"PR agency" for China

Over the past decade, Gaertner traveled frequently between the mainland and Hong Kong for academic exchanges and business cooperation.

He had a one-semester exchange program in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen before attending HKU, and visited many mainland cities for working purposes in recent years.

For Gaertner, Hong Kong has an irreplaceable role as a creative center through blended art and history. "There is a lot of divergent thinking between eastern and western ideas in Hong Kong, and we can combine them. I think that's what the real role is of Hong Kong."

Hong Kong can make use of its unique geographical location and policy advantages to be a "PR (public relations) agency between the world and China," offering a distinctive window for the world to learn about Chinese culture and promote cultural exchange, he said.

As one of the six creative industries, the film industry in Hong Kong has faced a prolonged downturn for almost two decades since the early 1990s.

To change that, Gaertner believes Hong Kong's film industry needs to break away from the traditional model of producing stylized content to revitalize the ecosystem.

"Hong Kong should attract talents from all over the world, develop cultural and creative industries, and give young people more opportunities to realize their dreams."

Also, the government should proactively support such subsidies and projects that give people in Hong Kong the confidence and mental wellbeing in "making things" like paintings, handwork, podcasts, entrepreneurship, film, media, among others, and turn that into a viable career choice, he said.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government has since 1999 established the Film Development Fund to finance projects conducive to the long-term development of the film industry. The scope was expanded in 2007 to provide financial support for the production of small-to-medium budget films.

"The difficulty would be that these initiatives would need to be carefully monitored and subsidized in the right direction while being very bold and daring for the better good. But I think that is where our efforts should go."