In late July, I led a delegation, including nine members of the Antiquities Advisory Board, to visit Macau to learn more about its heritage conservation work. Apart from meeting with the President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau to exchange experiences on the heritage conservation work of the two places, we also visited a number of historic buildings.
I believe that many who have visited Macau are greatly impressed by its distinctive historic buildings. Indeed, Macau’s heritage conservation work has successfully combined with the promotion of cultural tourism and is well worth for us to make reference of. The historic buildings we visited during this trip are run by the local government, including St. Lazarus Quarter, Na Tcha Exhibition Hall, Macau Ho’s Clan Hall, Mandarin’s House, Dom Pedro V Theatre, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, etc. Some of these buildings are still serving their original functions (such as Dom Pedro V Theatre and Macau Ho’s Clan Hall) while others have new parts added. Revitalising and making good use of these historic buildings have no doubt injected a new life into them.
Here in Hong Kong, our work on the conservation of historic buildings has also gone through different stages: It was initially mainly led by the Government; and in recent years, we have come up with a multi-pronged conservation approach with emphasis on interaction with the community and collaboration with our partners, which have generated more possibilities and vitality for the conservation of historic buildings in Hong Kong.
In the 1970s and 1980s when Hong Kong was undergoing rapid urbanisation, many old districts and villages were transformed to tie in with social development. Some of the old buildings have been preserved by the Government and handed over to the then Urban Council or Regional Council for planning and management. They were transformed into museums or galleries, such as Sam Tung Uk Museum in Tsuen Wan (now serving as the Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre), and Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po. In the 1990s, in response to more diverse needs of the community and members of the public, the Government made use of the idle old buildings and converted them into buildings with new purposes. For example, the Old Aberdeen Police Station was converted into the Warehouse Teenage Club to provide activity venues for young people. Since 2000, as society has attached greater importance to heritage conservation as well as culture and art, numerous historic buildings have been transformed to support cultural and art development. For instance, the former Explosives Magazine in Admiralty has been converted into the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, where Asian art work and heritage features of the Explosives Magazine are displayed.
In 2007-08, the Government announced a series of measures to further enhance the collaboration with non-governmental organisations, with a view to exploring more new options to the work on preserving historic buildings. People in Hong Kong are very familiar with the Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme (Revitalisation Scheme), under which the Government invites non-profit-making organisations to revitalise idle government-owned historic buildings in the form of social enterprises. Four batches of Revitalisation Scheme have been rolled out, with a total of 15 historic building projects approved. Eight of them have completed the revitalisation works and are now open to the public. As at the end of June this year, these projects have attracted more than 2.57 million visitors. They have won four UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation and successfully created a lot of employment opportunities for the community. Batch V of the Revitalisation Scheme will be launched by the end of this year. In addition, in 2009, the Government announced the “Conserving Central” initiative, which comprises eight innovative projects to preserve many of the important cultural, historical and architectural features in Central while adding new life and vibrancy to the area. Among them, the former Police Married Quarters on Hollywood Road in Central has been transformed into the PMQ to support local creative designs, as well as to preserve and display the remains of the former Central School. And the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust has been commissioned to transform the former Central Police Station Compound into “Tai Kwun”, a place which combines contemporary art, history and culture, heritage and monuments, as well as leisure experience.
It is worth mentioning that the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) has also been proactive in participating in the conservation and revitalisation of privately-owned historic buildings in recent years. Among them, 10 pre-war tenement buildings at Mallory Street/Burrows Street in Wan Chai (Green House), which are Grade 2 historic buildings, have been successfully revitalised into Comix Home Base providing exhibition rooms, comic book library, workshops and public open space. The participation of the URA has given more impetus to the conservation of historic buildings, especially the huge number of pre-war tenement buildings, in Hong Kong.
As for privately-owned historic buildings, we always encourage private owners to be more involved in preserving their buildings. Apart from enhancing the Financial Assistance for Maintenance Scheme, we are exploring ways to provide private owners with economic incentives and assistance for conservation according to the scale, building conditions and heritage values of the historic buildings, as well as to step up the promotion efforts.
Conservation of historic buildings in Hong Kong has gone some way to the point which requires efforts beyond the Government. We shall collaborate with the community and draw together their wisdom to explore new opportunities for preserving historic buildings. Looking ahead, we seek to gauge further public views on the provision of appropriate, attractive and cost effective economic incentives so as to encourage more private owners to preserve their historic buildings. We will remain open and prudent to various suggestions with a view to keeping up the conservation work in Hong Kong with the times.
11 September, 2016
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