The new generation of art patrons and collectors in Hong Kong are not only willing to support the expansion of the city’s art ecosystem, they want to actively shape it. In many cases, they even deliberately distance themselves from traditional texts of art patronage in order to embrace alternative participatory models rooted in society. Ching Lan Foundation, a sponsorship platform that engages directly with Hong Kong’s art scene, has opened its first physical space during Art Basel Hong Kong: Ching Lan Corner, a ground-floor gallery at 3 Prince Terrace in Hong Kong’s Middle Levels, just steps away from Tai Kwun Cultural Complex. Behind it are two art patrons in their 30s, Brian Yu and Claire Pei, who founded Cheng-Lan in 2023 with the aim of working at the intersection of private artwork and public engagement, supporting artists from global majority and diaspora communities.
Yu traces the foundation’s ethos to his educational and professional background. The couple actually met at an Art Basel event, and he told the Observer: “Art has always been a great connection for us.” Bee’s parents were art lovers. She studied filmmaking, and thus began to understand art as a means of self-expression. “I’ve always felt that art should be accessible to society, to everyone around us, not just the art world. That’s how I started exploring art,” she said. Nine years ago, Pei founded a boarding high school where art is integrated into every discipline – from design and technology to social science and public policy – rather than treated as a separate subject.
Meanwhile, Yu grew up in a family strongly influenced by his grandfather, a classical Chinese teacher whose bedtime stories were inspired by the great works of Chinese art and literature. “There was a deep reverence for history and what came before,” he recalls. Yue went on to study architecture and spent his university years immersed in a community of artists and creatives in London, later working for a firm focusing on public-facing cultural projects – museums, galleries and cultural strategy. He subsequently earned a second master’s degree in art history, partly to deepen his understanding of the issues he was confronting at work, especially as the company was developing exhibitions dealing with race, colonialism, imperialism, and slavery. “These are difficult topics without the knowledge to analyze them properly,” he admitted, adding that it is useful to approach them academically while applying that knowledge in practice. He felt a real responsibility to the public, which he still feels today with the opening of the Cheng-Lan Foundation space. “In everything we do, we think about who we talk to and what our responsibility is.”
This situation shapes the art that Yue, Bi, and the program gather at Cheng-Lan’s Corner; Either way, they prioritize artists whose practices work through and interact with the complex fabric of human history. “There’s a conversation that’s integral to everything we do,” Yue explained, sharing how he and Bee, on their way to the interview, reviewed the list of artists in their group and asked themselves several questions. Is it the biography that represents something important to the conversation? Is it the same practice? Is it the message or the sounds that the artist is talking about? “It’s a mix. It’s a reflection of all of us,” Bee added, acknowledging how Maria Chito, an arts consultant and cultural strategist who joined the conversation, was instrumental in helping shape their vision for the program.
Opening performance by Filipino artist Sian Dayrit”A homeland, a body“, embodies this vision and direction. Drawing on archival research and collaboration with rural and indigenous communities, Dayrit’s most recent work explores the country’s legacy of colonialism, land extraction and devolution. Through a series of tapestries, paintings and sculptural works that include a clear mix of historical maps, military iconography, botanical imagery and vernacular materials, he engages in anthropological and sociological analysis at both the intersection of art, geopolitics and history, exploring the legacy of colonial displacement, action and resistance while opening up imaginative spaces for rethinking Our relationship with the land and systems of power.
Bi Weiwei decided to focus on the global majority as a core part of their identity and as a framework for how they deal with today’s globalized world. “We’re both from China; he grew up in Hong Kong, I studied in the US, he studied in the UK, and now we’re back together. This feeling of being between the two worlds is very present,” Pei said. Their experience of moving between cultures is inseparable from the type of platform they wish to build: a platform that can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and creative exchange rather than reinforce divisions.
Cheng-Lan Corner will host solo shows, performances and group exhibitions drawn from the institution’s permanent collection. Programs will be co-produced with the artists and will be designed around the specific contexts in which they work. Yue added that the ambition is for the space to host a constellation of voices rather than be a platform for any single voice.
Bi and Yue see having a smaller organization without the support of a large conglomerate as not an obstacle but an opportunity. They are able to respond – to the people they meet, and to initiatives worth supporting – in ways that a more rigid institutional structure does not allow. Designed to operate at the intersection of private collection and public engagement, Cheng-Lan’s Corner is designed not only to be an addition to the neighborhood but an integral part of its cultural fabric, integrated through a dense public program able to engage with its diverse communities and their differing needs. The inaugural exhibition is a case in point: Dayrit’s core concerns around labor and migration constitute a program of workshops aimed at the Filipino community, scheduled on their days off, in a city where finding accessible space remains a constant challenge.
You’ll find Qing Lan Corner on a residential street behind a main road, intersecting with Caen Road, a street that once served as a historical demarcation line between places where foreign and Chinese residents were allowed to live. “We are very aware of the cultural context we live in,” Yu emphasized, pointing to the mosque at the top of the hill and the Baptist church down the street. The couple was very aware of the cultural layers of this location and chose it deliberately.
Investing in and engaging with the community has been central to Bi and Yue’s approach to fundraising, and thus to their conception of the foundation’s role. They are part of a generation that doesn’t just want to own; They want to engage with the culture, learn about the artist, actively pursue their path and build a collection that has the potential to make a long-term impact. “We’re trying hard to think beyond the physical space, and we’ve realized that support and platform are really the software of everything,” said Bee. Even before finding the physical space, they started a residency fellowship program in collaboration with the Delfina Foundation in London and Parasite in Hong Kong called the Harbor Exchange Fellowship Programme.
The logic was clear and straightforward: combine two powerful initiatives to create something greater than the sum of its parts rather than trying to build from scratch. “They each have the resources, experience and dedicated teams to do it right,” Pei said of the programme, which installs a Hong Kong-based creative at Delfina Foundation in London, while a UK-based creative comes to Para Site in Hong Kong. “We are very keen to create this kind of exchange, which is reflected in our broader programmes,” Yu added. “We want to strengthen the broader local and regional ecosystem, but also have exchanges with international artists.”
The response since launch has been very positive. Hong Kong’s art scene is characterized by a rare sense of camaraderie and collaboration compared to the regional and fragmented ecosystems in other major art centers such as New York and London. Virtually every major organization has sent someone to its opening, and those encounters have translated into real goodwill and ongoing relationships. Yue attributes this in part to the size of the community: smaller than London or New York, it naturally fosters coordination and personal connections, as people know each other across multiple roles at once.
During the installation, many passersby stopped to ask what was happening. Then a child from a nearby elementary school pulled his mother inside and asked, “What is this?” While she was asking him to leave, Yui invited them both in. Those moments made clear what they wanted Cheng-Lan Corner to be: a door always open, a third space in a neighborhood that doesn’t have enough of them, a place that truly belongs to everyone. Pei and Weiwei spoke of broader excitement in Hong Kong, with new initiatives like theirs emerging at the same time and bringing new energy to the city’s expanding creative ecosystems. “The more initiatives there are, the better the ecosystem becomes. Especially with this generation, people are more keen on building community and building together.”
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