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A TOUR THROUGH THE MUSEUMS OF HONG KONG- THE NEW AND THE OLD
By Ann Hattes
From "a barren rock with hardly a house upon it" a mere 160 years ago, Hong Kong has evolved into the world's fourth largest banking and financial center with almost seven million people and soaring ultramodern skyscrapers. For all its high tech sophistication however, Hong Kong is ever mindful of its history. Amid the teeming streets and neon rush of a city bent on commerce, visitors find buildings, museums and landmarks that evoke its Chinese-British heritage and recall the pace of gentler times. A range of museums exhibits every facet of Hong Kong's history and arts, from ancient to modern times.
Hong Kong's Heritage Museum - Opened December 2000: Old Hong Kong hands head for the New Territories when they need a fix of forest and mountain, ancient temples and clan houses, small villages and sleepy fishing towns. But, another reason to go is the new $108 million five-story Hong Kong Heritage Museum "It's important to see because it focuses on several thousands of years of Hong Kong's unique heritage," said Stephen Wong of the Hong Kong Tourism Association. "It's the biggest museum in Hong Kong with a special section on Chinese opera, a special section on the transformation and evolution of the New Territories in the past 6000 years, with six permanent and six temporary exhibit areas," summed up Wong.
Patterned after one of ancient China's palaces that Marco Polo may have described, the museum is constructed according to traditional Chinese courtyard design with a central axis, Chinese roofs and corridors linking all exhibition galleries. It evokes the fortified palaces that protected New Territories clans against outlaws and weather. In the permanent exhibits of New Territories Heritage Hall, time tunnels chart prehistoric life, the natural environment, trade and coastal defenses, village stories, the lives of fisher folk and colonial rule after annexation as a British colony.
The T.T. Tsui Gallery of fine and decorative Chinese Arts features ancient Chinese bronzes, ceramics and dynastic pottery, plus Tibetan Buddha statues and paintings. The shed theater setting of the Cantonese Opera Heritage Hall offers a "backstage" display of costumes, make-up, documents and memorabilia from famed performances. Cantonese opera, the performing art typical of Guangdong Province, plays a special role in Chinese society in Hong Kong, southern China and Cantonese communities overseas. Interactive and hands-on exhibits in the permanent Children's Discovery Gallery focus on nature and Hong Kong history with an inaugural exhibit about the development of local toys.
Six special exhibits ranging from ancient to avant-garde and from the imperial to the popular mark the inauguration of the museum. Qing Imperial Banquet displaying a hundred objects on loan from the Palace Museum of Beijing offers insight into the grand occasions of Qing dynasty imperial banquets. The Art of Traditional Chinese Woodblock Printing illustrates the historical and artistic significance of this traditional printing method with a display of rare Lunar New Year woodblocks and prints plus a reconstructed workshop. Hong Kong Digital Art shows new dimensions in the application of digital technology to artistic creation. Hong Kong Home: Multi-Stories, looks at interior design in Hong Kong across time and class. Visitors can create their own interior designs and redecorate their own homes via interactive computer. The Living in the 21st. Century exhibit interprets millennial challenges by local artists and students. Hong Kong Comic World shows the development of Hong Kong society through the vision of a comic world.
Museum of Coastal Defense - Opened Summer 2000; even back in the fifteenth century Hong Kong was playing a pivotal role in the affairs of the east and west. Then, the future great maritime metropolis, was a strategic outpost guarding China's southern gateway against invasion by pirates and western imperialists. Forts and batteries dotted the coastline, and war junks patrolled the waters off Hong Kong. Following the British occupation, more coastal defense works were built, and Hong Kong became the major British naval base northeast of Singapore in the Far East.
The Lei Yue Mun Fort, built in 1887 to defend the eastern approaches to the harbor against possible attacks by Russia or France, is one of the oldest and best-preserved British coastal fortresses. The Redoubt, the heart of the fort's defense system, consisted of 18 casements, while additional batteries formed defensive line along the waterfront. When Japan invaded Hong Kong in 1941, the fort was an important battlefield and the units there suffered heavy casualties. Following an extensive renovation, the fort opened in the summer of 2000 as the Museum of Coastal Defense, in recognition of its historical significance and unique architecture. The Redoubt is the museum's primary exhibition area, with its casements and tunnels devoted to Hong Kong's coastal defense systems from the Ming and Qing Dynasties through the British period, Japanese occupation and the present period. In addition to text and graphics, many military artifacts are on display. The fort's other historic structures, such as the gun batteries, Brennan Torpedo Station, caponiers and magazines, form a trail unfolding their roles in the fort's network of defense.
Hong Kong Museum of History - Opening in 2001; in new quarters at 100 Chatham Road South in Kowloon, next to the Science Museum, the reconfigured Museum of History opens its permanent exhibition in 2001. Displays will introduce Hong Kong's archaeological and ethnological heritage spanning 6,000 years. In the meantime, the lobby is open free of charge and includes exhibits on the Opium War and gifts from the Liaoning Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region to Hong Kong in celebration of its reunification with China.
Hong Kong Museum of Art - On the Tsimshatsu waterfront of Kowloon, the Museum of Art displays hundreds of oil paintings, drawings, etchings and lithographs of old Hong Kong in seven galleries. Also on display are Chinese antiquities, fine arts, and contemporary Hong Kong art, with one gallery devoted to the famous Xubaizhai collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy.
Flagstaff House Museum of Teaware - This museum is housed in the oldest colonial-style building in Hong Kong built in 1846 as the home of the Commander British Forces. The tea ware collection, donated by a local collector, includes pieces mainly of Chinese origin, which date from 1,000years ago to the present.
Hong Kong Space Museum - One of the city's most popular museums, the Space Museum includes exhibits on ancient astronomical history, science fiction, early rockets, launch vehicles, satellites and space probes, manned space flight, the space shuttle, a space station and future space programs.
Hong Kong Science Museum - Fully 60% of the 500 exhibits here are hands-on, with displays about computers and robotics, energy, communication, construction, transportation, food science and home technology.
Sam Tung Uk Museum - Literally a "three-beam" dwelling, Sam Tung Uk is a Hakkavillage founded in the mid-18th. Century by a member of the Chan clan. As a typical example of a rural walled village, Sam Tunk Ukwas declared a historical monument in 1981 and converted into a folk museum. Complete with landscaped gardens, the village contains four period houses restored to their original condition, an ancestral hall, two rows of side houses, and an exhibition hall.
Seeing the museums
A great way to visit the museums is to take advantage of their shuttle and pass program. An air-conditioned Museum Shuttle makes a circular route from the Kowloon Hotel past the History, Science, Space, Heritage and Art Museums on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. A one-month pass (US $10) gives unlimited access to the shuttle and the five named museums.
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