HKFP Lens: Museum of History opens revamped ‘Hong Kong Story’ exhibition with new focus on China ‘roots’

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The Hong Kong Museum of History has reopened its permanent exhibition with a new theme on the city’s shared “roots” with mainland China, nearly six years after it was closed for revamp.

The government announced the reopening of “Hong Kong Story” in a statement on Wednesday.

“While telling the local story, the revamped exhibition also places greater emphasis on Hong Kong’s role as a ‘hub’, highlighting its shared roots with the motherland in historical development and its connections with the world as an international metropolis,” it said.

The exhibition at the museum in Tsim Sha Tsui used to be presented in chronological order, covering the city’s pre-historical period up to the handover in 1997.

It now revolves around four major themes, spread across 13 galleries.

The first theme, “Roots of Culture,” features artefacts that demonstrate Hong Kong “has long been rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese civilisation, sharing a cultural lineage with the motherland since ancient times.”

The “East Meets West” exhibits present Chinese and Western exchanges, “while still grounded in Chinese cultural traditions.”

Whereas the old exhibition said that Hong Kong Island was “ceded” to the British in 1841 following the Opium War, the revamped display describes the event as a “forcible seizure.”

It features a statue of Lin Zexu, a Qing dynasty official known for his role in the First Opium War from 1839 to 1842. The museum describes him as representing a “critical historical turning point when modern China confronted the incursions of Western powers.”

The third theme is dedicated to the “Coalition Against Japanese Aggression,” focusing on the role of Hong Kong communists in fighting the Japanese occupation during World War II.

“Hong Kong as a Global Metropolis” – the fourth theme – includes re-creations of cafes and cinemas as well as “Made in Hong Kong” products symbolising the city’s economic boom.

The final gallery, “Walking with the Motherland,“ showcases “Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, the implementation of ‘one country, two systems’, and a new chapter in its integration into the nation’s overall development.”

In October 2020, hundreds of visitors flocked to the museum on the last day of the old permanent exhibition, with some expressing concerns over potential political censorship.

While the old exhibition displayed photos of Hongkongers marching in support of student protesters in May 1989, before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the revamp does not mention the bloody event on June 4, only referring to “political turmoil in the spring and summer of 1989.”