in the UK. After working in London and Dubai, she moved to Hong Kong in 2012, where she now lives with her French husband and children.