ENG-1998 — Page 439

RECREATION, SPORTS AND THE ARTS

exhibition on The Story of Hong Kong, the grand opening of the new museum will take place around mid-2000. Construction of a new branch museum, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, is progressing well and its opening is scheduled for late 1999.

To celebrate the National Day and to inaugurate the Exhibition Hall of the new Hong Kong Museum of History, a major thematic exhibition entitled Heavenly Creations Gems of Ancient Chinese Inventions, the largest of its kind ever held in Hong Kong, was jointly presented with the National Museum of Chinese History from September 29 to January 3, 1999. Over 250 exhibits were on display, attracting more than 83 000 visitors.

The museum organised a wide variety of educational activities such as lectures, workshops, field visits to local historic and nature sites, as well as an orientation programme for students of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, all of which attracted a very high attendance. The museum's loan services such as travelling exhibitions, videos and slide packs were much sought after by schools and other social organisations. The museum also jointly organised with the Education Department an annual Inter-school Competition of Study Project on mass media in Hong Kong.

The Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum, with its thematic display, Han Costume, received more than 66 100 visitors during the year. The Law Uk Folk Museum attracted more than 41 200 visitors with its permanent display of rural furniture and farming implements, as well as the thematic exhibition entitled The Art of Traditional String Puppetry of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Film Archive

The council decided in December 1992 to set up the Hong Kong Film Archive. The archive building, at Sai Wan Ho, is scheduled to be completed in 2000. Hong Kong is one of the leading film production centres in the world, and the archive will help preserve Hong Kong's rich film heritage.

The archive will acquire, preserve, catalogue and document Hong Kong films and related materials, besides encouraging public access to its collection through film programmes, seminars and exhibitions. The Archive Planning Office has already acquired more than 2 800 films and 38 000 items of related materials, mainly through donations and deposits. It co-organises two film retrospectives with the community arts centres each year to arouse public interest in local cinema.

An exhibition, Hong Kong Film Archive Treasures, was held at the City Hall Exhibition Hall during the 22nd Hong Kong International Film Festival in April. It attracted 34 000 visitors. The Hong Kong Filmography Vol. II, covering 440 Hong Kong films made in the 1940s, was published in August.

Provisional Regional Council Museums

Sam Tung Uk Museum

This museum in Tsuen Wan was originally a Hakka walled village built in 1786. The village layout resembles a chequerboard with an entrance hall, an assembly hall and an ancestral hall along the central axis. The village, a declared monument, was furnished with traditional Hakka furniture and farming implements and

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