Magazine-Winter-2025 - Flipbook - Page 34
“We hope that it will become a part of
cultural education and a bridge to connect
history, design, memory and technology.”
–Sau-mui Yung
Cases of Chinese movable types and a letterset printing press at HKOP’s new art space, Print Art
Contemporary, in Central District, Hong Kong. Image courtesy: Hong Kong Open Printshop.
Collecting Cultural Memories in Print
History
While pursuing printmaking after
returning to Hong Kong, Yung’s expertise
helped land her the position as researcher
for a project about the development of
Hong Kong printmaking in preparation for
the opening of the Hong Kong Heritage
Museum. In her role, Yung gained access
to rich archives and historical print
material that further sparked her interest
and determination to preserve the printing
history of Hong Kong.
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ALABAMA ALUMNI MAGAZINE
Before the popularity of offset and digital
printing, family-run letterpress printshops
produced most of the printed materials for
the city’s booming economy. By the mid1990s, however, letterpress printing started
to be phased out in Hong Kong. In 2013,
one of the owners of these last printshops
decided to retire and wanted to donate his
well-used Heidelberg Platen Press and a
large inventory of movable Chinese types
to the HKOP. Knowing that these could
be the last relics of the industry, Yung
and her colleagues accepted the donation
despite space constraints. They also started
to explore the creative possibilities of
letterpress printing.
