Hong Kong's democrats say no to China's treasures

IF THE world's most popular museum, drawing over 15m visitors a year, suddenly offered a distant city a priceless haul of artefacts'on permanent loan and absolutely free'you would expect that city's residents to jump for joy. Not so, when the city is Hong Kong, and when the Palace Museum, which occupies most of Beijing's vast Forbidden City, is doing the offering. In December Hong Kong's chief secretary, Carrie Lam, announced surprise plans to build a branch of the Palace Museum in a showcase cultural district going up on reclaimed land in Hong Kong's harbour. Many of the territory's residents erupted in anger.The cultural and commercial benefits for Hong Kong are unarguable, says Mark O'Neill, who has written a book on the Forbidden City's treasures. The complex was the seat of China's emperors from the 15th century until Pu Yi, the last emperor, resigned in 1912. It houses such an array of imperial Chinese pieces that the Palace Museum is able to display less than 1% of the collection at any time. A trove on show in Hong Kong would draw in millions of visitors a year. As well as ticket sales, think of all the merchandising...Continue reading
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