Getting Rid of the Sellotape
By Chip Tsao | published Dec 18, 2008
Earlier this month in Central, a nude model posed for a group of local artists in a bizarre event called the “Hong Kong-Macau Sex Cultural Festival.” But the police ordered to have her private parts covered with Sellotape.
The model posed in a closed tent but still managed to attract of a crowd of onlookers, mostly middle-aged men holding their breath as if they were watching an underground striptease show. It is widely assumed in Hong Kong—especially by some Christian groups—that looking at a nude female, even in the name of art, will make women blush with shame and inspire nothing but licentious thoughts in men. The organizer of the drawing class and his group of “artists,” at work apparently in the same professional way as Leonardo DiCaprio drew a naked Kate Winslet in the film “Titanic,” protested in vain—although I imagine a real artist would risk imprisonment to insist upon his freedom of expression.
How did an open nude drawing class get into a “sex cultural” exhibition anyway? The very idea implies that the male artist is not actually an artist. Instead, with his pen and paper in front of a nude female, his sexual passion will become fully aroused. And then he might, like some kind of werewolf, suddenly turn into a sex maniac midway through the drawing of the poor nude model—who, in the case of Hong Kong with plenty of cheap labor provided by China for our nightclubs and massage parlors, is unlikely to be an old grandma in her 80s. It was along these lines of logic that the police decided to take action, although how covering someone’s nipples with Sellotape could suppress the fantasies of a group of potential sexual criminals disguised as artists remains a bit doubtful.
In Hong Kong, the body is always viewed with shame. In the Chinese dictionary, there is no difference between “nakedness” and “nudity”—only one word applies to both meanings. It also takes time to learn the meanings of freedom and democracy, which sometimes begin with getting rid of a small piece of Sellotape—whether it’s on the nipples of a nude model, or in the case of the Hong Kong media when we talk about “sensitive” topics like Tibet, on the mouth.
Earlier this month in Central, a nude model posed for a group of local artists in a bizarre event called the “Hong Kong-Macau Sex Cultural Festival.” But the police ordered to have her private parts covered with Sellotape.
The model posed in a closed tent but still managed to attract of a crowd of onlookers, mostly middle-aged men holding their breath as if they were watching an underground striptease show. It is widely assumed in Hong Kong—especially by some Christian groups—that looking at a nude female, even in the name of art, will make women blush with shame and inspire nothing but licentious thoughts in men. The organizer of the drawing class and his group of “artists,” at work apparently in the same professional way as Leonardo DiCaprio drew a naked Kate Winslet in the film “Titanic,” protested in vain—although I imagine a real artist would risk imprisonment to insist upon his freedom of expression.
How did an open nude drawing class get into a “sex cultural” exhibition anyway? The very idea implies that the male artist is not actually an artist. Instead, with his pen and paper in front of a nude female, his sexual passion will become fully aroused. And then he might, like some kind of werewolf, suddenly turn into a sex maniac midway through the drawing of the poor nude model—who, in the case of Hong Kong with plenty of cheap labor provided by China for our nightclubs and massage parlors, is unlikely to be an old grandma in her 80s. It was along these lines of logic that the police decided to take action, although how covering someone’s nipples with Sellotape could suppress the fantasies of a group of potential sexual criminals disguised as artists remains a bit doubtful.
In Hong Kong, the body is always viewed with shame. In the Chinese dictionary, there is no difference between “nakedness” and “nudity”—only one word applies to both meanings. It also takes time to learn the meanings of freedom and democracy, which sometimes begin with getting rid of a small piece of Sellotape—whether it’s on the nipples of a nude model, or in the case of the Hong Kong media when we talk about “sensitive” topics like Tibet, on the mouth.
Labels: Politically Incorrect, 陶傑
posted by Gemini Saga at 12:00 AM
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