Presented at Hong Kong History Centre, University of Bristol | HKHC Speaker Series | 29 Oct, 2025 |

Abstract:

In the early colonial period, arts and cultural development in Hong Kong was primarily driven by community initiatives and elite advocates. However, since the opening of the Hong Kong City Hall in 1962, its cultural offerings have been well-received by the growing local middle class. Coupled with the incidents of social unrest in 1966-67, the late colonial government began to recognise culture’s utility in governance and as a means to maintain social stability. The positive economic growth in postwar Hong Kong provided the government with the resources to invest in the extensive construction of public facilities, including municipal civic centres and town halls. The Urban Council’s organisational reform in 1973 allowed greater autonomy in budget and planning, with increased elected seats and an ambitious Chairman, A de O Sales, and it has since become the leading proponent in the city’s cultural development by building and managing a dozen public cultural facilities in the urban area. Following the model of the Urban Council, the Regional Council was established in 1986 to serve the new towns and assume the role of operating the town halls in various new towns. While these civic buildings fulfil the leisure and cultural function in the new towns and urban district masterplans, they also represent the vision of a new urban lifestyle for a global metropolis in the making. What are the expectations and assumptions of the late colonial government and the public towards the planning and construction of municipal cultural architecture?

This presentation will share the findings from the recently published monograph, Cultural Architecture and Late Colonial Space: Constructing Cultural Centres in Hong Kong (2025), with accounts on the conception and design of three significant public cultural buildings – the landmark Hong Kong Cultural Centre opened in 1989, and two Town Halls in Tsuen Wan (1980) and Shatin (1987). From an architecture and planning perspective, it discusses the materiality and spatial structure of a particular building type, the Cultural Centre, which drew reference from the UK model of municipal Arts Centres that emerged in the postwar welfare state. As this typological study of municipal cultural architecture in Hong Kong continues to develop, I wish to engage with the audience in further methodological discussion of archival research and the consultation of diverse textual and visual material from official documents, popular media, and oral history.