HKMoA Receives 46 Rare Artefacts from Collector Cheung Kee-wee to Enhance Chinese Art Appreciation

2025-02-18 16:30 Last Updated At：16:38

HKMoA receives donation of over 40 precious Chinese antiquities from Ming and Qing dynasties by collector Cheung Kee-wee

The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) is deeply honoured to receive another generous donation from Mr Cheung Kee-wee, renowned collector and owner of the Huaihaitang Collection. The donation comprises 46 sets of precious artefacts, including Ming and Qing imperial porcelain, Ming textiles, and Ming lacquerware and cloisonné enamel, which are remarkable for their quality and rarity. The HKMoA will make good use of these precious cultural relics to promote the essence of Chinese culture, providing more people with the opportunity to understand and appreciate the treasures of Chinese art in depth.

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HKMoA receives donation of over 40 precious Chinese antiquities from Ming and Qing dynasties by collector Cheung Kee-wee Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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HKMoA receives donation of over 40 precious Chinese antiquities from Ming and Qing dynasties by collector Cheung Kee-wee Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Since 2018, Mr Cheung has made 16 donations to the HKMoA, totalling more than 340 Chinese artefacts and paintings. He has generously shared these cultural treasures with the public, enriching the museum's collections and providing valuable materials for the study and promotion of Chinese art. The latest donated artefacts were displayed at the "Eternal Enlightenment: the Virtual World of the Jiajing Emperor" exhibition held at the HKMoA in 2022. Among them is the jar with clouds, dragons and shou characters design in underglaze blue, which is notably large in size and difficult to fire. Between a pair of dragons in motion, a "shou" character is depicted in cursive script, the continuous single stroke of which symbolises longevity and is a common motif during the Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty. The jar exhibits a lush and dense blue tone that carries a tinge of purple, demonstrating the distinctive characteristics of porcelain from that era. These artefacts not only exemplify exquisite craftsmanship but also bear witness to the artistic characteristics and cultural landscape of the late Ming era, holding significant historical and artistic value.

Mr Cheung is a renowned local art collector and Honorary University Fellow of the University of Hong Kong. He is also a Museum Expert Adviser for the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. He is passionate about Chinese art, and his private Huaihaitang Collection is well-known for its imperial porcelains from the Ming and Qing dynasties. Mr Cheung serves as the longstanding Vice Chairman of the well-known collectors' organisation, the Min Chiu Society, and possesses vast experience in art appreciation and connoisseurship. Guided by his mantra that "appreciation and research are more important than possessing and collecting", he has long been committed to promoting art and culture and has generously donated items from his collection to public and university museums, including the HKMoA, for research and public appreciation.

Established in 1962, the HKMoA is the first public art museum in the city, now the custodian of an art collection of over 19 700 items. The rich collections span historical eras from the Neolithic Age to contemporary times, representing the artistic legacy of Hong Kong and beyond. Over the years, the museum has received multiple precious collections from collectors and artists, reflecting that the mission of the HKMoA to inherit and protect art is well recognised by them. Donations received since its expansion and reopening in 2019 include a total of 363 artworks from the Chih Lo Lou Collection of Chinese painting and calligraphy, which was built up by the late Ho Iu-kwong, a philanthropist and passionate collector, and donated by the Chih Lo Lou Art Promotion (Non-profit Making) Limited; over 450 items of the late celebrated artist Wu Guanzhong's works and personal archives from Wu and his family over the years; a precious art collection with more than 1 000 works featuring 20th-century Chinese paintings and calligraphy donated by renowned collector and photographer and master of Jingguanlou, Dr Wong Kwai-kuen; and nearly 500 pieces of Chinese snuff bottles from the Fuyun Xuan Collection donated by the late local collector Christopher Sin's wife, Josephine Sin. Last year, the museum has received a generous donation of $100 million from Wu Keyu, the son of Wu Guanzhong, for the establishment of the Wu Guanzhong Art Sponsorship, to support the promotion of Wu and related Chinese modern art.

Financial Secretary Emphasizes Innovation, Inclusivity, and AI in CUHK EMBA Conference Speech

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

HKMoA Receives 46 Rare Artefacts from Collector Cheung Kee-wee to Enhance Chinese Art Appreciation

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