WHAT'S ON
Ink Rhymes Through a Millennium
Calligraphy by Cheung Cheuk Wai
16 Oct 2026 - 10 Jan 20273,000 Years of Chinese Writing
6 Nov 2026 - 14 Feb 2027Songs before Sleep
10 Nov 2026 PerformanceSurveying the Surveyor General’s Office, 1844–1883
11 Nov 2026 LectureEncounters: A Pilgrimage through Ink and Sound
18 Nov 2026 PerformanceUMAG Lecture Series 2026
UMAG 講座系列 2026
17 Sep 2026 - 27 Nov 2026 LectureDance Well Classes: Mind-Body Release Series
Public Session
30 Nov 2026 - 14 Dec 2026 WorkshopDance Well Classes: Mind-Body Release Series
Teacher Session
21 Dec 2026 WorkshopInk Rhymes Through a Millennium: Calligraphy by Cheung Cheuk Wai
3 Nov 2026 - 9 Jan 2027 Guided TourBROWSE COLLECTION BY CATEGORY
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🎹 Encounters: A Pilgrimage through Ink and Sound
Inspired by Tan Dun’s Eight Memories in Watercolour, this recital follows an imagined pilgrimage in search of a missing moon. It begins in a Bronze Age ritual of worship (Sunrain), where music, dance, and calligraphy form part of elaborate ceremonies honouring ancestors and heaven. The royal court knows only order, splendour, and celebration (Haydn’s Sonata). Yet amid this world of ceremony, the moon disappears (Missing Moon), and with it fade companionship and the warmth of home.
The journey wanders through theatres and villages, love and solitude, storms and wilderness. It encounters lovers, children, and, at last, a mysterious Blue Nun. As incense and prayers rise, the moon shines as it always has.
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Performer: Charlotte Tang, piano
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📅 Date: 18 November 2026 (Wednesday)
🕕 6:00–7:00pm (Admission: 5:45)
📍Drake Gallery, 1/F Fung Ping Shan Building, University Museum and Art Gallery, HKU
🎟️ Free Admission | Registration required
🔗 Link in bio for more information!
This is an event associated with the exhibition 3,000 Years of Chinese Writing.
For exhibition details, please checkout UMAG website
Coming up this November at UMAG 🦁
Stay tuned for updates, and check out our website via the link in bio for the latest event details and guided tour schedule.
十一月精彩活動即將登場 🦁
敬請留意最新消息，並透過個人檔案連結瀏覽博物館網站，查看最新活動詳情及導賞團時間表。
University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong
Open to public, free admission
香港大學美術博物館
歡迎公眾參觀，免費入場
#UMAG #香港大學美術博物館
Upcoming Lecture💬
The early history of colonial Hong Kong’s Surveyor General’s Office (1844–1883) reveals an administrative mechanism with consequential, far-reaching oversight of the colony’s design and governance, from land sales and building ordinances to water infrastructure, public gardens, and tree planting. This talk examines an important transitional moment in the department’s history, when bureaucratic challenges, changes in professional expertise, and the shifting demands of the British metropole prompted a transition from the survey department’s founding responsibilities into what would become known as the Public Works Department in 1883.
📆Date & Time: 11 November 2026 (Wednesday) | 4:30–5:30 pm
📍 Venue: 1/F, Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, The University of Hong Kong
💬Language: English
🎟️ Free admission, registration required (Link in Bio)
【Upcoming Exhibition ✨ 展覽預告】
Writing is one of humanity’s greatest inventions, regarded by scholars as a criterion for any civilisation. In China, writing has evolved from the incised marks on Neolithic artefacts, through the oracle bone and bronze inscriptions of the Shang and Zhou dynasties and the divergent scripts of the Warring States period, to the post-Wei-Jin era, when calligraphy developed into an independent art form combining practicality with aesthetic refinement—each transformation closely intertwined with the evolution of society.
This exhibition focuses on the collections of the University Museum and Art Gallery (UMAG), The University of Hong Kong, together with significant holdings from HKU’s Fung Ping Shan Library and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Art Museum. It offers a comprehensive presentation of the origins and evolution of ancient Chinese writing, along with its technological carriers and social functions across various historical periods. The exhibition explores the social contexts in which writing emerged, highlighting its roles in politics, culture, and the arts, and providing valuable material evidence for related scholarly research.
The exhibition is divided into three sections: “The Origins and Unification of Writing”, “The Evolution and Media of Writing”, and “The Dissemination and Art of Writing”. The first section reveals writing’s basic function as a tool for recording and communication in early societies, as well as the symbolic significance it gradually acquired in political and religious spheres. The second section focuses on how writing media and technological innovations facilitated the standardised evolution of scripts from seal and clerical to regular, running, and cursive styles, demonstrating the influence of material technology on writing forms. The final section examines the application of writing in society, art, and daily life, showing how writing became a profound force in shaping Chinese ways of thinking and aesthetic sensibilities.