Wang Haolan

Holly_cn@163.com

THE Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) in West Kowloon Cultural District has recently announced its lineup of new special and thematic exhibitions for 2024, with four special exhibitions focusing on Yuanmingyuan Ruins Park-related artifacts, the origins of Chinese civilization, French art and fashion, and Sino-French cultural exchanges.

The museum’s first major special exhibition for 2024, “The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Yuan Ming Yuan — Art and Culture of an Imperial Garden-Palace,” opened to the public Tuesday and will run through Aug. 12.

“We are thrilled to delve into the past glory of the Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden-Palace at the 18th special exhibition of HKPM,” Dr. Daisy Wang, deputy director of the museum, said. “What’s more, it is also the first comprehensive exhibition on Yuanmingyuan-related artifacts since 1930. With more than 190 exhibits loaned from the Palace Museum, as well as the latest archaeological discoveries of the Yuanmingyuan ruins, we hope that the exhibition can enhance visitors’ understanding of the history, art and culture of the Qing Dynasty.”

“The exhibition will offer visitors a comprehensive, multidimensional insight to Yuanmingyuan that goes far beyond a historical incident,” Yang Xu, deputy curator of HKPM, said. “The garden-palace, standing as the crown jewel of royal gardens in the Qing Dynasty, served as a tangible bearer of the royal families’ emotions, aesthetics and worldview.”

The exhibition is divided into five sections, offering a comprehensive exploration into the all-inclusive architectural style that earned Yuanmingyuan the “Garden of All Gardens” title, festive celebrations taking place within the garden-palace, family stories of the Qing (1644-1911) imperial court and the efforts taken to preserve the ruins of the once-magnificent Yuanmingyuan. It will present an extensive display of over 190 artifacts including paintings, calligraphy, ceramics, architectural models, drawings, prints, and architectural remains in two rotations, and almost all of the exhibits are being displayed in Hong Kong for the first time.

“Yuanmingyuan had served as the principal residence of the imperial family from the Yongzheng to Xianfeng periods (1723-1861) of the Qing Dynasty,” Yang said. “Over this 136-year period, the imperial family spent an average of 195 days per year in Yuanmingyuan, with Daoguang Emperor (reign 1821-1850) setting a record by staying in the garden for an average of 260 days per year.”

Highlighted exhibits for the first rotation include the “tangyang” (烫样, meaning architectural models) of the Hall of Universal Peace and the Hall of Nine Continents in Peace in the garden-palace, whose facades both taking after the Buddhist swastika motif; “Consort of the Qianlong Emperor and Yongyan,” an silk affixed hanging probably painted by missionary Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766) and other court painters; the “Yongzheng Emperor Enjoying Flowers in the Peony Terrace” hanging scroll; the “Yinzhen sitting in the Pavilion of Recitation in a Clear Voice” hanging scroll; and architectural elements and shards unearthed from the Yuanmingyuan ruins in Beijing.

The exhibition utilizes multimedia technology to recreate the scenery of the major gardens in Yuanmingyuan, reconstructing its construction process and showcasing over 10 viewpoints within the garden-palace. The concluding section of the exhibition centers on a single architectural piece evacuated from the Yuanmingyuan ruins, utilizing virtual projection technology to replay the rise and fall of the garden-palace.

The exhibition is jointly hosted by HKPM, Palace Museum, and the Yuanmingyuan Administration Office of Haidian District of Beijing, and is solely sponsored by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

Another special exhibition, focusing on new archaeological discoveries in China, will open at Gallery 8 of the museum in September to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. HKPM will collaborate with cultural institutions in France to present two special exhibitions at Gallery 9, highlighting the evolution of fashion and art in France over the past century and exploring Sino-French cultural exchanges during the 17th and 18th centuries, respectively.

Thematic exhibitions in HKPM Galleries 1 to 5 are undergoing rotation or updating with new curatorial themes. A new exhibition showcasing imperial porcelain from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) will open in Gallery 3 in July, while a thematic exhibition exploring the presentation of animals in Chinese historical and contemporary art will be unveiled in Gallery 5 in September.

Furthermore, “Passion for Collecting: Founding Donations to the Hong Kong Palace Museum,” an exhibition dedicated to exhibits donated by individual collectors, is now open to the public at HKPM’s Gallery 6 since March 15.

HKPM is now providing a special combo ticket priced at HK$220 (US$28.12) for adults and HK$110 for concession, which grants visitors access to both the Yuanmingyuan exhibition in Gallery 8 and “Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces From the National Gallery, London” in Gallery 9 on the same day. It also includes full access to all thematic exhibitions in Galleries 1 to 7.