
Hong Kong Palace Museum holds first fully digital show on Forbidden City
The Hong Kong Palace Museum has launched its first entirely digital show, creating reimagined versions of its Beijing sister site's exhibits, and a beloved pet cat, to use in interactive displays packed with visual effects.
The show includes projections of moving images of the Forbidden City icons such as dragons, phoenixes, lotus flowers, peaches, egrets and ocean waves – all rendered at immense scale for visitors to enjoy.
The event, titled 'The Ways in Patterns: An Immersive Digital Exhibition from the Palace Museum', is being held in the West Kowloon Cultural District and uses technology to refashion a wide array of motifs and designs used in the former royal residence's architecture, ceramics and embroidered textiles.
'This is our first entirely digital show,' Maggie Cheng, the Hong Kong Palace Museum's head designer, said.
Technology took the centre stage for this exhibition, contrasting with past displays that focused on highlighting historical artefacts, she added.
She noted that the museum's sister site in Beijing had a collection comprising 1.86 million pieces, with only 1 per cent of them ever going on display at any one time for an exhibition.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong tie-dye label co-founded by girl, 8, promotes sustainability and tradition
Like many children, Emilia Li loves arts and crafts and hanging out at the beach. Advertisement But what makes the Hong Kong eight-year-old stand out from the crowd is Shek O Beach Club, a tie-dye fashion brand she founded with the help of her mother, Jillian Xin. 'I called it Shek O Beach Club because Shek O is one of my favourite places to visit,' says Emilia, referring to the beachside village in the southeast of Hong Kong Island. On a damp and grey afternoon in May, Emilia, her mother and her three-year-old sister, Aria, pay an after-school visit to the beach to talk about the brand that launched on International Women's Day this year. Emilia Li on the beach in Shek O, a village in the southeast of Hong Kong Island that inspired the name of the tie-dye fashion business she started with the help of her mother, Jillian Xin. Photo: Kylie Knott The girls are decked out in clothes from a small collection – six T-shirt designs and shorts in three colours – which is big on durability, sustainability and practicality. Advertisement 'All our T-shirts are dyed by hand using 100 per cent natural dyes and [none of the] chemicals that are often used in mass-produced clothes,' Xin says, and each piece is as unique as the child who wears them. 'We'll probably do a long sleeve T-shirt when the weather cools.'


South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
And the bride wore … anything but white: celebs EmRata and Chloë Sevigny bucked wedding trends to bring a little colour to their big day – and now others are following suit
Here comes the bride, all dressed in white. Or at least, almost always dressed in white – so deeply steeped in tradition is the hue for this one important day. And yet, until Britain's Queen Victoria created a new trend with a white satin gown for her wedding to Prince Albert in 1840, brides mostly wore a variety of colours on their special day. A dress from Danielle Frankel's X bridal collection. Photo: Handout According to a 2018 survey in Brides magazine, around 83 per cent of brides choose to wear white – yet things may be shifting. Pinterest searches for 'unique wedding dress' are up 240 per cent year on year, while blush pink wedding dress searches are up 60 per cent. It must also be noted that in countries such as India and China, red is the traditional choice. Advertisement Plenty of brides have bucked the white dress trend over the years – and celebrities are particularly known for it. Take model Emily Ratajkowski , who wore a mustard yellow Zara co-ord for her 2018 wedding to now ex-husband Sebastian Bear-McClard. Or Mandy Moore, in the same year, in her clouds of pale pink Rodarte tulle. Or, rewinding to 2003, Julianne Moore in lilac. And who could forget Victoria Beckham's purple dress from 1999 – or its silver anniversary reprise in 2024? Sophia Bush opted for a floral wedding dress from Monique Lhuillier. Photo: @sophiabush/Instagram In keeping with Pinterest, pale pink is indeed a popular choice for the bride who doesn't want to wear white. It was worn by Beatrice Borromeo for her 2015 wedding to Pierre Casiraghi, currently eighth in the line of succession to the Monégasque throne; and Jessica Biel for her 2012 nuptials with Justin Timberlake – Valentino and Giambattista Valli, respectively. Meanwhile, Chloë Sevigny wore black for her 2020 wedding, and so did Sarah Jessica Parker in 1997. Another stand-out was actress Sophia Bush, who opted for a floral off-the-shoulder Monique Lhuillier dress for her big day in 2022. Toni Matičevski says modern brides want more interesting textures and finishes. Photo: Handout Pink is something that Australian fashion designer Toni Matičevski explored for his most recent bridal collection. He says that while most of his brides still want to wear white, they want interesting textures and finishes. 'This collection explores a soft pink sequin fabrication, to again challenge the traditional notions of what a modern bride can be. Why not shine and sparkle on your special day?' he says. Mandy Moore got married in a custom pink tulle dress from Rodarte. Photo: @kellybrownweddings/Instagram


South China Morning Post
2 days ago
- South China Morning Post
What is an ‘ita bag'? Plus the most popular toys, dolls and figures now
The 'Ita bag' hashtag went viral on Weibo – China's answer to X – in summer 2024 when Quan Hongchan, who won two golds in diving at the 2024 Paris Olympics, showed off gifts given to her by fans, from badges to cute toys, inside her transparent PVC bag. Advertisement An ita bag, which means 'painful bag' in Japanese, humorously denotes the great pain – and expense and effort – the wearer has put into lavishly decorating their bag. The bag is usually made of canvas or nylon with a clear see-through front. The trend stems from Japan's otaku subculture, which is defined by obsessive fans of interests such as video games, anime and manga. So invested were otaku in their interests that they would go through great lengths to seek out merchandise from their favourite titles or franchises and carry them inside a personalised bag. This manifestation of love and obsession soon caught on among trendsetters and the ita bag became an essential fashion accessory for people attending concerts and conventions. While keychains, badges and buttons remain popular choices for decorating an ita bag, there is now also an array of more elaborate items that can turn a PVC bag into a mobile shop window. Advertisement Here are five that will induce much pain this summer.