Folk Museum: The Heritagization of Traditional Dwellings in Hong Kong, 1976-1997

Abstract

<p>The folk museum in Hong Kong—as both concept and practice—is part of a colonial effort at defining and packaging Chinese past. Following the establishment of Antiquities and Monuments Office in 1976, folk museum constitutes an institutional path to the heritagization of Chinese past, where the local traditional dwellings participated in framing the declaration of monuments towards the end of the colonial era in 1997. In the name of preserving objects of historical interests, there has been a spirit of pragmaticism throughout such processes under examination. Efforts were made to keep the evidence of Chinese architectural, agricultural and industrial traditions in situ. Surprisingly, the growing stress on integrity of different aspects of a heritage site was a result of the collaboration of stakeholders of increasing social complexity. <br>This paper demonstrates the multi-layered process of turning traditional dwellings into folk museums through a broader picture of global-local circumstances. According to our examination of the traditional dwellings in Hong Kong’s heritage lists, such cases as Sheung Yiu Folk Museum and Sam Tung Uk Museum — discussed below as exemplars — were then carefully chosen in order to move the local heritage agenda. We illustrate the roles of varied stakeholders in the stretched interplay between preservation and urbanization, city fabric and rural lands, and colonialism and cosmopolitanism. <br></p>