(East-West Question) Wu Zhihua: What is the mission of the Hong Kong Palace Museum?
China News Agency, Hong Kong, June 20th: Wu Zhihua: What is the mission of the Hong Kong Palace Museum?
China News Agency reporter Zeng Ping
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which has been in preparation for many years, is about to open.
How this new museum on the waterfront of Victoria Harbour will meet the world has attracted much attention.
Dr. Wu Zhihua, director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East-West Question", explaining the mission of the museum and the cultural value of its opening to Hong Kong.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service: What kind of preparation and exhibition process did the Hong Kong Palace Museum go through? What cultural value does its opening have to Hong Kong?
Wu Zhihua:
The Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Palace Museum signed a cooperation agreement on the construction of the Hong Kong Palace Museum on June 29, 2017 in the presence of President Xi Jinping. After that, we made every effort to promote the construction of the museum.
In the early stage, the focus was on the design and construction of the building, followed by planning the exhibition content and planning for the future operation and development.
At that time, after I participated in the initial planning, I returned to my post in the Leisure and Cultural Affairs Department of the SAR Government. I was looking forward to recruiting a suitable curator to lead this project.
Hong Kong Palace Museum.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Zhihua
When I was appointed as the director in August 2019, there was only one secretary in the museum, and I recruited every subsequent employee, and the team slowly built up.
In November 2020, the museum was flat-topped. At that time, local media were concerned about whether the project would be delayed or overrun. I told them that I was confident that it would not, because this is a gift from the country to Hong Kong, and we will definitely make this project well.
The next step is to determine the positioning and vision of the museum.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum is not a branch of the Beijing Palace Museum, and it is also different from the Taipei Palace Museum.
We hope to promote the integrated development of cultural undertakings in Hong Kong and the Mainland, integrate Hong Kong's cultural development into the overall national cultural development, and at the same time spread Chinese traditional culture to the world audience, and help Hong Kong develop into a cultural and artistic exchange center between China and foreign countries.
The central government and the audience including mainland compatriots are very supportive of our museum, so this project can also connect the hearts of Hong Kong and mainland people.
In Hong Kong, the opening of the museum provides the younger generation with an opportunity to learn about the country's history and culture, and hopes to encourage them to participate in cultural heritage and innovation.
Hong Kong Palace Museum.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Zhihua
China News Agency reporter: What is the historical relationship between Hong Kong and the Forbidden City? What kind of support does the Palace Museum give to the Hong Kong Palace Museum? What local elements does the new museum incorporate?
Wu Zhihua:
Hong Kong has a deep relationship with the Forbidden City.
In the late Qing Dynasty, some cultural relics from the Forbidden City flowed out and appeared in the Hong Kong auction market in the 1950s.
A group of people in Hong Kong came forward to coordinate to help these national treasures return.
There are also a group of collectors in Hong Kong who collected a lot of ancient Chinese cultural relics from the 1950s to the 1970s, usually only collecting them but not selling them.
Many of them are people who are interested in protecting traditional Chinese culture. Later, many people donated their collections to the Palace Museum in Beijing.
One of our opening exhibitions will present the stories of these collectors and donors.
Therefore, although Hong Kong was governed by the United Kingdom before 1997, many Hong Kong people have the heart to contribute and serve the country.
From this point of view, the establishment of the Hong Kong Palace Museum has historical development factors. Some of the exhibits were donated by Hong Kong collectors, and we brought them back to Hong Kong from the Palace Museum for display.
The Palace Museum has given us a lot of support. The Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum are not only strategic cooperation, but also brother museums.
The Forbidden City in Beijing has invested a lot of manpower, material resources and time to support us, work together to build the Forbidden City in Hong Kong, and work together to spread Chinese culture to the world.
Our relationship is that I have you and you have me.
During the exhibition planning process, the staff of the Palace Museum respected us very much, gave us many useful suggestions, and invested a lot of people to support us in the past one or two years.
Because the 914 cultural relics involve different departments, they will go to the warehouse to see if each exhibit is suitable for exhibition in Hong Kong.
Of course, the cooperation on the opening of the museum is just the beginning. We will have a lot of cooperation in the future, including planning the rotation of exhibits, and jointly holding academic exchanges and educational activities.
914 precious cultural relics from the Palace Museum in Beijing, including the white glazed baby pillow from the Northern Song Dynasty Ding kiln, a national first-class cultural relic, will be unveiled at the opening exhibition of the Hong Kong Palace Museum in July.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Cui Nan
The Hong Kong Palace Museum is located in the best part of West Kowloon, Hong Kong. There is a sea outside, and the sea is a very important manifestation of Hong Kong.
The Forbidden City is dominated by red walls in the mainland, and we are the blue waves of the ocean.
The architect did not design it as a closed venue, but to cooperate with the outside art park.
In addition to connecting some spaces to the outside, the designer also draws on the concept of the palace atrium of the Forbidden City to create three three-dimensional and interconnected atriums. The ceiling in the middle is made of modern aluminum materials, similar to but different from glazed tiles. It is a result of digesting traditional architectural elements. modern expression.
After admiring the relics of the Forbidden City in the exhibition hall, visitors will come out to see the cityscape of Hong Kong in the atrium, which is a staggered experience.
Therefore, the design of the entire pavilion takes into account the relationship between Chinese culture and the characteristics of Hong Kong and the entire urban landscape.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum has three atriums, each with a ceiling of glazed tile outlines and colors.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Zhihua
China News Agency reporter: What is the charm of cultural relics in your heart? How can ancient Palace Museum relics maximize their historical value and cultural energy in Hong Kong, a modern and international city? What are the possible new spaces?
Wu Zhihua:
I think cultural relics have three values: first, historical value.
Many cultural relics reflect the development process of the country's five thousand years of civilization. When people view cultural relics, they understand the history of that time, including social and economic history, through cultural relics.
Second, artistic value.
The famous paintings of Tang and Song Dynasties have been circulated for so many years, because the beauty of art is permanent.
Third, emotional value.
Seeing the country's long history will strengthen the public's historical awareness and enhance cultural self-confidence.
When presenting and expressing cultural relics to the audience, we cannot just traditionally put them in the showcase and give explanations next to them, but tell the story behind each cultural relic and share it with the audience.
Such as how its owner created and used it, some stories are interesting, maybe small things about family, love.
After the audience knows it, it is easy to feel and resonate.
At the same time, we must use modern expressions to let visitors know that the original cultural relics are also related to their current life.
For example, the ancient emperor felt hot in the Qing palace, and he had to transport the ice from the iceberg back to the ice cellar for storage. This has a connection and comparison with the ice in modern life.
We will present the cultural relics of the Forbidden City to Hong Kong and Chinese and foreign audiences in a vivid, interesting and three-dimensional manner.
Hong Kong is a place where Chinese and Western cultures are exchanged and integrated. The techniques and artistic expressions of Hong Kong researchers, curators and artists have both foreign and traditional Chinese elements.
Some of our curators are traditional, some are groundbreaking, such as inviting local designer Huang Bingpei (Yi Shanren) to re-present the Forbidden City artifacts.
Huang Bingpei is very good at expressing traditional culture with modern methods, and the audience will have a completely different feeling when they see the cultural relics interpreted by him.
We also invited 6 young multimedia artists to create multimedia exhibits using the Forbidden City concept.
Some of them use modern speakers to present the music of the Forbidden City, and some use landscapes to re-understand the mechanical principles of clocks.
These are the connections between the traditional and the modern, and they show the characteristics of the Forbidden City from the perspective of Hong Kong. I hope the audience will have a different feeling from the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Forbidden City in Taipei when they visit.
The seventh exhibition hall of the Hong Kong Palace Museum is being installed.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Cui Nan
China News Service: What role will the Hong Kong Palace Museum play in the exchange of Chinese and Western cultural and expositions? How does it fit in with the adjacent M+ Museum?
Wu Zhihua:
Our focus is on connecting foreign museums. Culture and art have no political language.
Many foreign audiences are very fond of exhibitions of Chinese culture and art. We hope to promote the exhibitions we have done to foreign countries through our own network. Many of our team members have work experience in Europe and the United States and are very familiar with the tastes of Western audiences. Our exhibitions Both are bilingual in Chinese and English, and the other party knows that we have sufficient professional ability, which is our strength.
At the same time, we can bring in the exhibitions of foreign museums to carry out peer-to-peer exchange activities.
We can also prepare exhibitions on the theme of Chinese and Western cultural exchanges and hold world tours.
In short, we want to play the role of a contact.
The words "harmonious but different" hang in my office.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum and M+ Museum are institutions with different focus in the West Kowloon Cultural District. M+ starts from modern times and sometimes looks at China.
When we look at the world from ancient China, we will also see modern times.
Some of the goals and concepts of the two are the same, and they work well together.
On the whole, when visitors come to see our traditional culture, and then see the cultures of different parts of the world, their understanding of the whole world will deepen.
China needs to know more about the world's culture in order to have more right to speak, and the world needs to know more about Chinese culture so that it can have a fair understanding of modern China.
We hope that the West Kowloon Cultural District will play a more important role in promoting cultural and artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries.
West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, with the Hong Kong Palace Museum in the foreground and the M Museum on the left.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
China News Agency reporter: What kind of experience should a perfect museum tour bring to visitors? What challenges might the Hong Kong Palace Museum face?
Wu Zhihua:
I don’t think the museum experience can be accomplished in one go.
Our opening exhibition may not be complete in a whole day, so the experience should be divided into several times, and the later times can be used to enjoy this cultural and artistic journey more deeply.
If the audience can tell what some of the artefacts they feel most deeply are like after seeing it, then we have succeeded.
Of course, the most successful is to attract the audience to keep coming back and make visiting a part of life.
The seventh exhibition hall of the Hong Kong Palace Museum is being installed.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Cui Nan
There are two main challenges in the future. First, the management must be in place, and customer service and cultural relic protection must be done well to ensure that the audience can enjoy it.
Second, to achieve our vision and goals requires good projects, talents and funds.
For the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to be responsible for its own profits and losses, it must achieve sustainable development.
In addition to collecting tickets, we will also seek a lot of sponsorship. Cultural and creative products and commercial activities should not be too commercialized, because it is our responsibility to protect the brand of the Forbidden City.
There are challenges, but we are confident that there will be other organisations supporting our work.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Zhihua
Wu Zhihua, Ph.D., Director of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, senior museum expert, historian and art administrator, has been involved in museum planning and management for more than 30 years, and has served in many museums, including the first director of the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence ( Promoted to the rank of Chief Curator in 2002), researches and publishes focusing on the management of Hong Kong's history and cultural heritage.
From 2002 to 2006, he was the Executive Secretary of the Antiquities and Monuments Office.
Before joining the Hong Kong Palace Museum, he was the Deputy Director of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government.