ENG-1994 — Page 443

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

Hong Kong Film Archive

The Urban Council decided to set up the Hong Kong Film Archive at an estimated cost of $110 million in December 1992. The archive building, situated at Sai Wan Ho, is scheduled to be completed in late 1997.

Hong Kong is the third largest film production centre in the world, and the archive will preserve the territory's rich film heritage.

The purpose-designed archive, when completed, will not only acquire, preserve, catalogue, study and document Hong Kong films and related material, but will also encourage public access to its collection through film programmes and exhibitions.

The archive planning office has already acquired 500 titles of films and over 20 000 items of related material, mainly through donations and voluntary deposits by owners.

Heritage

Growing awareness of Hong Kong's cultural and historical heritage is reflected in the activities of the museums run by the Urban and Regional Councils, and the work of the Antiquities Advisory Board and the Antiquities and Monuments Office. The Secretary for Recreation and Culture is the Antiquities Authority and implements the provisions of the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance. Through exhibitions, guided tours, publications, local studies and community involvement projects, the museums and Antiquities and Monuments Office seek to achieve their twin objectives of preserving Hong Kong's heritage and increasing public awareness of its importance.

The establishment of the Lord Wilson Heritage Trust in 1993 gave further impetus to the cause of heritage preservation in the territory. The Ping Shan Heritage Trail in Yuen Long, opened in December 1993 with the aid of the trust and the Antiquities Advisory Board, was exceedingly well patronised by both tourists and locals. Over 320 000 visitors were recorded during the year. In addition, funding support continued to be given to community organisations and schools for a variety of heritage-related activities. Other projects funded by the trust included the production of a learning package on local history for use by students in junior secondary forms, a 13-episode television programme on Hong Kong's heritage, and other publicity programmes to arouse the younger generation's awareness of, and interest in, heritage preservation.

Design work on a world-standard Heritage Museum of the Regional Council is reaching an advanced stage. With 6 000 square metres of exhibition space, the Heritage Museum, when completed in 1997-98 at an estimated cost of $615 million, will contribute much to the preservation of Hong Kong's rich cultural heritage, particularly that of the New Territories.

Hong Kong Museum of History

The museum presented three thematic exhibitions in 1994 — Archaeological Discoveries of the Ancient Yue People in South China, jointly organised with the Shenzhen Museum, Anthropological Museum of the Zhongshan University and the Hong Kong Museum of History; An Economic Miracle: The Success Story of Hong Kong; and Evolution and Extinction — History of Life Evidenced by Chinese Fossils, a joint presentation with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Academia Sinica, Beijing and the Hong Kong Museum of History.

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