The museum and its community: a case study ofWanchai Livelihood Place 2007-2012

Abstract

Precious local character and distinct neighborhood network are intangible assets that are worth to be retained, revealed and inherited. This differentiates a place from others with its diversified and unique essence, but again links up its community members through a shared understanding and appreciation of their own cultural legacy. Wanchai is one noticeable example of embracing rich local heritage and strong social network which are, however, at stake under development projects in the pipeline across the region.

It is not uncommon to see that different community-based conservation efforts have been put forth to retain local value and heritage in many countries. One example is the set-up of community museums which have their presence across the globe since 60's, serving to retain and revitalize the vanishing local skills, and reveal the local stories and knowledge through local community force. Two successful examples in U.S. and Taiwan will be referenced to as an understanding of the characteristics and achievements of a community museum model. In Wanchai, a similar community-involved museum model is seen i.e. the Wanchai Livelihood Place (WCLP) established by a local NGO and a group of enthusiastic residents. WCLP is characterised by its aims to preserve and reveal the cultural essence of Wanchai and involve wide local participation in all aspects, ranging from operation, management and decision-making of WCLP. To be specific, its relationship with the community is of great important to be studied which can help assess its role - as a community museum - in achieving the conservation end together with the Wanchai community.

In this dissertation, by a thorough investigation of the case of WCLP, it is held with the objective to study and evaluate this bottom-up conservation museum model regarding its relationship with the community in terms of preserving, revealing and revitalizing local culture, stories, traditions and addressing local issues for the Wanchai community; as well as its contribution to the Wanchai community in terms of local involvement, identity building and sustainable community development. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges of this community-oriented conservation model will be discussed. In a wider context, this will help serve as a reference for other similar examples in Hong Kong. Lastly, it is important to note that the discussion will focus on the period from the establishment of WCLP in 2007 to end of Feb 2012, during the time when it was named the Wanchai Livelihood Place and was very much based on community support. After then, since March 2012, WCLP has changed its name to Hong Kong House of Stories under the Hongkong Bank Foundation's sponsorship and also as a result of the preparation for the official launch of the “Viva Blue House” Revitalization Project in 2014. From then, its mission and depth of activities have been expanded. This is worth to be looked into as the challenges and opportunities encountered by WCLP regarding its future development.