Recently, John Lee Ka-chiu, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s chief executive, announced his thoroughly praiseworthy ambition of making Hong Kong more of an arts hub. However, nobody can reasonably claim that this will be an easy task that can be achieved overnight.

The push to encourage Hong Kong people to read more as part of that larger effort also represents quite a challenge.

There was a time when most of our reading was done with actual books. There were few alternatives or distractions. But nowadays books can be readily accessed online or listened to via audio.

Suppose you would like to change the lifestyle reading habits of the coming generations. In which case, you must face the fact that most youngsters are besotted with their connected devices, be it their treasured smartphones or a wide range of other IT gadgets.

Earlier generations picked up the lifelong habit of reading books from their parents or were encouraged by their school teachers. But very few of our small Hong Kong apartments contain a family library. Indeed, many a local home is completely bookless.

The sorry sight of Hong Kong school children, weighed down with massive backpacks bulging with their homework textbooks, must surely be why many develop an aversion to reading for pleasure.

Homework should instead be allocated sparingly and infrequently.

For sure, the lifetime habit of reading starts in childhood. So a move to encourage the appreciation of reading and the arts in general needs to be made early on.

Not every Hong Kong family is necessarily familiar with the varied arts scene here. So, in many homes, the arts and reading are not encouraged within the family circle. Schools, therefore, need to do more to inspire an active interest in the arts and reading. Organized school trips to arts exhibitions, museums, and historic places might well strengthen the chances of encouraging a growing interest in the arts. 

If parents won’t or can’t take their children to plays, concerts, ballet, and the like, then schools need to organize regular visits to such arts events. Admittedly, such visits are already arranged occasionally, but not as frequently as might be desired.

Yet, what do we mean when we speak of the arts? The definition can range from drawing and painting classes at school to attending concerts as adults. Getting practitioners from the realm of the arts to come into schools and give presentations on their chosen occupations would do much to help develop latent interest in the arts.

The many school-based options, such as choirs, the dance troupes, plays, bands or orchestras are a way to get our youngsters interested in the performing arts, and one hopes that these very worthwhile activities continue.

Looking to encourage the arts in the wider community, organizations with a large workforce can, in addition to fielding a company basketball or football team, offer equal encouragement to a company choir or the like. 

It is to be hoped that the West Kowloon Cultural District will not descend into just another swanky shopping place but instead welcome a steady stream of visitors to the varied arts activities that will eventually be staged there.

We may as well accept that obsession with social media is the norm among Hong Kong’s younger generations. So, whatever is offered by the government by way of encouragement of an interest in the arts generally, and in reading specifically, would need to be offered via that same prism.

Hong Kong’s traditional festivals, such as the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Chinese New Year, could become the focus of a broader range of arts events, as the Edinburgh Festival — one of the largest arts festivals in the world — demonstrates year after year in Scotland.

It may take a generation before Hong Kong becomes much more of an arts hub, but with renewed measures — such as those proposed here — that vision of Hong Kong as a cultural hub may be realized.

With dozens of art galleries now operating in Hong Kong and several major international art sales and exhibitions taking place in the city each year, the field of visual arts is already well-established in Hong Kong. Getting more people to go to these shows is a challenge. The exhibitors themselves should reach out to welcome school or college groups to attend guided tours of their shows by groups of youngsters.

The author is a veteran commentator on Hong Kong’s arts scene.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.