ENG-1986 — Page 315

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RECREATION AND THE ARTS

at the City Hall and the Space Museum, six free performances at major shopping arcades, and a fun fair at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct.

The carnival offered programmes covering almost the whole spectrum of theatrical arts. Some 14 600 persons attended the performances, and 18 170 saw the exhibition.

Hong Kong Museum of History

The year witnessed a major development in the educational and extension services of the Hong Kong Museum of History.

A regular Museum Weekend Programme was introduced for the first time in July to provide education orientated entertainment in the form of free lectures, demonstrations, film shows, video and slide programmes on subjects related to local history, archaeology, ethnography and natural history. Special museum workshops on historical inscriptions of Hong Kong and physical archaeology were organised from March to June and November to December to cater for the school population. Four additional travelling exhibitions were produced for free display in schools during the year, bringing to five the total number of such exhibitions. All of them were fully booked. Organised group visits to the museum by schools and local communities continued to be a popular feature and a total of 320 organised group visits comprising 27 400 participants were entertained.

A standing exhibition introducing the history of Hong Kong from the Neolithic period to 1841 has been staged on the ground floor gallery of the museum since July 1986.

The first floor gallery of the museum was reserved for the display of temporary thematic exhibitions, including the most popular display entitled 'Local Traditional Chinese Wedding', which was organised as a contribution to the 11th Festival of Asian Arts in October. Other significant and interesting exhibitions included the 'Ethnic Costume of the Miao People in China', the first display on costumes ever staged in the museum, the 'Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong' and the 'Currency of Macao'.

Progress continued to be made in the collection of ethnographic and historic materials and on special projects recording different facets of the local heritage. During the year, a new project to survey local traditional village ware and implements was completed.

Pending the provision of a permanent building, the museum has plans for interim expansion and up-grading of its premises at Kowloon Park, to provide an additional 1 200 square metres of display area. In addition, plans to convert Law Uk, a 200-year old Hakka House at Chai Wan, into a folk museum were finalised and construction work is expected to be completed in late 1988. The folk museum will become the second branch of the Museum of History, the first being the Han Tomb preserved in situ at Lei Cheng Uk. The Han Tomb continued to attract visitors, particularly school parties, and recorded a total attendance of 45 000.

Hong Kong Space Museum

Some 1 217 200 visitors enjoyed the various sky shows, exhibitions and extension activities presented by the Hong Kong Space Museum during the year. Major attractions in the museum's Space Theatre included two Omnimax film shows ("Grand Canyon – The Hidden Secrets' and 'Flyers'), two sky shows ("The Universe of Dr Einstein' and 'The Star of Christmas') and one educational programme (‘Introducing the Solar System') for primary 5-6 pupils. Temporary exhibitions on related themes were also held in conjunction with the shows. These shows attracted 536 379 persons.

Besides, three new exhibits and one publication were produced by the Space Museum during the year. To foster interest in astronomy, particularly among young people, the

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