Funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, ,the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) is a collaborative project between the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Palace Museum. Part of the Trust’s donation covers a series of creative initiatives by HKPM between 2023 and 2031 to strengthen its efforts in promoting Chinese arts and culture, including presenting one major exhibition each year to showcase arts and culture from China and other parts of the world.

“The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Stories Untold – Figure Paintings of the Ming Dynasty from the Palace Museum” is the first major annual exhibition supported by the Club. Jointly organised by the HKPM and the Palace Museum, it is a thematic exhibition that foregrounds Ming dynasty figure paintings. 81 sets of exquisite works by 60 artists of the Ming dynasty have been carefully selected from the Palace Museum collection, 14 sets of which are grade-one national treasures. The paintings will be featured in four rotations, each spanning three months. The curatorial narrative of the exhibition will be divided into three sections (namely “Opulent versus Untrammelled”, “Antiquarian and Elegant” and “Worldly and Strange”) both thematically and chronologically, the early, middle, and late periods of the dynasty. The artistic achievements and pursuits of court painters, scholar-artists, and professional painters changed over times, as the exhibition will show. It will unveil fascinating stories about the painters and the painted and show the multifaceted lives and spiritual world of people living in Ming times. The paintings and the stories about them will deepen visitors’ understanding of traditional Chinese paintings, Chinese history, and Chinese culture.

As with other Series’ showcases, the Club also supports a wide range of related educational and promotional activities to enrich the experience of diverse communities, including multimedia elements, docent tours, talks, workshops and a comprehensive teacher’s guide. This will further support the HKPM’s vision to promote the inheritance of Chinese culture and history to the public and visitors while developing Hong Kong into an East-meets-West Centre for International Cultural Exchange, as outlined in the National 14th Five-Year Plan.

The Club commits to building an inclusive, creative and vibrant Hong Kong, where everyone can enjoy the benefits offered by cultural experiences and an improved quality of life through arts.