Cache me if you can
Designer and brand consultant Alan Chan Yau-kin is a compulsive collector. Since his teens, the man behind the packaging of household names such as Lee Kum Kee and Coca Cola China has been collecting everything from tram tickets (with auspicious serial numbers such as 8888) to movie ticket stubs (saved from his dates) to postcards of film stars.
The 60-year-old also has a large collection of 18th century export silverware, which he lent to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum for an exhibition in 2006, and an array of ivory card holders, antique watches, account ledgers (all from the turn of the 20th century) as well as Buddha heads and Chinese Communist propaganda art. And for the past five years Chan has been collecting contemporary Chinese art.
His approach to collecting is spontaneous. 'I don't collect because of my job ... I do it because it is part of my lifestyle,' he says. Some of the items he has squirrelled away didn't cost him a cent, while others were bought from flea markets, art fairs and auction houses around the region. As a result, Chan says, the number of items he has amassed over the decades is 'shocking' and would fill a museum - which is something he plans to do.
'It's been something on my mind for some time now,' Chan says of his plan. 'I'm 60 and increasingly thinking about what will happen to all the things I've collected ... I don't want my children to sell them.
'It would be good to share what I've collected with the public and new generations of designers because these items can throw light on how my own work developed ... I've been in this field for about 40 years so I'm part of Hong Kong's design history, which in turn reflects the history of the city. Besides, I won't be able to take any of these items to the grave.'
Chan says he has been searching for a suitable location, with good fung shui, in Beijing for two years because Hong Kong space is scarce and expensive, although he has not ruled out the possibility of locating it here. 'I just need a 10,000 to 20,000 square-foot space. Maybe, one day a property developer will be interested.'