On October 18, 2020, hundreds of Hongkongers queued for hours to pay a visit to the city’s History Museum. It was its last day before the permanent exhibition “Hong Kong Story” closed for an extensive two-year revamp. There were fears that the new displays may censor or exclude politically sensitive events such as the city’s colonial history and its relationship with China. Click here for the full story.

hong kong history museum hk story

Ahead of the closure, HKFP paid a visit in order to capture a visual archive of the exhibit. The 220 images are roughly laid out in the order they would have been encountered by a visitor – click an image in the archive to enlarge.

The effort is part of HKFP’s protest archive, which gives a permanent home to explainers, photography, statistics, data and art work related to the city’s protest movement.

history museum last day October 19
Visitors circle around a screen that displays footage of the last colonial governor Chris Patten and his family departing Hong Kong after the handover. Photo: KH/United Social Press.

All images are shared freely under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND licence. 

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