HONGKONGESE
MUSEUM
Museum of Hongkong is an organisation with a focus on the study of history and culture of Hongkong and colonial studies. We collected antiques and historical documents worldwide mainly of Asia-Pacific, Britain, and Ireland to organise free exhibitions regularly in the U.K.
We, however, do not own any actual museum yet.
But we do provide an E-museum service of our collections on this website.
More on us
​Museum of Hongkong was based in Hongkong since we founded in 2010, later in 2021 we move our base to London, and registered in the U.K.
We annually organise "Hongkong Day celebration and the Festival of Hongkong" since 2014, which made us likely to be the first non-governmental association to
organise celebration and festival in the Hongkong Day (26th January).
Apart from the Hongkong Day celebration, we also provide academic courses in universities and community centres, exhibitions, and
cultural activities in the U.K. since 2022.
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OUR WORKS
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HONGKONG DAY/
FESTIVAL OF HONGKONG
A festival was held annually since 2014 to commemorate the founding of Hongkong. For the story of Hongkong Day and the previous footages, please click #HongkongDay
in the headline
BINGSUTT/
THE HONGKONGESE CAFE
Pop-up Hongkongese cafe was organised serval times in London, including Hackney in 2022,
and Southwark in 2023
LECTURES OF HONGKONG'S HISTORY AND CULTURE
Series of lectures were organised in community centre and university in London such as Hackney Chinese Community Service Centre, and
Hong Kong Society of SOAS, University of London
TALKS AND EXHIBITIONS ON ​HONGKONG'S
HISTORY AND CULTURE
Guest talks and exhibitions were given in different cities and towns around the U.K., including London, Birmingham, Newcastle, Reading, and Guildford
THE E-MUSEUM
Check out our historical documents, maps, prints, postcards, and arts collections by
clicking E-MUSEUM in the headline
HONGKONG AND
COLONIAL STUDIES
Book, journal, and articles conducted by us are available to read through our Instagram (@museumofhk126) or Patreon (@caltatara)
THE HONGKONGESE
HOW THE IDENTITY GROWS FROM "NATIVES" TO "HONGKONGESE"?
I/
THE VIETS
Indigenous people of South China and North Vietnam, which is also commonly known as ancestor of today's Cantonese, Tancareiras, and Vietnamese. They built a few kingdoms before the 1st Chinese Conquest (B.C. 214). Unlike the Chinese records marked as "non-human barbarians", the Viets did have their own language, writing system, civilisation, and religious practice.
II/
CANTONESE
A former Chinese general declared to establish the Namviet Kingdom in the Chinese-occupied Viet-lands in B.C. 203, and launched a Vietisation cultural integration policy. The Kingdom lasts for 93 years until the 2nd Chinese Conquest. Different tribes of Viets chose different pathway after the conquest, some escape to the hills, the seas, and Vietnam. Those who remains faced a Chinese cultural colonisation which at the end transformed them into Cantonese. Cantonese is indeed the Viets influenced by Chinese cultures, or alternatively a creole culture.
III/
TANCAREIRAS
Viets who refused to be a Chinese subject but escaped to sea developed a new community as Tancareiras. Tancareiras were described as "non-human" by the Chinese, they were an outcast of the "Chinese Confucian Caste system". English records often mistakenly marked them as "Chinese fishermen", yet the Portuguese records as an individual ethnicity. Tancareiras are also a strong partner with East India Company in the Chinese trading and the alliance with British Royal Navy during the Opium/Anglo-Manchus War between 1839 and 1842. Hongkong was found in 1841 and later confirmed its status in 1842 because of the alliance, It was recorded in the letter to Governor-General of India, written by the 1st Hongkong Administrator Sir Charles Elliot.
IV/
As for a convenient reason on colonial governing, all former subjects of Daicing Gurun/ the Qing Empire are grouped as "Chinese" in the colony without considering the ethnic background. However, the British colonial government tends to anglicise the "Chinese" in Hongkong which later on the term of "Anglo-Chinese" was introduced in the early second half of 19th century. Sir John Hennessy, the 8th Hongkong Governor, further addressed the wording in his speech given in 1880. The speech is a proposal to launch a large-scale Anglicisation policy in Hongkong. The result was out of expectation which the citizens formed a creole culture mixed mainly between Cantonese and British. Thus, a more proper term would be "Anglo-Cantonese".
ANGLO-CHINESE
V/
THE NATIVES
Following Sir John Hennessy's cultural integration policy, he instructed to use "Natives" to describe the "Chinese" citizens in Hongkong in 1880, but he did not ban the usage of the term "Chinese". It is marked as the first governmental record to separate Canto-Hongkongese (or sometimes with some Sino-Hongkongese) and Chinese in history.
VI/
HONGKONGESE
As Hongkong is an immigration hub, people with different ethnic backgrounds migrate to Hongkong in the first half of 20th century. Hongkong enjoys its "roaring twenties", which named as Georgian Romance Era, and further absorb cultures from different new immigrants. Hongkong was already an international and multi-ethnical state before the WWII. The new identity was formed under the nature of Hongkongness. However, due to the complicated reason in the postwar era, the Chinese national identity became a competitor against the Hongkongese identity until the 2010s. The Hongkongese identity is growing stronger significantly after the 2019 Be Water Revolution.