Inside Liang Yi Museum, Hong Kong's Largest Private Collection of Antique Chinese and Western Treasures
Tucked away on Hollywood Road, amongst Hong Kong’s oldest antique Chinese sellers, stands the Liang Yi Museum, a private museum that is home to one of the world’s finest collections of antique Ming and Qing dynasty furniture, European silver, Japanese art, and American jewels.
Four stories in height, Liang Yi breaks out of tradition and encourages visitors to touch and interact with its exhibits – sit on 600-year-old Chinese classical furniture, feel the jagged scrags on a silver vase, brush the delicate faces of jewellery.
According to Lynn Fung, managing director of the museum, the exhibitions curated under her directorship focus on interactivity attracting younger audiences, reverting from the approach of boring displays with lengthy lectures about history and origins.
Opening its Hollywood Road location in 2014, the Liang Yi Museum pays tribute to its birthing grounds, where the collection once began in the neighbouring antique shops by businessman and entrepreneur Peter Fung.
Liang Yi Museum saw its inception in the 1980s, founded by Hong Kong financier Peter. His penchant for collecting Ming Dynasty huanghuali and zitan antique furniture and Western cosmetic powder boxes drew him to Hollywood Road in his free time, Hong Kong’s unofficial centre for antique Chinese goods.
Collecting unique and pricey antique goods within Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, North America and beyond, Peter established himself in the world of antique collecting. Initially, he sought to present his personal collection on Hollywood Road at a private clubhouse for friends and associates to view his collections, an homage to the site where his fascination with ancient Chinese goods began.
Four decades later in 2021, his former collection has sprouted into more than 6,800 sets of artefacts housed on Hollywood Road, with the museum opening its doors to the public for the first time in 2014.
Exhibits are rotated every six to 12 months, featuring Peter’s personal collection of European vanities, historic silver, and Japanese works of art, alongside the majority classical Chinese furniture collection.
“When designing our exhibitions, we try to re-create how the objects would have been placed so visitors could visualise the original use,” Stephanie Fung, curator of Liang Yi Museum, says.
“The unique selling point of a Liang Yi Museum experience is that we try to keep as many objects out in the open as possible (instead of behind locked cases) for our visitors to interact with. For example, at our previous exhibitions on classical Chinese furniture, visitors are invited to sit on 18th century chairs; and open cabinets made of precious hardwood.”
“As the largest private museum in Hong Kong, it means that we have the resources to promote art and culture, especially in the areas that we have already built and consolidated a collection. We are able to share and exchange knowledge with public museums – both local and overseas – and collaborate with private collectors and institutions,” Lynn says.
Over the years, Liang Yi has become instrumental in the world of art collecting and museums, tendering selected pieces and items to be exhibited in other museums worldwide, including the Goldsmiths Hall in London, National Museum of History in Taipei, and the Palace Museum in Beijing.
Lynn's and Stephanie’s modern and interactive approach to the museum breaks out of the norm of Hong Kong’s museums presenting items enclosed in glass and off-limits, physically, to visitors.
The pair encourages visitors to “sniff the wood, sit in a chair, and take a selfie.” When the museum opened seven years ago, the pair, alongside Stephanie’s father Peter, wanted the museum to be open for people to touch and appreciate.
Lynn’s childhood of visiting museums, with objects encased and concealed behind glass, encouraged her to break away from the physical constraints of what a museum is in a traditional sense.
Many of the objects presented within the Liang Yi collection had survived the effects of wars, cultural revolutions, uprisings and two teenage daughters brought up in Hong Kong. This was enough for Lynn to convince her father to open the museum.
As compared to traditional museums found in Hong Kong and in other cities, the Liang Yi Museum does not force or compel visitors to explore a dark and gloomy space packed with artefacts hidden away in glass cases. The two floors of current exhibition space are filled with bright white light and take on a contemporary approach to both interior design and a hands-on interactivity.
“Our tours are customised to the needs of each individual. For example, secondary school student tours focus more on the general history of the artefacts on display, with a few interesting pieces highlighted,” Lynn says.
Tours are arranged by highly trained heritage guides, or “docents,” educated of the collection's rich history and facts by Stephanie herself. Bookings must be made and tours are priced at HK$200.
Docents are encouraging for the public and visitors to the museum to interact as much as possible with their extensive collection of Chinese, Japanese, French, American, and British antique pieces – sit on chairs, touch valuable artefacts, peer inside furniture, and of course, take selfies.
“From layperson to experts and collectors, we try our best to cater to each individual’s interest and to provide the best possible museum tour. Our tours have always been highly narrative driven, as we find that stories of past owners; or historical contexts of the pieces are much more memorable than dry facts such as when a piece was made, or the material it was constructed from,” Lynn says.
"In a sense, what we are trying to do is replicate this sense of childlike absorption of information by arousing our visitors' curiosity and wonder.”
Liang Yi’s newest exhibition, which opened in June 2021, is “Family Silver,” the museum’s second exhibition to focus on historic silver from the 18th to 20th centuries.
With artefacts drawn exclusively from the museum’s permanent collection, “Family Silver” showcases the heritage, design and craftsmanship of silver, highlighting primarily French and British silver from the 18th and 19th centuries.
“The exhibition invites visitors to explore the social dynamics and economic contexts within which silver was commissioned, produced, and used; and examines the perception and value of silver that has evolved from the age of industrialisation,” Stephanie says.
“We also use this exhibition to educate visitors about the lineage of prominent silversmiths, from the Huguenot refugees whose descendants became some of the famous silversmiths of 18th century England.”
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