Cover From left: Dr Maria Mok, director of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and Lawrence Chan, chairman of Min Chiu Society, at the ‘Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five’ art exhibition (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
From left: Dr Maria Mok, director of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and Lawrence Chan, chairman of Min Chiu Society, at the ‘Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five’ art exhibition (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
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From preventing the export of Chinese antiques to hosting their biggest art exhibition to date, the Min Chiu Society has been the guardian of Chinese art for 65 years.
Meeting members of the Min Chiu Society—Hong Kong’s most storied private collectors’ group—can feel like discovering a roomful of double lives. At Rosewood Hong Kong on August 29, a dinner marked the opening of art exhibition Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five, and business cards traded hands: dermatologists, lawyers, entrepreneurs. Yet many guests held another identity as guardians of Chinese art, their conversation lighting up when discussing pieces now on view at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA).
The art exhibition brings together 500 objects—from imperial robes and Qianlong-period works to paintings by Zhang Daqian—making it the society’s largest public presentation to date. With around 40 members, Min Chiu spans the Neolithic era (from about 5000 BC) to the 20th century, across painting, calligraphy, bronzes, jades, lacquer, furniture, porcelain and scholar’s objects. The collecting brief is focused: contemporary art is generally excluded, “at most” extending to artists who have recently passed away, to keep the scope rigorous, according to its chairman, Lawrence Chan.
Above ‘Imitation of Shitao’s Drunk in Autumn Wood’ (1948) by Zhang Daqian (Photo: coutesy of HKMoA)
‘Imitation of Shitao’s Drunk in Autumn Wood’ (1948) by Zhang Daqian (Photo: coutesy of HKMoA)
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Min Chiu’s name—drawn from the Analects of Confucius and often translated as “revere antiquity while diligently seeking knowledge”—encapsulates its ethos: collecting as scholarship. Members research their holdings and share findings through publications and talks; to date, the society has produced about 140 titles, available in libraries, institutions and selected bookshops. Every five years, it partners with HKMoA to bring private treasures to the public. “Their notion of collecting is not just a leisure activity. They’re serious collectors. They are also researchers, scholars and connoisseurs,” says Dr Maria Mok, HKMoA’s director, noting how the museum and the society—established in 1962 and 1960 respectively—share a mission to champion Chinese art and culture.
That influence has deep roots. During and after the Chinese Civil War, a wave of cultured émigrés from Shanghai arrived in Hong Kong—bankers, industrialists, textile magnates—bringing porcelains, bronzes and paintings. Early Min Chiu meetings mixed convivial show-and-tell with quiet “rescue” work: when significant objects surfaced and members could not purchase them, they alerted counterparts on the mainland or fund-raised to keep important pieces from leaving Chinese collections. Over time, Min Chiu evolved from safeguarding to sharing, through exhibitions at home and loans to institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Above Right: ’Covered jar with “hundred boys” design in wucai enamels’ (1644-1661) (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
Right: ’Covered jar with “hundred boys” design in wucai enamels’ (1644-1661) (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
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For Chan, who works in advertising and joined the club through the introduction of fellow member and curator James Watt, the society’s educational spirit proved formative. His first acquisition—a covered jar with a “hundred boys” design in wucai enamels (1644–1661)—was bought at auction for its imagery and its story: initially catalogued as “transitional” between the Ming and Qing, later scholarship placed it firmly in the early Qing. That process of connoisseurship, verification and reinterpretation remains core to Min Chiu’s appeal.
Under his leadership, the society has also opened its ranks, welcoming women into what was once a de facto gentlemen’s club—reflecting a broader shift in the city’s cultural landscape. The next priority is outreach. Many young Hongkongers, he feels, have limited exposure to classical Chinese art; programming with museums aims to spark curiosity and pass on standards of care and knowledge. As Mok observes, the partnership works because collectors are “treasure seekers” while curators frame those treasures for the public: together they turn private passion into civic value.
Above ‘Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society’ at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
‘Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society’ at the Hong Kong Museum of Art (Photo: courtesy of HKMoA)
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In that sense, Engaging Past Wisdom: Min Chiu Society at Sixty-five is more than a landmark show. It is a living argument for Hong Kong’s role as a custodian of Chinese culture—where scholarship, discernment and generosity converge. For visitors, it offers a rare chance to encounter masterpieces that usually live behind closed doors; for the next generation, an invitation to look closely, ask questions and continue the story.
“This art exhibition shows the power of Hong Kong in the private sector, which is internationally known,” says Mok. While the museum has its own Chinese art collections and exhibitions, she says Min Chiu Society’s collection and art exhibition present another important story, which is the city’s “very strong soft power. These people are very successful in their own right, but at the same time, they have the appetite, resources and passion to safeguard the art and culture [of China]. You don’t really see another group of collectors similar to this one elsewhere.”
Zabrina is the Senior Editor, Arts and Culture of Tatler Hong Kong. She specialises in performing arts, visual art and film. Her wanderlust was first fuelled by the Mighty Rovers Antarctica Expedition 2010. Over the years, she has interviewed A-list artists and filmmakers, including Oscar winners Chlóe Zhao and Tim Yip, Golden Horse winner Sylvia Chang, In the Mood for Love cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Pachinko author Min Jin Lee, and Coachella’s first Chinese solo singer Jackson Wang. She won gold at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards for her 2021 feature on the waves of hate crimes targeting Asian Americans.
