Library System and Museum

This article forms part of the ‘HKU Wild History · The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Wild History Archive’ Section 12 miscellaneous module, focusing on the University’s library system (eight branches, Special Collections, Hong Kong Collection) and the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG). Information is current to June 2026; figures for collection size and establishment dates reflect official primary sources, with any discrepancies in reporting noted side by side.

HKU’s knowledge infrastructure rests on two pillars: ① the University of Hong Kong Libraries (HKU Libraries); and ② the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG). This entry sets out the institutional facts of each. For the University Press, see hku-press-and-flagship-works.md; for campus and historic architecture (including the UMAG building), see ../05-campus/. (This entry and Module 05 cross-reference each other on UMAG.)

# 1. The University of Hong Kong Libraries (HKU Libraries)

# 1.1 At a Glance

Note: Aggregate figures of around 4 million volumes and 24,000 periodical titles are drawn from third-party composite sources (Wikipedia) as indicative leads; the authoritative totals are those published annually by the Libraries. The system’s founding date (October 1912) and the names of the individual branch libraries have been confirmed against primary official sources.

# 1.2 Eight Branch Libraries

According to the HKU Libraries ‘About HKUL’ page^※, the system consists of eight branches:

1. Main Library
2. Dental Library
3. Fung Ping Shan Library – collections in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
4. Lui Che Woo Law Library
5. Music Library
6. Tin Ka Ping Education Library
7. Yu Chun Keung Medical Library
8. Ko Wong Wai Ching Wendy Fine Arts Digital Library

# 1.3 Fung Ping Shan Library

According to the Libraries official site^※, the Fung Ping Shan Library was generously funded by the late Mr Fung Ping Shan and established in 1932 as the University’s Chinese-language library. Construction began in 1929, and the building was formally opened by Sir William Peel on 14 December 1932^※. In 1961 its collections were moved into the Main Library building, and the original premises subsequently became the Fung Ping Shan Museum (the direct predecessor of today’s UMAG; see below).

According to the Fung Ping Shan Library collections page^※, the library primarily holds books in Chinese and Japanese, with a smaller number in Korean. Its rare book collection numbers over 700 titles in roughly 14,000 volumes, including four Song-dynasty editions, eighteen Yuan-dynasty editions, as well as Ming woodblock imprints and Qing manuscripts.

# 1.4 Special Collections and the Hong Kong Collection

Information from the Libraries’ official site and other public sources indicates that HKU Libraries’ Special Collections hold Hong Kong materials, rare books, pamphlets, and microform resources. Within them, the Hong Kong Collection was established in 1971 and encompasses books, serials, government publications, press clippings, and non-print materials, documenting every facet of Hong Kong’s history and society.

According to a EurekAlert press release^※, in February 2026 the Libraries announced the reopening of the refurbished Special Collections area after roughly six months of renovation, along with a new Open-View Conservation Laboratory. The laboratory’s open design is intended to allow the public and visitors to watch, through a glass partition, conservation work on rare books and fragile documents – turning a once backstage preservation process into a publicly visible, educationally framed spectacle. It represents a concrete recent attempt by HKU Libraries’ Special Collections to strike a balance between conservation and public engagement.

# 2. The University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG)

# 2.1 Historical Origins

According to the UMAG ‘History’ page^※, the museum traces its lineage as follows:

• 1932: Fung Ping Shan Library is established as HKU’s Chinese-language library (named in memory of the donor, Mr Fung Ping Shan).
• 1953: On the premises of the former Fung Ping Shan Library, the Fung Ping Shan Museum is set up, dedicated to the collection of Chinese art.
• 1994: The museum is renamed UMAG (University Museum and Art Gallery).
• 1996: A new wing, the T.T. Tsui Building, opens on 8 November 1996^※, connected to the original Fung Ping Shan building by a footbridge.

According to Chinese-language Wikipedia^※, the benefactor Dr T.T. Tsui (徐展堂, 1941–2010) led a life of near-legendary trajectory: born in Ji’an, Jiangxi province, he moved with his parents to Hong Kong at the age of nine. At thirteen, after the family’s fortunes collapsed and his father died, he was forced to shoulder the family’s livelihood, taking menial jobs as a restaurant kitchen hand, a bank messenger, and a construction-site labourer. Over the following two decades and more, he amassed Chinese antiquities from around the world, building a collection of nearly 5,000 pieces valued at hundreds of millions of US dollars, spanning ceramics (roughly 3,000 items), bronzes, jades, furniture, and ivory and horn carvings. He came to be described as 「全球五大收藏家中唯一的華人」 (‘the only Chinese among the world’s top five collectors’). He subsequently donated artefacts or funds to museums in seven countries and territories – including the Victoria and Albert Museum in the United Kingdom, the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada, and the National Gallery of Australia – each of which houses a ‘T.T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese Art’ named after him. HKU UMAG’s T.T. Tsui Building is the Hong Kong node in this global network of donations. Dr T.T. Tsui passed away in Beijing in April 2010.

# 2.2 ‘The Oldest Museum in Hong Kong’

According to the UMAG website^※, UMAG describes itself as the oldest continuously operated museum in Hong Kong.

Caveat: This is UMAG’s own formulation, qualified as ‘the oldest continuously operated museum’, not simply ‘the first museum established’. This site faithfully reproduces the official wording with its qualifier and does not simplify it to ‘Hong Kong’s first museum’.

# 2.3 Collection Highlights

According to the UMAG website^※, the collection spans:

• Ceramics: from the Neolithic period (c. 7000–2100 BCE) to the Qing dynasty (1644–1911);
• Bronzes: including ritual vessels from the Shang (c. 1600–1100 BCE) and Western Zhou (c. 1100–771 BCE) dynasties;
• Nestorian crosses: UMAG holds the largest collection in the world of Nestorian crosses from the Mongol-Yuan period (1271–1368);
• Paintings: traditional and modern works from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to the twenty-first century.

The museum is located at 90 Bonham Road, adjacent to the HKU East Gate. This siting makes UMAG one of the few cultural facilities on campus that the public can visit freely without needing to pass through a university entry gate. The arrangement resonates with the University’s long-standing self-characterisation as a place that ‘serves society’: citizens can walk in from the street – no campus security check required – and view over a thousand Chinese artefacts, a relatively unusual public-access model in Hong Kong’s cultural infrastructure, where space is at a premium and most museums are either tucked inside commercial districts or charge admission.

The fact that UMAG shares the same physical historic building with the former Fung Ping Shan Library also gives the museum a distinctive origin story of a book repository turned treasure house. Visitors stepping into the galleries stand on ground that once held tens of thousands of volumes of classical Chinese texts; today it displays ritual bronzes and Yuan-dynasty Nestorian crosses. The narrative of ‘function transformed, structure unchanged’ is itself a material-culture cross-section worth pausing over in the hundred-year history of the University of Hong Kong.

# 3. Cross-references

• HKU Press → hku-press-and-flagship-works.md
• Academic journals hosted or edited by HKU → academic-journals.md
• Campus buildings and historic architecture (including the Fung Ping Shan Building and T.T. Tsui Building) → ../05-campus/