Oxford University Press Archives were delighted to have contributed to the recent Hong Kong print exhibition, Through Time – Print Art in Aberdeen Street, hosted by HKOP Print Art Contemporary at PMQ in Central Hong Kong. The exhibition explored the evolution of Hong Kong’s Chinese type casting industry and its ongoing influence on contemporary visual art.
Curated by Yung Sau-mui, Museum Expert Adviser to the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the exhibition featured two drawers of Victorian copper Chinese type matrices from our collection. These were selected following her recent visit to our museum, where she explored our holdings. The display was complemented by original letters from James Legge (Scottish linguist, missionary, sinologist, and translator who was best known as an early translator of Classical Chinese texts into English) and later archival correspondence relating to Chinese type.
With over 30,000 visitors, the exhibition was a tremendous success, celebrating the rich history and evolution of print art in the region. OUP Archives were pleased to partner in showcasing this important piece of publishing history.
The programme describes the exhibition as follows:
“Through Time – Print Art in Aberdeen Street” takes visitors on a journey starting at 22 Aberdeen Street, the site of the London Missionary Society’s Printing Office (the Anglo-Chinese College, now Ying Wa College) in 19th-century Hong Kong. The exhibition invites audiences to travel through time and wander the alleys of Central to uncover the fascinating history of Hong Kong’s Chinese type casting industry. Finally, we return to Print Art Contemporary at 35 Aberdeen Street, PMQ, to witness how a new generation of artists and writers draws inspiration from this intangible cultural heritage of Chinese movable types, to create innovative contemporary visual art and literary works.
