HKU Bulletin May 2009 (Vol. 10 No. 2)

people, and local schools, have little interest in museums. “When I ask the teachers and principals why they don’t send their students to our museums they have many reasons – not enough time, too much preparation to organize – but I think the government should do more to promote museum visits, it should be part of the regular school programme. “Traditionally we study text books. Most schools have libraries so students can learn from books, but libraries collect only written works, all thoughts are in book form. In contrast, museums contain a different type of information, it’s visual. This information is firsthand, made by ancient peoples. Hong Kong’s Oldest Museum: A Well-Kept Secret Curator Yeung Chun Tong and his team operate the University’s 53-year-old Museum with both strategy and passion. E stablished in 1953 in the Fung Ping Shan Building, the University Museum and Art Gallery is a little gem of Chinese treasures. Over the last five decades it has proved a pioneer in many respects, being the first art gallery in Hong Kong to see the value of contemporary Chinese oil paintings, and the first to collaborate with museums on the Mainland. Museum Director, Mr Yeung Chun Tong, has spent almost his entire career at the Museum, joining in 1976 as Assistant to the Curator. He recalls that after 1977, the Museum started to hold more exhibitions and educational activities then, in 1979 became first museum in Hong Kong to collaborate with a museum in China. “That exhibition displayed ceramic sculptures from Shiwan, near Guangzhou. After its success we, and the other government museums, started to do more projects with Mainland China. “At that time we had a quite comprehensive collection of Chinese ceramics, but only a few of them were masterpieces, so we tried to acquire more study pieces for teaching – that was our acquisition policy.” But poor funding has always been an issue and has limited the scope of what the Museum has been able to achieve. “It takes a lot of money to mount an exhibition of ancient Chinese art,” says Yeung. “If we borrow an exhibition from China we have to pay a loan fee, transport costs, insurance, hospitality for Chinese visitors.” But he is philosophical about their limitations. “All museums suffer from a lack of funding – even the British Museum has this problem. We have to be realistic, we have to work our programme and build up our collection within a limited budget.” Strong public support, from the likes of Dr Annie Wong and Dr T.T. Tsui, has helped enormously in building up collections and also expanding into a new building. “In the mid-1990s we entered a new phase, we had more funding, recruited more staff and I was lucky enough to become the Director in 1997.” Unfortunately, he has discovered that Hong Kong PEOPLE The rest of the time the team works very closely with local consulates and, last year, attracted seven thousand visitors to the Picasso exhibition, held in conjunction with the French Consulate. The efficiency of Yeung’s team is such that their exhibit hall is fully booked two years in advance. “The consulates bring travelling exhibitions here and we provide a free venue and manpower. People realize that we can do the work within a tight budget and in very little time which, in turn, attracts new exhibits. “We can also produce books, organize seminars, present talks, and teach art courses. We have the expertise, and this is our strength. We have many constraints, of space and budget, but we believe in working hard and learning more. “For me, a world class museum is a memorable, impressive museum, it all depends on the quality of the activities. Not al l the best movies, for example, are the ones wi th the biggest budget.” “Al l the works here are histor ical records. When you think about it, almost all students study history – architecture students, medical student – history is a compulsory subject. I am not just talking about a museum of art, we should also have museums of medical history, natural history and so on. That’s why museum education is so important, but unfortunately it is neglected here.” Earlier this year the Museum displayed over 100 artifacts, spanning a thousand years, from the Ningxia region of northern China. Held in collaboration with the Ningxia Cultural Relics Bureau, the exhibition showed the vast cultural exchange between China, the Middle East and the rest of Asia with Muslim, Buddhist and Han influences on display. “It takes about a year to organize an exhibition like this,” says Yeung. “And we can only afford to mount one of this type every two years, because of the expense, which must be covered by donations alone.” 32 Mr Yeung Chun Tong 33