Alice Mong is redefining the arts and culture scene in Hong Kong as the director of the city’s pioneering Asia Society Hong Kong Center.

S. Alice Mong, Executive Director, Asia Society Hong Kong Center

In this episode, you meet Alice Mong, Executive Director at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, a nonprofit organization that hosts cultural and artistic exhibitions and performances.

We recorded this episode in Alice’s office within a historic former British ammunitions lab in the center’s tree-filled campus. She had just returned to the city and was happy to see that the new center had weathered the recent typhoon without much damage.

Asia Society Hong Kong Center – Entry Pavillion. Photo Credit: Asia Society Hong Kong Center

In this episode, you learn about…

•  The Asia Society Center as an oasis of the arts and nature in Hong Kong
• Alice’s experience of moving to the United States as a child
• Working for and building up nonprofits
• Getting young people, especially young women, inspired to create meaningful career pathways for their future

While it now displays art exhibits and houses a theatre, the buildings and grounds at the Asia Society are themselves noteworthy for their historic role in the city’s colonial past, not to mention spectacular harbour views.

Asia Society Hong Kong Centre at dusk during the performance of To Kill a Mockingbird by the Mockingbird Players from Alabama. Photo Credit: Asia Society Hong Kong Center

“I think the historical site to me is what is so unique about this building, this campus.”

This picture was taken at the site in 2004. Photo Credit: Asia Society Hong Kong Center

Alice left her extended family in Taiwan to move to the United States with her parents and siblings at age ten. Not an easy transition, she learned to adjust to a vastly different culture and surroundings as the only Chinese family in her community.

“Like Alice, you’re going to go into a wonderland. Sometimes you’re going to feel big, and sometimes you’re going to feel small. And it is going to be a whole new world and you have to learn to navigate it.”

Alice started working in nonprofit unexpectedly when she took a job as the executive director at the Committee of 100, an organization of Chinese Americans who work to improve relations between China and the United States and promote opportunities for Chinese in the US.

From there, she kept finding work in the world of nonprofits, going on to run the Museum of Chinese in America.

“The mission was something I was very passionate about and I loved the people involved.”

Coming back to Hong Kong in 2011, Alice was set on reentering for-profit work. However, she easily fell back into her nonprofit career helping to open the Asia Society centre and stepped into the role of Executive Director.

“I made the decision that I can do this. I want to do this, not just I can, but I wanted to do it.”

With the cultural and performance space at the centre, Alice helps put together programs that showcase the arts in Hong Kong.

“We were ahead of the curve and I felt that we could contribute in the arts and cultural sector.”

With a staff of about 40 people, plus volunteers, they put on over 200 programs a year. Programs range from arts and culture to business and policy, or educational programming, as well as numerous outside events.

Perhaps most exciting right now for Alice is the Movers & Shakers program, a series of speakers for Hong Kong students aimed at promoting global competence and leadership skills.

Movers and Shakers Program at Asia Society Hong Kong Center. Photo Credit: Asia Society Hong Kong Center

Dream big. Don't be afraid to try, says Alice Mong @AsiaSocietyHK Click To Tweet

It’s possible for everyone to make an impact. Alice urges anyone who wants to make a difference to donate or volunteer to an organization that they care about and believe in.