Protect Hongkonger

Curating an exhibition showcases the iconic toys on different stages of Hong Kong social development. This exhibition aims to remind visitors to inherit the identity of “Hongkonger” by knowing and maintain the core value of Hong Kong, one of the values is the collective memory of Hong Kong people; the old toys or playthings are one type of collective memories. Toys play an must-needed-role in everyone’s childhood; they also construct Hong Kong's material culture.

This exhibition plan to invite and collaborate with a vintage shop “thegoodthebad&thecreative (Chinese: 雅俗共想)” in Sham Shui Po, where mainly sell old Hong Kong toys. This exhibition is divided into three parts, first is the timeline of the development of the old Hong Kong toys based on the social development with iconic toy displays. The second part is the photography of that shop by me, me as a visitor's role, what can I see there, and the feeling while I was visiting there, this can occur through the photography to show. The photos were filmed by an old film camera, which aims to create a meaningful outcome. The third is the shop's showcase; the shop will arrange their iconic and special collections for display. This can raise the visitor's awareness to explore our material culture and core value to inherit the identity of “Hongkonger.”

Overview of the exhibition:

Part 1: Timeline of Hong Kong old toys

Part 2: Photography by me

Part 3: Iconic toys remaining of vintage shop display and collection

Design idea

To introduce the old Hong Kong development and keep the collective memory of the old Hong Kong toys or playthings, aiming to exhibit the identity of “Hongkonger” by maintaining the core values of Hong Kong.

Collaborate with one of the old Hong Kong toy shops and showcase iconic toys in different Hong Kong stages. Also, show some of this shop's photography on presenting the old Hong Kong and the item they grouped in a small shop in Sham Shui Po. The feeling from that shop is different from observing from an exhibition, thus by showing the photography of this shop promoting people to visit there, also can be a good way for people to explore the old Hong Kong toys by showing most of the types of them. One more thing is that this shop keeps on collecting the old items from any people donate or sell to them, for the shop to resell or display in their shops. One thing is to display to more people to know more about the old Hong Kong, also attracted the collectors of those old toys to treasure in this shop.

The exhibition can be divided into three parts; one is a timeline displaying, based on the Hong Kong toy industry's development and the iconic design toys in different Hong Kong stages.

The other part is to display photography of the shop “thegoodthebad&thecreative”

The shop's overview photos show the environment and the overview of the old Hong Kong toys.

The last part is to provide a part of the exhibition for the shop “thegoodthebad&thecreative” to have a booth about them, and the visitors can directly interact with the staff of that shop. Also, move some of the shop toys they think are iconic and special while collecting them.

Idea details

The simulation of the exhibition.

Exhibition arrangement

Topic of the show: Protect “Hongkonger” toy exhibition

Venue selected: Hong Kong Museum of Art (香港藝術館)Concept of the show: An exhibition of the old Hong Kong Toys, visitor can walk through this exhibition to understand the development of toys in Hong Kong in the past century until now. What is special is this exhibition collaborate and invite the shop “thegoodthebad&thecreative,” a vintage shop that mainly sells old toys in Hong Kong Sham Shui Po, invite them to display different Hong Kong old toys there, which can be more attractive and effective to “promote” old Hong Kong toys. One more thing is to raise the attention about the remaining old shops. This can help protect and inherit one of Hong Kong's core values – collective memory, the old toys, maintain the identity of “Hongkonger.”