Hong Kong House of Stories
Hong Kong House of Stories is a museum located at the ground floor of the Blue House at 72-74A Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai, Hong Kong.[1] The main purpose of conserving this house is to raise the public awareness of the regional and cultural conservation by providing information of the past Hong Kong society and culture as well as sharing Hong Kong stories via movies, concerts, exhibitions, etc.[2]
History
In 2007, the museum was called Wan Chai Livelihood Place. In March 2012, it was renamed as Hong Kong House of Stories and it bears the concern of cultural issues to the whole of Hong Kong society.
Operation
Operation hours are from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. everyday except Wednesdays and public holidays. Entry is free.[3]
Aims and Objective
It aims to pass on culture by creativity, to care the society as well as the citizens and to explore the possibility of culture education. Besides, it also aims to raise the awareness of the Hong Kong people towards the cultural conservation.
Facilities
Hong Kong House of Stories is divided into two parts. One is the exhibition area, another one is the handicraft area.
Exhibition area
There are different exhibitions held by Hong Kong House of Stories which will be decorated differently for different exhibition. For example, there is an exhibition on the theme of antiques in September, 2015. In addition, there were also exhibitions related to local Hong Kong culture such as "Stall on Street", "Hong Kong’s retirement plan" "The memories of Hong Hong’s film" etc.
Handicraft area
Hong Kong House of Stories provides handmade souvenirs. Visitors can make their own souvenirs.[4] The income for maintaining the running cost of the Hong Kong House of Stories comes from the donations from the visitors by making stamps and notebooks.
Community culture activities
As the main focus of the Hong Kong House of Stories is to increase citizens’ awareness on community and culture of Hong Kong, it hosts a variety of community cultural activities which can be divided into five category: 1) Public Exhibitions, 2) Community-guided Tours, 3) Arts and Culture Promotion Activities 4) Workshops 5) Regular Events.
Public Exhibitions
There are different exhibitions held in different periods in the House of Stories. The latest one is "Blue House Curio Store. Recognize the old things and bring a story home" which has been held from 21 Sep 2015 to 11 Jan 2016. Some exhibitions held before: "In the name of what we believe" "Memories under skin" "Naamyam exhibition" "Stall on street"[5]
Community-guided Tours
Some tours are held to help the public to recognize the change between the past and recent Hong Kong community. Wan Chai Community Cultural Tour and Central Community Cultural Tour are regular tours in which English version tour is available for Wan Chai Community tour. Some special tours will be held in particular time. The latest special tours are Wan Chai Cuisine Tour and Wan Chai Hiking Tour.[6]
Arts and Culture Promotion Activities
Some activities are organized to promote arts and culture in Hong Kong.
The "Viva Blue House Studio"[7] and the "Community Classroom" are the main programmes to promote community arts by organizing different workshops to the public for better understanding of community arts and local crafts.
Workshops
In Community Classroom, there are Community Arts Workshop, Local Crafts Workshop, Traditional Industry Workshop and Traditional Food Workshop organized for the public to learn more about traditional artwork and crafts.[8]
Regular Events
Some events are held every month regularly, for instances, movie sharing, night concert, art studios, neighborhood sharing discussion etc.[9]
Features
Elderly staff
One of the main features of the Hong Kong House of Stories is that most of the staff are the elderly who are volunteers. It suits the aims and the objectives of this museum which are to pass on the culture as they believe that the elderly is used to be one of the important assets in the territory.
Interactive events
There are some events for visitors to interact with each other, for examples, touring etc. so as to promote the importance of cultural preservation and to let the general public understand the diverse changes of the old city and the modern territory.
References
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