RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
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A wide range of educational activities were organised by the museum throughout the year with the attendance of the regular weekend programme remaining very high. Folk craft courses, such as the making of miniature pot plants, Chinese knotting with gems, art of beads-stringing and embroidery, batik and tie dyeing as well as Chinese paper craft, were all fully subscribed. Field trips were organised to study libraries and Hakka villages in the New Territories and other places of interest, including the Lions Nature Education Centre, Mai Po Nature Reserve and Ma Shi Chau. A series of Experiencing Archaeology workshops was also offered to secondary students during the summer vacation. Other extension services, such as travelling exhibitions, and the loan of slide packs and videos, were still much sought after.
The Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum, featuring a new display of Costume of Han Dynasty, was visited by 58 600 people whereas the Law Uk Folk Museum, in which an exhibition on Chinese and Japanese folk art was staged, attracted a total of 35 000 visitors.
Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
Situated at a scenic spot in Sai Kung, this museum is housed in a fortified Hakka village built in the late 19th century. The 500-square metre village comprises eight domestic units, pig pens, an open courtyard and an entrance gate tower, and 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 103 000 visitors in 1992.
The Hong Kong Railway Museum
This open air museum, occupying an area of 6 500 square metres, is located at the town centre of Tai Po Market. It comprises the old Tai Po Market railway station building, six passenger coaches dating from 1911 to 1974 and an educational audio-visual room housed in a mock-up of an electric train. The station building, in unique Chinese decorative style, was built in 1913. Some 233 000 visited the museum in 1992.
Sam Tung Uk Museum
The museum, located in Tsuen Wan, was originally an old Hakka walled village built in 1786 by a Chan family. The layout of the 2 000-square metre village resembles a chequer- board with an entrance hall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the central axis. Because of its historical significance, the village was declared a monument in 1981. After restoration, it was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming imple- ments. As the largest museum of its kind in the territory, it attracted 375 000 local and overseas visitors in 1992.
Three exhibitions were staged at the museum during the year. An exhibition on a journey into Hong Kong's archaeological past introduced recent excavation findings and basic concepts of archaeology. Another exhibition entitled Dear John, Postcard Images of Hong Kong in the 1920s was organised to introduce to the public the visual images of the city in the early 20th century. An exhibition featuring the museum's collection of Cantonese opera artefacts gethered and catalogued in the past five years was opened in November.
Antiquities Advisory Board
The Antiquities Advisory Board has 15 appointed members drawn from a variety of backgrounds. They include archaeologists, historians, architects, anthropologists, planners