Museum, HKJC kick off project on Chinese culture

The Hong Kong Jockey Club on Friday launched a five-year program with Beijing’s Palace Museum to promote Chinese culture and nurture talent in arts technology.

The collaboration involves the establishment of a Hong Kong cultural exchange hub in the Forbidden City to facilitate exchanges between Hong Kong and Chinesemainland cultural professionals.

On Friday, the Jockey Club and a club-managed charitable organization — the Institute of Philanthropy — signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Palace Museum in Beijing, kicking off the project.

Under the agreement, the institute will donate HK$440 million ($56.3 million) to the project.

The cultural exchange hub will oversee artifact reservation, exhibitions and cultural exchanges between art technology professionals from the special administrative region and the mainland.

Participants in the project will also host exhibitions, pop-up activities and education events in Beijing and Hong Kong to foster cultural exchange.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Palace Museum Director Wang Xudong said that the cooperation is an important contribution to developing Hong Kong as an East-meetsWest center for international cultural exchange as outlined in the nation’s 14th Five-Year Plan (202125).

HKJC Chairman Michael Lee Tze-hau said the cooperation will bring people, especially the young generation, in the two places to gain a deeper understanding of Chinese history and culture.

Hong Kong Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Kevin Yeung Yung-hung, in Beijing for the second day of his visit to the Chinese capital, witnessed the signing ceremony.

Yeung also met with Gao Zheng, director of the National Museum of China, on Friday afternoon to explore cooperation direction on cultural and tourism fronts.