Editor’s Note: Expected to open in mid-2022, Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) will showcase antiquities from Beijing’s Palace Museum, as seen through a Hong Kong lens. In an exclusive interview to China Daily, Louis Ng, museum director, HKPM, shares how the new museum will aim to re-interpret historical objects through a cross-disciplinary approach and foster cultural conversations beyond geographical boundaries. Excerpts:  

Hong Kong Palace Museum director Louis Ng stands against the backdrop of the museum building under construction in West Kowloon Cultural District. (CALVIN NG/CHINA DAILY)

The architectural design for Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM), designed by Rocco Yim, looks rather modern, even futuristic — not a model one would immediately associate with Imperial Beijing. What’s the thinking here? 

The architectural design of HKPM is (aimed at presenting) a fresh interpretation of Chinese visual and spatial aesthetics. It also bears architectural references to traditional art and architecture, particularly that of the Forbidden City, as well as Hong Kong's urban environment. For example, the shape of the ceiling can be related to certain Chinese art objects. The building itself is very Chinese in that it is square and very solid at the bottom. It’s a very modern structure but the interior design is (informed by) Chinese philosophy and culture. 

I think the key element has to do with the arrangement of the atriums. In the Forbidden City (in Beijing, where the original Palace Museum is) there are open courtyards in between different palace buildings. So the architect tried to present (the idea of inter-connectedness) between indoor and outdoor, courtyard and building, in a vertical form rather than following the Palace Museum’s horizontal layout. 

READ MORE: Main structure of HK Palace Museum building completed

The museum’s three atriums will serve both as collection exhibition galleries as well as viewing platforms, from where a visitor can have magnificent views of Hong Kong Island in the South and Lantau Island in the West. Because of the limited footprint of the site (in West Kowloon Cultural District), we cannot build like the Emperors did. We have to build vertically. 

The museum building has seven floors. The lower ground floor is used as a learning and innovation center. The main entrance is on the ground floor which also has shops, cafes, and one gallery. The main exhibition galleries are located from the second to fourth floor. 

I have to say modern-day architects designing a museum building (of this stature) are like artists, wanting to create a masterpiece. But as museum curators, we have to make sure that the building meets our operational and functional needs, that it suits our purpose of housing our artifacts, and our programs, and at the same time provides visitors with a very exciting experience. 

Designed by Rocco Yim, Hong Kong Palace Museum interiors resonate with Frank Gehry’s crumbling box architectural style, but with Chinese characteristics. (PHOTO COURTESY: HONG KONG PALACE MUSEUM)

We are told HKPM opens in June 2022. Is that still your target?

Yes. And it's a very challenging target. Reporters ask me if I have the confidence to complete the project on time and within the budget, and my answer is: yes.

Our team is working very hard, and the building was topped out in July 2020. It took two and a half years from groundbreaking until now, and the work is progressing very well. I am quite confident that we can take possession of the building around the summer of 2021 and proceed with fitting out the interiors, and building display cases for the exhibitions. 

We will ship all the exhibits from Beijing to Hong Kong in early 2022. This will take three months. 

How many pieces of art are you bringing to HKPM for the opening?

We’re getting 800 objects in all, in four lots. Installing these in the galleries is going to be a very, very time-consuming process, involving experts. Hopefully we will complete installing the exhibits by June 2022 to meet the opening deadline. 

We will open with nine galleries covering 7,800 square meters. 

Gallery one is called Entering the Forbidden City. Here we will introduce the architecture and collections of the Palace Museum, and also the general history of the Ming (1368—1644 CE) and Qing dynasties (1644—1912 CE). Gallery two is called A Day inside the Forbidden City. We will invite visitors to follow in the footsteps of the Qianlong Emperor (1711—1799 CE), experience his journey through a typical day at the Imperial court. I think this approach works better than (showing people) objects. The third gallery will have ceramic artifacts. The fourth gallery is about portraits of emperors and empresses. We will show how prints were made and also try to decode the portraits from multiple perspectives. Gallery five will see a dialogue between Qing decorative art and contemporary design. We are going to engage a very famous local designer, to find out how ancient artifacts inspire his design ideas, and relate to the present.

In gallery six, we will talk about the history of art collecting in Hong Kong, because some Hong Kong art collectors owned artifacts that once belonged to the Qing court in the Forbidden City. Some of them later donated these objects to Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Museum of Art. We want to highlight the role Hong Kong can play in the preservation and promotion of Chinese art and culture. 

Gallery seven will be an educational and interactive space where the visitor can refresh the experience of visiting the previous galleries. 

Galleries eight and nine are reserved for thematic exhibitions. The first exhibition is going to be treasures of painting and calligraphy from the Palace Museum, from the 3rd to 14th century. Many of these are highly important ancient paintings that can only be displayed once every three years, as the paper is sensitive to light. So they are put on display for around a month and then put to sleep again for three years. It is indeed very unusual for the Palace Museum to lend us so many important artifacts. 

ALSO READ: Agreement signed for Hong Kong Palace Museum

We’ll run another exhibition on horses in art. Horses figured prominently in ancient Chinese art, especially in the Qing Dynasty. We will have 84 such items from the Palace Museum and will also borrow some from the Louvre in France. So we will see a very interesting dialogue between two palaces, for the Louvre used to be a palace as well. We chose horses also because HKPM is fully funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club who donated HK$ 3.5 billion for the HKPM project. 

We have to rotate the artifacts in the galleries, because of conservation considerations. So visitors who return to see an exhibition say three months later might find some of the exhibits have changed.

When you say, “rotate”, do you mean the piece goes back in storage at HKPM or to Beijing? 

To Beijing. We don't have a collection. We’ll try to build one. As of now all exhibits are on loan from the Palace Museum. The 800 items being shipped here for the opening exhibition will be the largest group of objects that the Palace Museum has ever lent to an institution. And 20 percent of these are rare Grade I objects. So we're very privileged. 

Hong Kong Palace Museum director Louis Ng says the museum will adopt a cross-disciplinary curatorial approach to interpret the objects on loan from Beijing’s Palace Museum. (PHOTO COURTESY: HONG KONG PALACE MUSEUM)

Can you give me an example of a Grade I object that we might see when HKPM opens?

Some bronze objects are 5,000 years old. Certain jade items were collected by Ming and Qing emperors, because such objects were considered important items of an imperial collection and artisans were specially commissioned to make them. 

We have spent almost two years discussing the items that will go into the opening exhibitions with the Palace Museum team. All items are selected by our own curators, with help from Palace Museum experts and scholars.

Would you like to tell us about the strategies you might want to adopt in order to connect traditional Chinese culture — which has its own distinct vocabulary and codes — with a new audience who might need a degree of orientation in the subject? 

Many people, especially youngsters, think of HKPM as a museum of antiques. They expect us to have a didactic approach: I tell you, and you listen. 

I think we are going to move in a different direction. We will identify new audiences and make our programs interesting and interactive. We will adopt a modern-day approach by bringing traditional art and culture into people’s lives in the present. So each idea or object that we show will be linked to our audience’s experience. We will encourage visitors to relate the history (they come across at the museum) to their lives. We're going to try to make it an extraordinary museum experience, especially for the young people, who I think might even find the objects quite fashionable. 

We will also develop our storytelling approach. Every object on show will have a story, about its owner, or maker. I think people like to listen to stories. And that’s how we can expand our audience base. 

Would it be correct to say that Hong Kong Palace Museum is expected to serve as a symbol of national integration? Would you like to give us one or two examples of how the cultural partnership between Beijing and Hong Kong will be manifest in museum collection, exhibitions and programing? 

HKPM is a cultural institution. Our purpose is to tell people about Chinese culture. It is also about cultural identity because we are all Chinese here. The idea is to help more people understand Chinese history and heritage. I think at HKPM Hong Kong people can find out more about the history of China’s development. We're joining hands with the Palace Museum because they have a lot of cultural resources, and we are going to make use of that. 

Because of our easy access to the cultural resources of the Palace Museum, we will try to support the education sector in Hong Kong, and also assist them with presenting history, art and Chinese culture in interesting ways. 

ALSO READ: CE meets Palace Museum chief

Learning history through objects is considered very important nowadays. We just hosted an online lecture by a world-famous, museum educator (Sharon E. Shaffer, former executive director of the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center in Washington, DC) and we're going to promote this kind of methodologies where noted educators launch their learning program by using artifacts from our museum. 

So our relationship with the Palace Museum is like that between brothers. We work together. They support us. 

Besides the objects they are lending us, we will have collaborations in the fields of research, publication, education and training of museum professionals. The Palace Museum wants HKPM to provide a platform for more international collaborations. Why us? This is because our curatorial and learning team is like the United Nations. We have people from the Chinese mainland, Taiwan, Singapore, the United States, the United Kingdom, and even Switzerland. All 30 members on our curatorial team speak English and Chinese. They have a very good, international network and are helping set up conversations as to how we can collaborate with museums abroad. This works both ways. We can bring exhibitions from Europe and North America to Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland. In return, we can offer exhibitions on Chinese art and culture in collaboration with the Palace Museum. I think the Chinese government wants to support more such collaborations. 

Boulder with two ladies at a moon gate and a poem by the Qianlong Emperor. Jade (nephrite) sculpture from Qianlong period, 1736-73 CE. (PHOTO COURTESY: THE PALACE MUSEUM)

Would you like to elaborate on the plan to have a dialogue between art and artists from Hong Kong and the Palace Museum exhibits at the HKPM? What is HKPM expected to contribute to the development and showcasing of Hong Kong art? 

HKPM has its roots in Hong Kong and the majority of our audience is going to be Hong Kong people. Also Hong Kong provides a unique perspective toward interpreting Chinese art and culture which a section of the international audience seems to like. 

HKPM is a museum with a Hong Kong perspective and global visions. While many of my colleagues are from beyond Hong Kong, the junior staff is entirely from Hong Kong. 

We have been trying to work out ways of curating exhibitions that Hong Kong people will like. We will also engage local talents other than museum professionals as curators and artistic directors. One of the guest curators, Chiu Kwong, has worked on many Palace Museum projects before. We’re also engaging designer Stanley Wong to design a gallery, and Jeffrey Shaw to do some multimedia programs for us. Also we’ll engage a guest curator to work with maybe eight to 10 local contemporary artists who will create new works inspired by their encounter with Palace Museum objects. Also, in the future, many local designers will be engaged to add a Hong Kong element to the museum merchandize. 

The new definition of museums tabled before International Council of Museums (ICOM) in September 2019 envisages an augmented social role for museums. It talks of decolonizing museum collections, critiquing the past and upholding social justice. Can we expect to see a diversity of views on China’s imperial history and heritage at HKPM?

Over the past 20 years there is a continuing discussion about museums taking on wider responsibility to create a more inclusive and engaged society. And I fully agree. I think in principle we cannot make the HKPM only about research or collections. The idea is also in line with HKPM’s purpose – to make ancient artifacts meaningful in the present. Our general approach is to try to convey this in a practical way. So there will be a scope for  interpreting the exhibits in HKPM from diverse points of view. 

For example, we will explore subjects from the perspective of women. We will also consider including views from the minority communities. Inclusivity will be a very important part of our learning, engagement and community programs. We will try to explore the possibilities of catering to people with special needs and from disadvantaged groups. We are also thinking of using art to bring some comfort to people, especially since life can be stressful in Hong Kong. We will also engage with elderly and retired people. 

I do not want to confine our activities to the museum building. So we will also bring some of our programs to the community. I am willing to work with schools and social organizations. 

However, while I agree that such activities are part of HKPM’s agenda, I think they should not be the core. If it became our core business we’ll lose our fundamental function, which is to preserve and showcase our cultural heritage. That’s number one.

Will there be a performance art component to HKPM?

Of course.  I think we’re trying to re-define the idea of a museum of Chinese art and culture. Our programming is not limited to visual art. We have a very good auditorium with 400 seats in our learning and innovation center. We’ll use it to introduce small-scale performances that are very unique. Sometimes a combination of image, performance, music and drama can make a very strong visual impact. And the use of new technologies can make everything come together. It’s a new direction we will explore. 

We’re trying to find ways of combining science and art. We’ll adopt a cross-disciplinary approach toward interpreting historical objects, and we put great emphasis on developing multimedia programs.

Our location in West Kowloon Cultural District is an advantage. We have a very nice Art Park surrounding us, where we can organize outdoor activities. The space could become a new lifestyle (destination) of Hong Kong. 

Yes, looks like the location has great potential for place-making…

I think in terms of placemaking it is very important that the location bears our identity, and visitors can find a unique experience here. We will try to provide different opportunities, to different people to let them have a meaningful experience, whether it’s by hanging out in the museum premises or joining a guided tour of the exhibitions.

Was the public consultation on the design and layout of the museum as well as other aspects, held in December 2017, before the construction began, useful? 

I think we're going to start another round of consultations, soon. We have scheduled meetings with people in the culture and education sectors. This is an ongoing process that will continue even after the opening of the museum. 

What are your plans regarding reducing carbon footprints at HKPM and maintaining environmental sustainability?

We adopt this principle in the design of the building. Also we are in the process of developing our key performance indicators, and one of the keys is about sustainability. Achieving both environmental as well as financial sustainability is our priority.

At a time when museums of all stripes around the world — publicly-funded, foundation-supported or run purely on the ticket buyer’s money — are facing an existential crisis, how confident are you feeling about bringing a new museum into the world?

I'm quite confident that things will be normal by the time HKPM opens. We did not expect COVID-19 to happen, so we must prepare to face other likely unexpected scenarios. In the light of the crisis brought on by the pandemic, I think we have to find a way to contain our costs, and make better use of available technologies.

Which aspect of HKPM are you most hopeful about? What would you say is the trump card, or a sure-shot winner, you have on your hands?

I’d say it’s the 800-strong collection itself. The Beijing Palace Museum gets 1.8 million visitors a year. I think our maximum capacity is around 2.7 million. I'm not worried about the number of visitors though. What’s more important is how we make a difference by interpreting Palace Museum collections, in the ways we engage our audience, by adopting a cross-disciplinary, new curatorial approach and helping to bring art into people’s lives. 

Our collection and our curatorial approach are our two trump cards. If HKPM were a copy of the Palace Museum in Beijing, that would be meaningless. 

Interviewed by Chitralekha Basu