Imagine a cultural complex several times the size of Lincoln Center sitting on a long peninsula jutting into the heart of one of the world's greatest natural harbors, with four giant museums, four large concert halls and theaters, a school for the arts and more.

That is what the Hong Kong government wants to build. It has already commissioned a design by Norman Foster for an immense canopy of clear plastic over the peninsula and taken bids from developers to build the complex, the West Kowloon Cultural District.

But the project has become the center of a bitter debate in the last few weeks. Artists here are deeply split on the idea, and a street demonstration on Christmas Day drew hundreds of protesters. Since the three main proposals for the district's layout were put on display in a Kowloon hall in mid-December, nearly 50,000 residents have flocked to see them.

International cultural institutions and even world leaders are being drawn into the fray. Hong Kong is Asia's busiest transportation hub and the gateway to China, prompting a free-for-all among major American and European museums that would like to play a role in the complex. President Jacques Chirac of France flew here in October to ask Hong Kong leaders to choose the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris to operate one of the four museums in the district, making it potentially the center's first overseas operation. But the Pompidou Center finds itself in sometimes catty sniping with rival institutions that also want to run museums in the district, notably New York's Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the Museum of Modern Art. 

Editor: Donald