A Hong Kong showcase at an Asia-focused festival in Australia was pulled after organizers raised concerns about yellow umbrellas being used as props, prompting a discussion in Australian parliament Thursday about the event’s possible political censorship.
“Any political interference or censorship in arts and cultural events is unacceptable,” Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said in a Thursday senate meeting, adding that the issue will be investigated.
The item was raised in response to Australian media reports that the organizers of the OzAsia Festival, an annual event in Adelaide, canceled the Hong Kong Cultural Association of South Australia (CASA)’s workshop—which was meant to take place over the past weekend—due to its proposed use of yellow umbrellas.
In an email to CASA, festival organizers included a link to a Wikipedia entry of Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement. “Unfortunately, we are unable to approve the use of the yellow umbrellas as props or decor,” OzAsia Festival wrote in a September email, according to Australian network SBS.
Featuring workshops, performances, movie screenings and sharings by Asian speakers, the arts festival is being held from Oct. 21 to Nov. 7.
According to OzAsia Festival’s brochure, the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney is an “executive festival partner,” while the University of Adelaide’s Confucius Institute is listed under a list of “program partners.” Coconuts has reached out to both bodies about the cancelation.
“We felt shocked and disappointed about the political censorship and cancellation of our community participation in the OzAsia Festival at the last minute after getting organizer’s confirmation,” CASA told Coconuts.
Janet Leung, chairperson of CASA, told SBS in a report published Sunday that organizers approved their application to hold the Hong Kong event back in August. The application proposed an interactive workshop in the festival’s “Lucky Dumpling Market” on Oct. 23 and 24, and would include a Lennon wall, a timeline of Hong Kong’s history and yellow umbrellas—a pro-democracy symbol—used as props.
Then, in September, Leung received an email from organizers saying that they cannot allow the use of yellow umbrellas, ostensibly because of their political connotations. By the end of the month, organizers dropped the group’s workshop altogether, citing COVID-19.
“We are quite sure that they felt it is too sensitive for the Hong Kong Cultural Association to be in their event, but that is our guess,” Leung told ABC Australia.
The association’s workshop was absent from the entertainment line-up posted by Lucky Dumpling Market’s Facebook page last week.
In a statement to ABC, an OzAsia spokesperson said that the cancelation was not related to the content of the workshop. The spokesperson added that OzAsia encourages “divergent social, political and cultural themes.”
Coconuts has reached out to OzAsia for comment, but has not heard back at the time of writing.
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