A delegation of academicians from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and mainland media journalists visited some remarkable construction projects in Hong Kong this week. The Hong Kong Palace Museum is on top of their agenda, which was a great pleasure and honor for us.
Our museum, a new landmark of the city, is set to open in July next year to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Upon completion, the museum will become a cultural icon contributing to the city’s expanding portfolio as a global hub for arts and cultural exchanges.
Hong Kong aims to impress the world with its amazing cultural richness and remarkable conclusiveness, from politics to economic aspects. The museum, a marvelous piece of architecture, visualizes both cultural amalgamation and aesthetical hybrids. Located at the western tip of the West Kowloon Cultural District, the museum enjoys sweeping views of Hong Kong’s iconic Victoria Harbour. It occupies 10,000 square meters with a total floor area of about 30,000 square meters and an exhibition space of 7,800 square meters. The museum will be the symbol of architectural inclusiveness in the digital age of the 21st century, while the landscape on the other side of the harbor resembles the legend of commercialization in the 20th century.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum aspires to become an important education center in Hong Kong to enrich and transform people’s understanding of Chinese art and culture through fresh and accessible content, creative programming, and new technologies. Most importantly, it endeavors to foster a stronger sense of national identity and cultural confidence of the younger generation
Designed by Rocco Design Architects, the interior and exterior of the museum building embodies in many ways a key concept in Chinese cosmology, which is the balance between the opposing and complementary elements, such as yin and yang, hardness and softness. The exterior and overall shape of the museum building is inspired by the simple elegance and exquisite surface of Chinese art objects. One atrium inside the museum features a ceiling inspired by the roof tiles with yellow glaze that grace major buildings inside the Forbidden City. The ceiling is evocative of a bamboo curtain in shape and translucency.
The design of the museum atrium draws inspiration from Chinese architecture, and particularly the horizontal spatial configuration along the central axis of the Forbidden City. Different floors are connected vertically through three atriums, which reference gardens and courtyards adjacent to buildings inside the Forbidden City. These three atriums offer sweeping views of the museum’s entrance plaza, the Hong Kong Island skyline, and Lantau Island. Visitors will enjoy the perfect harmony between the museum building and nature.
In its 7,800 square meters of gallery space, the museum will showcase a rich and diverse selection of paintings, calligraphic works, decorative arts objects, and rare books loaned from the Palace Museum. Nine exhibitions are planned for the opening of the museum, in which some of the finest of the over 900 priceless items on loan from the Palace Museum will be on display. Many of these items are grade-one national treasures and have never been displayed outside the Chinese mainland. The holdings of some of the rarest and most culturally and artistically significant items of Chinese art will make the museum one of the most important global centers for the study and appreciation of Chinese art and culture.
Excellent progress has been made on the construction of the museum building over the past three years, despite the social unrest in 2019 and the adverse impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Work on the interior is well underway, including exhibition galleries, the auditorium, learning spaces, a souvenir shop, and restaurants, for completion in early 2022. The public opening is targeted for July 2022, after environmental stabilization, gallery fit-out works, and the installation of exhibits from the Palace Museum.
After opening, the museum will attach great importance to education and international cultural exchanges.
The need for accessible, relevant, dynamic, and impactful learning content and programs for Chinese art and culture is growing greatly in Hong Kong. There are perceptions that Chinese art and culture is old, remote, irrelevant, or hard to understand. The museum aspires to become an important education center in Hong Kong to enrich and transform people’s understanding of Chinese art and culture through fresh and accessible content, creative programming, and new technologies. Most importantly, it endeavors to foster a stronger sense of national identity and cultural confidence of the younger generation of Hong Kong.
The museum has a strong global vision to make itself a powerhouse for advancing dialogue among world civilizations. It will expand its global reach and impact by developing international collaborations through strategic cultural partnerships, research, and touring exhibitions on world civilizations. The museum is in discussions with cultural institutions in France, Italy, and Liechtenstein to show their world-class art treasures in Hong Kong. It also plans to bring a blockbuster Chinese archaeological exhibition to two major museums in the US after its debut in Hong Kong in 2023. Going global enables Chinese culture to connect with a global audience and contribute to China’s soft power around the world.
I look forward to seeing you at the museum in eight months’ time.
The author is the director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.