RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS
which attracted a very high attendance. The museum's loan services such as travelling exhibitions, videos and slide packs were frequently used by schools and organisations. The museum continued to co-organise, with the Education Department, the fifth Inter-school Competition of Study Projects on The Growth of Hong Kong A Study
by Districts, and seminars on Hong Kong studies for History and Chinese History teachers.
The Lei Cheng Uk Branch Museum, with its thematic display on Han Costume, recorded a total of 56 058 visitors during the year, whereas the Law Uk Folk Museum attracted 43 234 visitors with its permanent display of rural furniture and farming implements, as well as the thematic exhibition, Paper Horse.
Piling work for the permanent Museum of History at Chatham Road was completed in late April, followed by construction of the superstructure which is scheduled for completion in late August 1997. Exhibit designers were also engaged in working on the permanent museum and Lei Yue Mun Museum projects.
Conservation Section
The Conservation Section, which operates from six conservation laboratories, preserves and cares for the varied collections of the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Museum of History. Scientific examination and conservation treatments are conducted by specialist conservators according to the material nature and treatment needs of individual objects. During 1996, the section physically treated 509 museum objects, including paper artefacts, easel paintings, textiles, costumes, metal sculptures, wooden objects, butterfly specimens and ethnographic materials to revive their artistic and historical merits.
Hong Kong Film Archive
The Urban Council decided in December 1992 to set up the Hong Kong Film Archive at an estimated cost of $198 million. The archive building, at Sai Wan Ho, is scheduled to be completed in mid-1999. Hong Kong is the third-largest film production centre in the world, and the archive will preserve the territory's rich film heritage.
The archive will not only acquire, preserve, catalogue, and document Hong Kong films and related material, but will also encourage public access to its collection through film programmes, seminars and exhibitions. The archive planning office has already acquired more than 1 000 films and 27 000 items of related materials, mainly through donations and deposits by owners. It co-organises two film retrospectives in the community arts centres each year to arouse the public's interest in local cinema. An exhibition, Superstars of Cantonese Movies of the Sixties, was held at the City Hall Exhibition Hall during the Hong Kong International Film Festival in late March. It attracted 27 000 visitors. A filmography on Hong Kong films made in the pre-war years was published, covering 650 film titles.
Regional Council Museums
Sam Tung Uk Museum
The museum next to the Mass Transit Railway terminus in Tsuen Wan was originally a Hakka walled village built in 1786. The layout of the village resembles a chequerboard with an entrance hall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the
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