Alternative Modes of Arts Participation Survey Highlights – Xiqu

Hong Kong Arts Development Council commissioned a research consultancy to study the public perceptions of and behaviours on alternative modes of arts participation during COVID-19, in particular being the audience via alternative channels such as social media, paid video-on-demand platforms, and TV / radio broadcast. An online survey was conducted in January 2021 on a random sample of 1,500 Hong Kong citizens aged 16-64. Full report of the survey has been published here. The following is a summary of findings on the Xiqu section.

1	Changes in Overall Participation Incidence
	1.1	Participation in Xiqu programmes dropped from 16% in 2018-2019 to 12% during COVID-19. (See the left of the chart below)
	1.2	Of the 1,500 respondents, 37% had at some point participated in Xiqu programmes as audience. 8% of the respondents were Retaining Participants, who were not influenced by COVID-19 and had participated in all time periods. (See the right of the chart below)
	1.3	Despite 7% of the respondents having lapsed since the COVID-19 outbreak, 2% resumed participation in Xiqu programmes during the epidemic. (See the right of the chart below)
	1.4	From the chart below, it could be seen that men (15%) were more consistent Xiqu audience than women (9%) during COVID-19. This might be due to the fact that men were more used to watching Xiqu programmes via alternative modes even before the epidemic (among the Xiqu participants in 2018-2019, 83% of male had ever participated in alternative modes while the corresponding figure for female was 72%). Men were therefore more easily adapted to alternative-mode participation during COVID-19 than women were.
	1.5	In addition, respondents aged 25-44 and married persons having children under the age of 18 were more active in participating in Xiqu programmes as audience.
2	Physical-mode and Alternative-mode Participation and Future Potential
	2.1	The percentage of audience participation in Xiqu programmes via alternative modes grew from 78% in 2018-2019 to 95% during COVID-19. The main channels were TV/radio broadcast, social media platforms and paid video-on-demand platforms. (See the right of the chart below)
	2.2	Compared to physical-mode participation before the epidemic, alternative-mode participation in Xiqu programmes during COVID-19 was more frequent. (From the left of the chart below, in 2018-2019, 47% of physical-mode participants participated 2 times or more on average per year; whereas during COVID-19, 57% of alternative-mode participants participated 2 times or more.)
	2.3	During COVID-19, 37% of participants were willing to pay for alternative-mode Xiqu programmes. (See the left of the chart below)
	2.4	Participation rate in non-local Xiqu programmes during COVID-19 was higher. (40%, see the left of the chart below)
	2.5	36% of all respondents expressed interest in watching Xiqu programmes at post-COVID-19 period, nearly double the actual participation incidence (19%) in Jan 2018 - Jan 2021. The interest growth was mainly towards physical-mode Xiqu programmes (from 8% to 22%, see the chart below).
3	Potential Participants
	3.1	Over 35% of the respondents expressed interest in watching Xiqu programmes at post-COVID-19 period. From the chart below, it could be seen that the sample of potential participants (the right column) and that of Xiqu audience from Jan 2018 to Jan 2021 (the middle column) were both skewed towards married persons having children under the age of 18.
	3.2	While married persons having children under the age of 18 were more interested in Xiqu programmes, they were relatively more concerned with the experience or technical issues associated with alternative-mode programmes. However, those who did express interest in future alternative-mode programmes were willing to pay more for such programmes. (See the chart below)
	3.3	Men and women showed similar levels of interest towards either physical- or alternative-mode participation in Xiqu programmes at post-COVID-19 period. However, women were willing to pay more for alternative-mode Xiqu programmes. (See the chart below)
	3.4	More than 70% of potential participants at post-COVID-19 period did not watch any Xiqu programmes at the moment (i.e. they were Lapsed Participants or Non-participants). For those who expressed interest in physical-mode participation, they had not watched any Xiqu programmes in 2018-2019 mainly due to high ticket prices. Therefore, in order to attract them to attending physical-mode Xiqu programmes, the ticket prices should be more affordable. (See the chart below)
Click here to download the full analysis on the Xiqu section.