Philip Bowring

Opinion | Hong Kong Museum of History must flesh out the city’s story

The interim exhibit at the museum gives much space to the culture of ‘indigenous people’, although after 1841 Hong Kong was populated largely by immigrants

It also lacks a sense of how Hong Kong came to be a major commercial and maritime centre

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Visitors experience an old Hong Kong food stall on October 16, 2020, as they visit the Hong Kong Museum of History’s permanent exhibition before it is closed for renovation. Photo: Robert Ng

Philip Bowring

Published: 7:00am, 28 Feb 2021Updated: 7:15am, 28 Feb 2021

With the Chinese Communist Party celebrating its centenary this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping has urged study of its history, of Marxism and socialism with Chinese characteristics. The president’s focus on history reminded this writer to visit the Hong Kong Museum of History which has recently reopened.

Its earlier incarnation was often described as the best museum in Hong Kong, combining vivid visual displays with a thorough account of history, which was generally regarded as fair and balanced. What would museum designers in the era of President Xi make of this history?

Aligning it with any new expectations would not have been easy, given that though Hong Kong contributed significantly to other revolutionary history, it played scant role in that of the Communist Party. Furthermore, at almost all times in the past 180 years, since the British took possession of Hong Kong island in January 1841 – one year before this was formalised in the Treaty of Nanjing – its population has increased 1,000-fold, thanks to influxes of patriots seeking better, safer freer lives.

It would be unfair to compare the current exhibition with its predecessor. It is an interim display a fraction of the size. However, if history and identity are, as they should be, closely linked, this new exhibition suggests an effort, conscious or not, to downplay the big themes of history in favour of the harmless and meaningless.

Long queues are seen outside the Hong Kong Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui on the last day of The Hong Kong Story permanent exhibition on October 18, 2020. While the permanent exhibition is being revamped, an exhibition “Recreating a Classic: The Best Features of The Hong Kong Story” is being held. Photo: Winson Wong

There is little objectively wrong with the displays, nor obvious historical biases. It is what is not there that is striking, as though the organiser were too scared of the subject so retreated into folklorique assemblages of costumes and temple artefacts and collections of mundane objects. Far from “recreating a classic” with “the best features of the Hong Kong story”, it is a shadow of its predecessor.

Opinion | Hong Kong Museum of History must flesh out the city’s story

The interim exhibit at the museum gives much space to the culture of ‘indigenous people’, although after 1841 Hong Kong was populated largely by immigrants It also lacks a sense of how Hong Kong came to be a major commercial and maritime centre

The interim exhibit at the museum gives much space to the culture of ‘indigenous people’, although after 1841 Hong Kong was populated largely by immigrants

It also lacks a sense of how Hong Kong came to be a major commercial and maritime centre