Acrobatics have never been a crucial part of a museum curator's job description, but an exhibition opening today shows that in post-handover Hong Kong diplomatic high-wire skills can be as important as historical expertise.
The Hong Kong Museum of History's exhibition, 'The Rise Of Modern China - A Century Of Self-Determination', is a case in point that perceptions of history can never be entirely isolated from the period in which they are viewed - particularly when the era is so recent and so politically explosive. Add in the potential minefield of 'one country, two systems' and the search for historical integrity becomes a daunting task.
The achievements of this exhibition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's republic of China are summed up in its programme notes: 'While we rejoice in our achievements, we should hold up history as a mirror and scrutinise it in order to learn every lesson from the past. Only in this way can we as a people equip ourselves to meet the challenges of the 21st century.' In an era that encompasses revolution and upheaval stretching from empire to republic to communist regime, that naturally means unearthing some sensitive areas.
The show is the first co-operation of its kind with Beijing's National Museum of Modern Chinese History, which provided the bulk of the exhibits. The details of the scholarly wrangling remain firmly behind closed doors and the extent of the concessions made by the Hong Kong team remains to be seen when the exhibition opens its doors to the public today.
Chief Curator of the Museum of History and negotiator Dr Joseph Ting said his Beijing counterparts did agree to one important aspect: 'When I talked to them in Beijing, I made it very clear that Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region and as such, we have a completely different background. We have a very long colonial history and the educational background is completely different. So naturally we have a different interpretation of history.
'We agreed on one very important thing - normally for this type of loan exhibition it is ready-made - [the loaning museum] provides the exhibits, they provide the text - everything is shipped to Hong Kong and we put it up. But for this exhibition we agreed that we write the text.
