The University of Chicago Presents | Hong Kong Memories: Miniatures & Photographs of Old Hong Kong Streetscapes
Award-winning Exhibition:
The University of Chicago Hong Kong and two unique local organizations will present old Hong Kong visually. Funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the exhibition will feature 1960s miniature replicas of buildings from Wind Concept Art & Culture Association, its first public display. We will also feature AI-enabled colorized images from the 20th century contributed by OldHKinColour. Through these colorful historical pictures and miniatures, the bricks and stones of Hong Kong architecture, culture, and history will bring the past to life.
Exhibition Partner:
OldHKinColour (oldhkincolour.org) focuses on colorizing and animating old Hong Kong photos by using artificial intelligence and post-editing techniques with a view to promoting public education through history. (Exhibited Image and video list)
Wind Concept Art & Culture Association strives to promote art and cultural conservation through the efforts of Mr. Daniel Wong Wing Fai since 2018. In 2021, the old Hong Kong miniature project was launched by Mr. Eric Yung and Miss Kay Kan, who hand-crafted a set of nostalgic 1960s Hong Kong buildings.
The Marketing Events Awards grants The University of Chicago two gold prizes for “Best Use of Venue” and “Best Cost-Effective Event” for the exhibition “Hong Kong Memories: Miniatures & Photographs of Old Hong Kong Streetscapes”.
Talk:
Research projects on the integration between Hong Kong studies and state-of-the-art technology have flourished in recent years. OldHKinColour, an Instagram page that has managed to attract the attention of over 130,000 Hong Kong culture enthusiasts over the past two years, is one representative project. OldHKinColour focuses on colorizing historical photos of old Hong Kong with the aid of artificial intelligence and post-editing techniques.
This talk aims to provide a brief introduction to OldHKinColour, including its research background, photo selection and restoration process as well as interesting stories reflected in the images. It will also discuss future directions of the project such as colorizing monochrome footage of the city, developing web-based applications for the promotion of Hong Kong stories, creating an online platform for a 3D virtual tour of Central in the late 19th century, and publishing a book of selected colorized pictures.
*The talk was conducted in Cantonese.
About the speaker:
SIU Sai Yau (aka Loka Siu) is the founder of OldHKinColour, specialized in photo colorization and digital history. He received his BA (First Class Honors) and MPhil from The University of Hong Kong and completed his Ph.D. in Translation at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. His research interests include Digital Humanities and AI, Translation History, Chinese Studies, and Buddhist Scripture Translation.
Talk + Exhibition Preview on campus
December 10, 2022 (Saturday)
In-person Event Program:
2:00pm - 2:30pm Guests check-in
2:30pm - 3:20pm Heritage tour
3:30pm - 4:30pm Hybrid talk by Professor Sai Yau Siu
4:30pm - 5:30pm Exhibition preview
5:30pm Event ends
Online Zoom webinar
December 10, 2022 (Saturday)
3:30pm Hong Kong | Beijing | Singapore
4:30pm Japan
1:00pm Delhi
8:30am Paris
7:30am London
1:30am Chicago
Regular Exhibition
December 13, 2022, to October 31, 2023 (available from Tuesday to Saturday, except public holidays)
