HONG KONG, January 24, 2013—When hundreds of millions of people are trying to pull themselves out of poverty and, in some cases, into enviable wealth, it’s understandable that they pay more mind to accounting and finance than to iambic pentameter or Abstract Expressionism. For them, school is about getting a job. So it’s a truism from Hong Kong to China to Singapore that high school and college students overwhelmingly favor technical and practical fields over the arts and humanities (and often score astronomically on the match section of the SAT).
When I was an independent college counselor, my experience bore out these trends.
I worked with many brilliant high school students from Asia, and a great many of them predictably sought degrees in engineering, business, and the hard sciences. One of my few Asian clients who wanted to major in art history wrote an application essay about how unorthodox—nearly rebellious—his choice was. He is dedicated to art in part because he is tired of the dull, practical stereotypes. And he knows that, in Asia, as everywhere else, the pleasure, individuality, and creative thinking that accompanies art and the appreciation thereof is inestimably valuable.
(Not insignificantly, an interest in art probably increases a student’s chances of admission, if only for being unique and passionate.)
Fortunately, that student’s interests reflect a broader trend that is, slowly, gaining strength in Asia. Of the many schools I visited these past two weeks, perhaps the most interesting and most impressive is Singapore’s School of the Arts (SOTA). SOTA’s campus, which it calls a “Laboratory of Creativity,” would make the average glee club swoon. Its brand-new five-story building includes theaters, art studios, music rooms, and communal spaces all meant to stoke the imaginations and skills of Singapore’s most dedicated young artists.
Situated smack in the middle of Singapore’s otherwise antiseptic financial district, the school itself is an aesthetic showpiece that demonstrates just how profound an impact a little bit of creativity can have on a city.
Will Hong Kong Take Queues From Singapore?
Up the coast from Singapore, Hong Kong has not yet created anything on the order of SOTA, but one of its new schools is nonetheless placing a strong emphasis on art. A college counselor with whom I met said that she was delighted by her school’s art offerings because, aside from their intrinsic benefits to the students, they will enable her students to distinguish themselves from their more conventional peers. In short, an arts education will likely make her students stronger college candidates.
With that said, students who focus on art sometimes do so to the detriment of the maths and sciences. It behooves arts-minded students not to ignore those subjects, and it’s certain that strong math SAT scores can go a long way towards convincing colleges that the expert ceramicist or aspiring tenor are indeed great students. If so, then not only may Julliard, Berklee, and RISD be in reach, but Stanford, Princeton, and UCLA as well.
I won’t be surprised if her students and those at SOTA turn out to be some of the most successful members of their generation, pushing Singaporean culture to new heights. They’ll come up with great art and maybe even innovative business ideas, and their work will, in turn, inspire even their more practical-minded peers. And that’s exactly what art is supposed to do.
