Centenary of China's 1911 Revolution Exhibition

This actually sounds really fun. If you register in time, you can join ten people in learning how to make your own wooden historic plaque! So exciting!


Centenary of China’s 1911 Revolution

2 March – 16 May 2011

Closed on Tuesdays (except public holidays)
Special Exhibition Gallery
Admission Fee (including "The Hong Kong Story" permanent exhibition):
Standard：HK$10
Group of 20 or more：HK$7
Full-time students / senior citizens / people with disabilities：HK$5
Free Admission on Wednesdays

Free Admission for holders of Museum Pass and Weekly Pass

Jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and Hubei Provincial Museum
Organised by the Hong Kong Museum of History

This year marks the centenary of the 1911 Revolution, the epoch-making event that had far-reaching consequences for the fate of the Chinese people. It brought an end to imperial rule in China and also represented the birth of Asia’s first republic. A hugely important milestone on China’s road to modernisation, it is also of remarkable significance for the development of global politics.

The first decade of the 20th century was a time of great upheaval in China. Revolutionary currents were never far from the surface, while reformists and reactionaries struggled to gain the upper hand in the Qing government. After the war with the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Empress Dowager Cixi was finally persuaded to launch a series of political, economic, military and educational reforms. However, two policies announced by the Qing court in May 1911 – the formation of a new “imperial cabinet” and the nationalisation of the railways – caused huge public resentment and drove many people into the revolutionary camp. The success of the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911 then started a chain reaction, and in less than two months 14 out of the 18 provinces within China’s main borders had declared independence. The imperial regime had been overthrown and replaced by a republican system, signifying a new era of modern China.

Celebrating the centenary of the 1911 Revolution, this exhibition showcases over 150 exhibits from Hubei Provincial Museum and other collections as well as historical images, videos and maps to illustrate this milestone in China's modern history and also highlight the immense contribution that Hong Kong made to this revolution.


The Museum offers public guided tours and pre-booked group visit with docent services from 9 March 2011 (Wed) onwards.

Group Visits

Public Guided Tours (in Cantonese)
Each tour lasts for about 1 hour and admits 30 persons on a first come, first served basis. Please gather at the “Docent Stop” at the entrance of the Special Exhibition Gallery according to the following schedule：

Session 1：11:30 am daily
Session 2：3 pm daily

The Hong Kong Museum of History
100 Chatham Road South, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong (next to the Hong Kong Science Museum)
Tel. : (852) 2724 9042
Fax. : (852) 2724 9090

Sorry for the tiny pictures, but they were the only ones I could find on the Website. Most of these paintings and posters have been spirited away to other countries, so this is a rare chance to see them all in one location.

Old School Shoe Stores

I always feel a bit nostalgic when I see these OG shoe stores. Reminds of when I was a little kid and went with my mom to buy school shoes.

I love the dim lighting in those shops, with the salesmen uncles gathered around a newspaper, looking at the horse race statistics.

Enjoy these pictures, kids, these shops will be gone in a few years.

Filler Outfit

It was 21 degrees Celcius when I wore this outfit on Monday, and I was really tired. I just wanted to be as comfortable as possible. My shoes are Beverly Feldman and super comfortable despite being so tall. I wore them to set off the gold shimmer in the fabric. It's not clear in the sunlight, but in artificial light, the dress looks amazing.

This dress was possibly one of the first outfits I ever bought when I first moved to Hong Kong all these years ago. I found it at the late, lamented Beverly Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, a rundown building that housed dozens of little shops run by independent designers and kids who just wanted to sell cool things. It was the original inspiration for Island Beverly in Causeway Bay.

But the more Beverly Centre became popular, the higher the rents got and most people moved out to Mong Kok or Rise Commercial Building. I wonder if there will be a renaissance.

This dress has an early 70s vibe to it, so I usually wear it with lots of blue eyeliner and hair parted low on the side. Now that I have Bettie Page hair, it's a little bit tougher to get an appropriate hairstyle. I really was too tired to do anything beyond an easy updo, but I think in the future, I'd do a kind of 1970s pageboy look to my fringe like so:

Taken from here

I'll put up a picture next time. The whole process involves using a hair rat and a combover.

Anyway, to return to Beverly Centre, I also got this faux-leather bag there. Both the dress and the bag were really cheap, under HKD200 each. My awkward pose is to show you the leopard print on my shoes. And for those who are wondering, the tattoo is based on a Tang Dynasty design. During that time, soldiers would have animals engraved or hammered onto their shields, hoping that they would be able to express the qualities of that animal during battle.

I liked that soldiers used the image of a tiger to represent not ferocity but honour in battle, so I took it as inspiration for a pair of tattoos.

Hong Kong Heritage Office Guidebook

Okay, okay, maybe it's cheating to just put up a link, but this is such a cute guidebook that I think it's worth an entry on its own. The Heritage Office has created a little guidebook that you can download here. It's really super, and it even has a section on haunted places in Hong Kong (they don't cover the more dangerous or controversial haunted places, but that's understandable). It turns out that I actually live next to one of them. Big surprise.

Anyway, enjoy!

Kowloon Walled City Park

Before I moved to Hong Kong, I visited quite frequently with my family. My parents' close friends live in Kowloon City -- which is why, thanks to their generosity, I found a place there to live -- and so I had a first-hand experience as a visitor to the old Kowloon Walled City.

Some of you might be familiar with the place from games (sorry, I wouldn't know which ones since I don't play games because I get motion sickness. I'm such a delicate flower.), some of you might not realize that Stephen Chow grew up there and based Pig Sty Alley in Kung Fu Hustle on Kowloon Walled City.

Here's a brief excerpt from the Wikipedia entry:

Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by Triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling, and drug use. In 1987, the Walled City contained 33,000 residents within its 6.5-acre (0.03 km2; 0.01 sq mi) borders.

By the time I moved to Hong Kong, the Walled City had been razed to the ground and a park built in its stead with the original bits of the old fort. Honestly, I love the park. I think it's beautiful and a lovely place to visit. I've consoled heartbroken friends there, I've watched old people doing tai chi, I've petted stray cats, and I've even fallen asleep undisturbed in the park. It's the ideal park for me because there's nature but it's in a restrained form. I can still wear high heels and walk around without worrying about stepping on monkey poo (sooo smelly and nasty) like in Kam Shan Country Park. 

However, I can understand why some former residents of the Walled City feel nostalgic about the old projects. It was often dangerous (although very exciting to me as a child, bless my parents for letting me have the independence to explore) but it was a very organic and very Chinese way of community growth. I'm obsessed with the process of community-building, by the way.

So, the park. At the entrance, which I forgot to photograph, you'll see a small model of the old projects. 

The guards were really nice to us. We arrived about ten minutes before closing (11 at  night), and they still let us wander around.

Remnants of the old 衙門 -- sorry, no English for this, it's simply called a yamen -- at the entrance. I love sitting there and pretending that I'm some old magistrate taking his tea and scowling at delinquents. When I get my men's cheongsam made, I'm going to have a lot of pictures taken there.

There are a lot of pavilions in the park, this is one of them. Again, sorry for the shitty quality of the photograph.

Erm...this is a stream that leads to a waterfall (which I didn't photograph).

One of the courtyards where oldies take their exercise.

A rock formation thing.

You know what, just take my word for it and visit the park. My photographs simply don't do it justice. I'm not sure what I was thinking, I think I was addled by overeating.