HKU stages rare book show tracing collectors’ legacy
On.cc · 2 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago5 MIN
Summary
The University of Hong Kong's Fung Ping Shan Library is presenting “Jiaye Fragments — Gems from the Former Collections of Ming and Qing Book Collectors” from October 6 to November 29, drawing on rare editions preserved at HKU since the 1950s. The exhibition uses selected volumes from the Jiayetang collection to show how books passed through generations of collectors from the Ming to Qing periods, and how those movements were tied to shifts in scholarship. Curators also use archival research and bibliography to reconstruct how the books entered HKU, including wartime transfers to Hong Kong and later acquisitions by the university. Alongside the display, HKU has planned an international conference, a public expert forum and bookbinding workshops to widen access to rare-book culture and conservation.
Key Points
- The exhibition runs at HKU's Fung Ping Shan Library from October 6 to November 29 and presents 32 titles in 43 volumes from Jiayetang rare-book holdings
- Conservators said the team reviewed about 60 titles, nearly 200 volumes, before selecting 33 titles and 42 volumes after condition assessments and display planning
- Curator Professor Yeung Yuen-ching (楊元錚) said the title evokes selecting representative highlights from Jiayetang's peak holdings of more than 600,000 juan
- The display is arranged in five historical stages, plus a section on wartime dispersal and HKU's later purchases of former Jiayetang books
- HKU plans a November conference with more than 110 scholars, a November 11 expert forum, and four bookbinding workshops on October 30 and 31
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong readers, the exhibition links the city's university history with the survival of Chinese rare books displaced by war and later preserved locally. It also opens a usually closed world of cataloguing, conservation and collecting to the public at a time when specialist conservators remain scarce in Hong Kong.