2. Heritage preservation
The PMQ serves its educational purpose via the underground exhibition area (called basement below) and the two exhibition rooms on S508 - S509. But what kind of history does the exhibitions tell to the people?
The underground exhibition area: History of the Central School
The basement exhibits the foundation remains of the Central School. But most of the historical relics were destroyed when the Central School was reconstructed as the former PMQ. Hence there was actually not much to view and not triggering an in-depth self-reflection of the Central School history. Strangely, the PMQ has a promotional video "Back to The Central School" under its official Youtube page. The participants of the sightseeing were mostly the alumnus of the Queen's College (while the Central School is generally regarded as the former Queen's College), and they described their trip to PMQ as a revisit to the mother school (母校). One of the interviewees in the following clip that "visiting the basement of PMQ could let people re-imagine the grandness of the old school".
The underground exhibition area: History of the Central School
The basement exhibits the foundation remains of the Central School. But most of the historical relics were destroyed when the Central School was reconstructed as the former PMQ. Hence there was actually not much to view and not triggering an in-depth self-reflection of the Central School history. Strangely, the PMQ has a promotional video "Back to The Central School" under its official Youtube page. The participants of the sightseeing were mostly the alumnus of the Queen's College (while the Central School is generally regarded as the former Queen's College), and they described their trip to PMQ as a revisit to the mother school (母校). One of the interviewees in the following clip that "visiting the basement of PMQ could let people re-imagine the grandness of the old school".
S508-S509: the former PMQ and the interesting book
The 2 exhibition rooms on the 5/F also tell the general history of PMQ (both the Central School and the Police Married Quarters).
Some of the exhibits in the PMQ (Police Married Quarters) section are donated by people who had lived in the former PMQ. In the exhibition, I found an interesting book "荷里活道警察宿舍", which is a recent publication in July 2014. Composed by three authors, the book collects interviews of the people who had experienced their lives in the former PMQ.
The book starts from telling why the Police Married Quarters was established in the first place. And the story is written like this: "In the 1950s, as to strengthen the bond between the Chinese police (mostly in the lower hierarchy) and the British colonial rule, the British government built the Police Married Quarters to contain Chinese Policemen, so that they would work hard for the British". Therefore, PMQ actually reflects the colonial history, which is the invasion of the British in Hong Kong.
The description of this book is "those people, those happenings, those feelings (──那些人、那些事、那些情)". These words imply the central idea of the book -- the collective memory of the policemen at that era. Their memory soon became a collective knowledge of the past, which was used as the romanticized historical narratives in the novel. And this narrative, finally transformed the history into a "nostalgic past", commemorating the past way of living.
The book as an interesting side of history?
While the book becomes arguably the most interesting, most emotional aspect of history that is being displayed in the current PMQ, it seems that the visitors have to have a lot of time reading the book. Otherwise, they may just return home without much awareness of how PMQ is developed into the present state. The reason I say so is because the history told in the basement and the other parts of exhibition rooms are in fact rather flat-toned, which triggers little psychological attachment to that part of the Hong Kong history. One exception would be those who had personal relation with the history (e.g. the alumnus of the Queen's College).
Nonetheless, the current PMQ satisfies the heritage protection objective raised by the HK government by preserving what had been remained in the foundation. It also educates people about the general historical process of PMQ - how it has undergone the three stages of life, from the Central School to former PMQ and then to the current PMQ.
Even though the most intriguing exhibit ends up to be the two-hundred-page book.