RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
Museum, incorporating a restored village house over 200 years old. The Regional Council places special emphasis on preserving and recording the heritage of fast-disappearing rural villages. The Regional Council's museums include two preserved villages and the Hong Kong Railway Museum. Through permanent and temporary exhibitions, guided tours, publications and local studies, the museums seek to achieve their twin objectives of pre- serving Hong Kong's heritage and increasing public awareness of its importance.
Hong Kong Museum of History
The opening of a branch museum - the Law Uk Folk Museum - marked the beginning of another active year for the Hong Kong Museum of History.
Converted from a 200-year-old Hakka house, this museum has a display of rural furniture and farming-implements and provides an overview of the history of Chai Wan and the Law family who settled in there about 200 years ago. During the year, the museum recorded a total attendance of 121 400.
In the main premises in Kowloon Park, the Hong Kong Museum of History started the year's activities with a small but informative exhibition entitled The Fragrant Harbour – Past and Present illustrating the changing scenes of the Hong Kong harbour through the display of historical and recent photographs.
This was followed by two exhibitions which attracted both children and adults alike. The American Toys from the Lawrence Scripps Wilkinson Exhibition featured about 200 American toys dating from the mid-19th century to contemporary times. The Children of the Gods: Dress and Symbolism in China exhibition which opened on June 9, 1990 remained on display throughout the summer vacation. It featured many vividly coloured and richly embroidered children's clothes, most of which had been worn and used locally or in China from the second half of the 19th century. Total attendance at the American toys exhibition was 127 280 while the children's costumes exhibition had 231 650 visitors.
The year ended with a large-scale thematic exhibition presenting a comprehensive display on the role of different categories of historical materials including documents, paintings, photographs and printed matter from various periods of Hong Kong's history. The exhibition was visited by 95 000 people.
The museum's honorary advisers and experts in the field of local history conducted a series of special lectures and visits from October to December to complement the exhibition.
It was also a very active year for the museum's education and extension unit. The series of travelling exhibitions on loan to schools proved very popular, as was the new audio- visual service for organised parties.
A new Han Architecture display at the Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum beginning in the summer attracted a total attendance of 45 600 in 1990.
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Situated at a scenic spot in Sai Kung, this museum is housed in a Hakka village built in the late 19th century. This fortified village of about 500 square metres, with eight domestic units, pig pens, an open courtyard and an entrance gate tower, is situated on a raised platform about two metres above ground level. The village, together with a nearby lime kiln, was gazetted as a monument in 1981. Period furniture and local farming implements are displayed. Despite its remoteness, the museum attracted 73 000 visitors in 1990.
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