Abstract
This chapter documents the research process for the work of the same title, The Retrieval, Restoration, and Predicament (2018–2020), and reflects on how public memory develops in parallel beyond the archives. The chapter recollects the history of colonial bronze statues in Hong Kong and examines how the cycle of confiscation, melting, and restoration bears witness to the transformation of a symbolic representation and how people face the transition of identity.
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Notes
- 1.
As of this writing (2019), I have found no files or original material regarding the return of the statues of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra from Japan to the UK. However, I am sure they were not returned to Hong Kong, because in 1951 the Ministry of Finance paid for the demolition of pedestals for statues that were not found, including the two mentioned above. The Public Monuments Committee said in a meeting on 28 August 1947 that the bronze statues of Edward VII and Queen Alexandra had not been found in Japan.
- 2.
The term ‘Japanese Home Islands’ was adopted during World War II, in order to differentiate its ‘occupied territories’, ‘colonies’, and ‘Japanese archipelago’.
- 3.
The video consists of five different narratives: a Chinese person detained in Hong Kong and forced to do manual labour, after he finishes his day’s work, he is sent to guard an unfinished memorial pagoda; a young Japanese bride on holiday in occupied Hong Kong, desperately trying to repair her relationship with her husband; a fengshui master’s ceremonial object placed under a bronze lion beside the door of a bank, when the statue is taken by the Japanese, it is very jealous of another statue; a Royal Hong Kong Volunteer Army candidate tells the story of his Japanese camera during the occupation; a Japanese army stonemason accepts a special mission, he must rebuild ‘confidence and public life’ through architecture.
- 4.
The year the statue was erected in Statue Square, Central, Hong Kong.
- 5.
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS - 1. QUESTION OF ..... 2. ERECTION OF A BRONZE STATUE OF H.M. KING GEORGE VI, 8.2.1939 - 19.1.1961, HKRS41-2-15E, Hong Kong Government Records Service, Hong Kong.
- 6.
Property of allied nations (all HSBC statues) の返還について, 昭和 28.12.17, 平 11 大蔵 00155100. National Library of Japan.
- 7.
“Queen Victoria Found”, South China Morning Post, 18 October 1946, Hong Kong.
- 8.
Papers Re The Restitution of the Bank’s Lions and Statue of Thomas Jackson, 1946, PR140.GH0.22C, HSBC Archives, Hong Kong.
- 9.
This refers to HSBC.
- 10.
There is a blank in the original document. I believe it was originally the name of a specific prisoner of war camp in Japan, but was deleted or altered.
- 11.
“Has been recovered from Japan through the co-operation of the United Kingdom Liaison Missions in Tokyo”.
- 12.
Osaka News, 19 October 2013.
- 13.
Hong Kong: Statue of Queen Victoria, Showing Missing Parts, 1947, CN 3/46, The National Archives, United Kingdom.
- 14.
According to the archives, during the restoration, the sceptre was possibly modelled on that of Edward VIII.
- 15.
Photograph of a plaster cast entitled ‘Compulsory Education. A lady teaching a child, profile view’, 2 June 1877, COPY 1/37/322, The National Archives, United Kingdom.
- 16.
CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS—1. QUESTION OF ….. 2. ERECTION OF A BRONZE STATUE OF H.M. KING GEORGE VI, 8.2.1939–19.1.1961, HKRS41-2-15E, Hong Kong Government Records Service, Hong Kong.
- 17.
PUBLIC MONUMENTS—1. APPOINTMENT OF A COMMITTEE TO CONSIDER THE RESTORATION OF …. REMOVED OR DESTROYED BY THE JAPANESE. 2. DISPOSAL OF …. ERECTED BY THE JAPANESE. 3. RENOVATION OF THE STATUE OF QUEEN VICTORIA. (Map No. 186), 16.06.1946 - 26.08.1964, HKRS337-3-1. Hong Kong Government Records Service, Hong Kong.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Garden was renamed ‘Taisho Koen’ during the Japanese occupation.
- 21.
Jiajian Zhou. Zhuo shi xiao mo: Ri zhi shi qi Xianggang ren de xiu xian sheng huo. Hong Kong: Zhonghua Publishing Company, 2015, p. 5.
- 22.
PAPERS RELATIVE TO AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE SEIZURE OF PROPERTY BY THE JAPANESE IN THE COLONY OF HONG KONG, 18.12.1945, HKRS165-4-1, Hong Kong Government Records Service, Hong Kong.
- 23.
In 2016, I researched and created a project called The Order of Things, relating to the history and process of public auctions, and the people and objects involved in them. The earliest file in the Hong Kong archives dealing with public auctions is from 1886, when the Navy received a consignment of goods, and discusses how to convert it into cash through a public auction. Early public auctions usually took the form of public-private partnerships, wherein independent auctioneers were commissioned to conduct the auctions in official or non-official venues. The dates of the auctions were not predetermined, but depended on the quantity of the goods received. After the Handover, the Hong Kong Government Logistics Department has held regular public auctions since 2003. Items auctioned include confiscated and unclaimed goods, and unused tools and goods from various government departments.
- 24.
Boris Groys. Particular Cases (Steinberg Press, 2016), p. 157.
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Chung, L.K. (2024). Retrieval, Restoration, and Predicament Objects, Memories and Records in Wartime. In: Pan, L. (eds) The (Im)possibility of Art Archives. Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5898-6_15
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