Archives: Activity

OVERVIEW:
Since our tour to the Geological Museum at the University of Hong Kong, members have looked forward to viewing these rocks in their natural setting. With the cool weather of January, it is now possible to organize a tour to one of Hong Kong’s geoparks under the guidance of two experts in the field, Professor Chan Lung-sang and Dr. Wong Fook-yee.

Geopark is a natural area encompassing sites of scientific importance for geological reasons and thereby valuable for its ecological and cultural factors. Following global trends of integrated conservation, Hong Kong geoparks serve to conserve, educate and offer sustained development of the unique landforms.

Sai Kung Rock Region is one of Hong Kong’s geoparks with hexagonal rock columns that were formed 140 million years ago from huge amounts of volcanic ash spurted out from volcanic eruptions. Unlike others in the world, the hexagonal rock columns in Sai Kung are acidic silica-rich rhyolitic volcanic rocks. Spanning an area of over 100 square kilometers of land and sea, their average diameter is 1.2 meters, making them much larger than similar ones in other parts of the world.

We will visit the High Island Geo-Area that is located within the Sai Kung East Country Park. Beginning with a tour of the Geopark Visitor Centre, we will walk along the High Island Geo-Trail to see the interesting geological features of the area, including faults, folds, twisted rock columns and dyke intrusions. The numerous rock formations from small stones to huge monoliths in the East Dam are nature’s own artwork!

After lunch, we will visit Lions Nature Education Centre and its garden with a walkway lined with rocks of different sizes, shapes and colors. There is also a small indoor gallery showcasing the Centre’s rock collection.

RESOURCE PERSONS:
Professor Chan Lung-sang is an expert in Hong Kong geology. He received his bachelor degree from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and his PhD from University of California at Berkeley. He taught for 10 years in the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and 15 years in the Science Faculty of The University of Hong Kong. His leadership in teaching was recognized when he was awarded The University of Hong Kong’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2009. A true believer of experiential learning, he has led many field trips around Hong Kong for the public and education sectors.

Dr. Wong Fook-yee is an avid hiker – a most suitable trait for someone who goes to great lengths to look at rocks and rock formations. He was formerly the Assistant Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong (Country and Marine Park Branch), and is now Honorary Associate Professor of the Geography Department at The University of Hong Kong.

ITINERARY:
9:00 Assemble outside Romantic Hotel (理想酒店), next to Kowloon Tong MTR Station for coach ride to Sai Kung Country Park
9:45 High Island Geo Trail – High Island Reservoir East Dam, volcanic rock columns
12:00 Lunch at Sai Kung
14:00 Lions Nature Education Centre
17:00 Return to Kowloon Tong MTR Station

The guqin (古琴‬)is a Chinese musical instrument of the zither family with over 3000 years of history. Developed as an elite art form by Chinese literati, the guqin was favored for the aesthetics of its music that emphasized elegance, subtlety and serenity. It is listed at the top of the four traditional arts followed by qi (ancient form of chess), calligraphy and painting. In 2003, the guqin, together with its music was proclaimed by UNESCO as one of the Masterpieces of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Dr. Tse Chun-Yan (謝俊仁) is a distinguished guqin musician and composer in Hong Kong. A harmonica player from the age of six, he later studied guzheng and Chinese music theory and composition. He learned to play the guqin in 1983 and since then, he has given numerous public performances in Hong Kong and abroad. Dr. Tse graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong in 1973. After retiring from his medical profession in 2005, he obtained his Ph.D in Ethnomusicology in 2009 from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, researching on guqin scores of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He now teaches at the Music Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the School of Music of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts.

Dr. Tse will give an introductory talk on this classical instrument and perform several exemplary pieces including "Running Water" (流水), "Three Variations on the Plum Blossom" (梅花三弄), "Memories of an Old Friend" (憶故人), and "Drunken Elation" (酒狂). To enhance this afternoon’s literati music program, Anita Wong, Curator of UMAG and a connoisseur of Chinese tea, will offer participants freshly brewed premium Chinese teas from her private collection and impart insights on the appreciation of Chinese tea.

A special home visit with Chris Hall, an established textile collector, is scheduled for this month. Chris first arrived in Hong Kong when his father was appointed assistant bursar of The University of Hong Kong in 1955. He studied History at Cambridge University and has worked in Hong Kong as a CPA specializing in tax accounting for many years. For over twenty years, Chris has also traveled the world in the pursuit of antique Chinese textiles. With discerning eyes and deep passion, he has assembled a major collection of rare and exquisite Chinese textiles, some dating from 500 B.C. He has also written a very comprehensive book on the topic. The Chris Hall Collection is world-renowned and has been exhibited at major museums worldwide.

Hall’s apartment is filled with Asian and European antiques and art objects that reflect his love and appreciation of colours and antiquities from different cultures. During our visit, he will show us the specially designed room built to control the humidity, light and temperature for the optimum storage of these fragile antique textiles in order to preserve them for posterity. We shall also see how he ingeniously and tastefully gives new life to his antique furniture by putting them to practical use in a modern international lifestyle.

This talk will consider the celebrated style of Japanese art known as Rinpa (or Rimpa) taken by many as one of the most representative of the Edo Period (1603-1868). The themes are various, but depictions of the old court classics are to the fore. Other schools were already painting those themes. How did Rinpa differ, and what were the political and aesthetic reasons for that difference?

Guest speaker, Professor Timon Screech was born in Birmingham, UK, and received a BA (Hons.) in Oriental Studies (Japanese) at Oxford, before completing his Ph.D at Harvard in 1991. He also studied at the universities of Geneva and Gakushuin. He has taught the history of Japanese art at SOAS, University of London, since 1991, and in 2006 was elected to Chair in the History of Art. He is concurrently Permanent Visiting Professor at Tama Art University, Tokyo.

Screech is the author of some ten books on the visual culture of the Edo period. His Ph.D was published as "The Lens Within the Heart: the Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Later Edo Japan" (CUP 1996) and is still in print in a second edition (Curzon, 2002). Perhaps his best-known work is "Sex and the Floating World: Erotic Imagery in Japan, 1720-1810" (Reaktion, 1999; second, expanded edition, 2009). Most recently, he has introduced and edited the writings of two 18th century travellers to Japan, "Japan Extolled and Decried: Carl Peter Thunberg and Japan, 1775-1796" (Routledge, 2005), and "Secret Memoirs of the Shoguns. Isaac Titsingh and Japan, 1779-1822" (Routledge, 2006). His writings have been translated into French, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Romanian.

Among the artists in Hong Kong, Chu Hing Wah held a unique position as a psychiatric nurse in the Castle Peak Psychiatric Hospital and the Siu Lam Hospital for the Mentally Handicapped until his retirement eight years ago. Twenty five years of work in this specialized field has given Chu the rare opportunity to observe the primal and sensitive instincts of human nature.

Born in 1935 in Guangdong, China, Chu received his degree in Psychiatric Nursing from London’s Maudsley Hospital in 1965. Simultaneous to his work in the psychiatric field, he completed a certificate course in art and design at the Extramural Studies of The University of Hong Kong from 1972 to 1974. He became a member of the Visual Arts Society in 1974, and the Hong Kong Sculptors Association in 1982 and was Chairman of the Visual Arts Society from 1983 to 1986.

Since his retirement in 1992, Chu has become a full-time painter and sculptor exhibiting widely throughout Asia. He received the Urban Council Fine Arts Award in 1989 and was selected as “Painter of the Year” by Hong Kong Artists’ Guild in 1992 and in 1994, was awarded a scholarship for art research in New York by the Asian Cultural Council. He is currently Honorary Advisor to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

In conjunction with a guided tour of his works currently on exhibit at UMAG, Chu will share a slide and video presentation about his life and art. Chu also encourages each participant to pose him a question for an interesting and interactive session.

The Hong Kong Cemetery, established in 1845, is the oldest and best surviving example of a Western cemetery garden in Hong Kong. It captures the essence of the 19th century cemetery garden movement in Europe when cemeteries were designed to be both places of dignified memorial and quiet recreation. Comprising 10 hectares of rich woodland habitat with over 10,000 exquisitely carved granite and marble memorials set in terraces of lawn and a charming funeral chapel – Hong Kong’s oldest surviving colonial building, the Hong Kong Cemetery is perhaps one of Hong Kong’s most forgotten and undervalued natural and built heritage sites.

Guided by Dr. Ken Nicholson, the tour will explore the cultural landscape of the cemetery as it was originally intended, inspired by the words of John Loudon, the famous Scottish 19th century cemetery designer: "Churchyards and cemeteries are scenes not only calculated to improve the morals and the taste, and by their botanical riches to cultivate the intellect, but they also serve as historical records." The route will include visits to memorials of influential business people, military heroes, political activists, and the victim of a tiger attack, to name a few. Along the way, the symbolism of the plant species and funerary iconography will be explained and the conservation challenges facing this wonderful heritage site will be discussed.

The speaker
A landscape architect and architecture conservationist, Dr. Ken Nicholson has lived and worked in Hong Kong since 1984. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor to the Architecture Conservation Programme in the Department of Architecture, The University of Hong Kong. His doctorate, obtained in 2005, was HKU’s first Ph.D in heritage conservation and introduced a new approach to understanding and conserving heritage sites as cultural landscapes and not simply as isolated buildings divorced from their landscape context. The Hong Kong Cemetery was the case study that proved this approach to be effective and has become the subject of his book, "The Happy Valley: A History and Tour of the Hong Kong Cemetery", published in June 2010.

Once again, our patron Mrs. Ellen Tsui extends her warm hospitality to members to celebrate arts and friendship with afternoon tea at her residence. Designed in the art-deco style, University Lodge was built in 1949 and has since housed seven Vice-Chancellors of The University of Hong Kong. Nestled among lush greens, the home will offer a rare opportunity for members and their friends to enjoy the elegant architecture of Hong Kong’s colonial era.

Our guest speaker and long-standing member, Cornelia “Nelly” Lichauco Fung will share snippets from her recent book Beneath the Banyan Tree chronicling her multi-cultural family’s interesting history and its role in the development of the Philippine nation. Her story begins during the Spanish colonial period with the coming of a Chinese ancestor, Tomas Lichauco, from Fujian Province in the 19th century. After four generations, Nelly has come “full circle” returning to her Chinese roots through her marriage to Kenneth Hing Cheung Fung, son of the late Sir Kenneth Fung.

What would a party be without music and dance, especially on a Saturday afternoon? Benny Inot and his quartet will be on hand to perform a variety of music that reflects the multi-cultural ethnicity of our members. And our university students will demonstrate and lead guests on the “Tinikling” dance.

A tea buffet featuring Filipino Lechong Baboy, suckling pig slowly roasted on an open pit, will be served. Do invite a friend or two to join this year’s membership drive for an afternoon of art and culture and a celebration of friendship among members of the Museum Society!

“ FULL CIRCLE – A RETURN TO CHINESE ROOTS”
A HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES THROUGH THE LIVES OF FOUR GENERATIONS AND A RELATIONSHIP WITH HONG KONG

Cornelia “Nelly” Lichauco Fung is uniquely well placed to present her family’s story and its involvement in the Philippine history through four generations. Her forebearers played a significant and fascinating role at each stage in the creation of the Philippine nation.

The story begins during the Spanish colonial period, with the coming of a Chinese ancestor, Tomas Lichauco from Fujian Province in the early 19th century. The second generation brought her Spanish antecedent from Galicia. The tale continues through the Philippine Revolution and her grandfather’s exile to Hong Kong; the Spanish-American war and the violent struggle and pacification by the Americans and through the gradual evolution of the nation’s democratic structure. Her multi-cultural heritage was enriched with her father’s marriage to her Cuban-American mother. The country’s road to independence was violently disrupted by the Second World War before the achievement of independence. Nelly Fung describes the increasingly important role of the Chinese mestizo in the economic, social and political development of the nation and the role of her father, Marcial Lichauco, a member of the two official independence missions to the United States and later as Ambassador to Britain and Scandinavia. After four generations, Nelly came “full circle” returning to her Chinese roots by marrying Kenneth Hing Cheung Fung, son of the late Sir Kenneth Fung.

Guest speaker
Cornelia “Nelly” Lichauco Fung was born in the Philippines and educated at Maryknoll in Manila before proceeding to the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Kent, England for pre-university studies. She graduated with a degree in History from Wellesley College in Massachusetts, USA, and pursued post-graduate studies at the School of Education, at London University. Since 1967 Nelly Fung has lived in Hong Kong with her husband Kenneth Fung where she has been active in community work in the arts and in education. She was a founder and board member of the Chinese International School and the ISF Academy. She has recently authored a lavishly illustrated book, Beneath the Banyan Tree describing her multi-cultural family’s interesting history and its role in the development of the Philippine nation.

Have you ever wondered how the fragile shuan paper, commonly called “rice paper” used in Chinese ink painting and calligraphy can be mounted on silk so perfectly?

In the past, the Society has organized numerous demonstrations by ink painters who have magically created beautiful landscapes with the strokes of their brush. With this visit to Artline Chinese Arts Mounting Studio, we will follow the trail of such artworks to learn the mechanics needed to preserve their beauty and condition.

A mounting specialist is often a trained conservator who restores to its original form artworks that have been damaged with spots and holes from age or mold, insects and humidity.

The mounting of Chinese artworks is a highly specialized skill using techniques passed down from a master through generations in a family or taught to devoted apprentices. Chin Hok Hong and Shum Lai Kuen is the husband-and-wife team that operates Artline Chinese Arts Mounting Studio. Since their immigration to Hong Kong from Suzhou many years ago, they have mounted innumerous artworks in various forms and conditions. Their clients include auction houses, galleries, artists and collectors. Shum has also taught the skills of mounting at both HKU SPACE and the Extramural Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chin and Shum will show us how they use their tools and materials and share with us the challenges they face in their profession. Along with advice on how to store and protect artworks, we may also be given the opportunity to try our hands on mounting.

FINE ART ASIA 2010 was previously known as the Hong Kong International Art and Antiques Fair. Since its inception in 2006, the Fair has established a firm foundation as a premier annual event in the Asian art world presenting a unique combination of art and antiques. Back for its fifth year, this event will be held from 3-6 October 2010 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). In 2009, the Fair showcased 4,000 superb works of art exhibited by 60 leading Asian, European and American galleries. This year, Fine Art Asia 2010 will continue to present a wide range of collectible art items – from museum-quality ancient bronzes, to exotic Chinese ceramics and works of art, from rare furniture, textiles and jades, to exceptional modern and contemporary art.

The unique nature of FINE ART ASIA 2010 where the link between tradition and modernity can be seen and appreciated under one roof, continues to attract the enthusiastic participation of renowned international galleries. They include overseas antique specialists such as Rossi & Rossi (London, UK), Robert Hall (London, UK), Nicholas Grindley Works of Art (Suffolk, UK) and Marcus Flacks (New York, USA), as well as leading local antique dealers M & C Gallery, Ever Arts Gallery and Martin Fung Limited. Art galleries include Michael Goehuis (London, New York), Sundaram Tagore Gallery (New York, Beverly Hills, Hong Kong), Grotto Fine Art (Hong Kong), Galerie du Monde (Hong Kong), and art jeweler Wallace Chan (Hong Kong). For the latest update, please visit http://www.fineartasia.com.

Do join us for this guided tour to visit seven selected antique specialists and galleries to view some of the highlights of this Fair.

In conjunction with the Society’s trip to Seoul, Korea in October, we have invited both resource persons, Corrin Chan and Kathy Park to talk about the highlights as well as the cultural and historical background of the places that we will visit in Korea. We will see the modern face of Seoul in terms of her art and architecture, understand how the city looks at her past for inspiration to her future, and also appreciate how staying at the Buddhist temple quiets the soul to balance the fast and buzzling lifestyle of this modern city.

Hong Kong architect Corrin Chan, who graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at HKU, continued further studies at Columbia University in New York, where she obtained her Master of Architecture. A recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Grant and the Walter Gropius Medal, she has been responsible for organizing many architectural forums, exhibitions and competitions.

Design consultant and practicing Zen Buddhist Kathy Park started life in Turkey, where she might have been one of the few Korean babies born in Ankara that year. She has lived and traveled the world since, always keen to return to the land of her ancestors, while fully committed to share Korean art and culture with the rest of the world.

Do join this interesting lecture and discover the culturally diverse and fascinating facets of Korea.