It’s timely and relevant to create an issue on design in Hong Kong — especially in these tumultuous times, through protests, political shifts and a pandemic. Amid the uncertainties looming over the city, worsened by the realities of emigration and censorship, I’ve been prompted to reflect on which of Hong Kong’s characteristics, those that have allowed design and art to thrive, will remain unchanged.
As a historian and curator called to Hong Kong in 2012 to build a design and architecture collection for M+ that reflects the city’s distinct histories and its place in the world, I’d like to offer reflections on two conditions, based on particular examples in the history of Hong Kong’s design and architectural developments, that fascinate me but that may have gone unnoticed or forgotten: Hong Kong as a truly transnational hub, and Hong Kong as a leading mediator of multiple identities and new
