Hong Kong Palace Museum | Ancient Egyptian Civilisation Masterclass

Prof. Poo Mu-chou

Adjunct Professor, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Poo Mu-chou is the Adjunct Professor, Department of History, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his PhD in Egyptology from Johns Hopkins University in 1984. His research interests include ancient Egyptian history, and comparative studies of ancient religion and social history, with published books in each field. He had worked as a Research Fellow at the Academia Sinica, Taipei, and taught at institutions such as UCLA, Columbia University and Grinnell College. Recently, he has primarily focused on the research in comparative ancient history.

Mr Amjad Refai

Director, Arabic Programme, The University of Hong Kong

Amjad Refai is a seasoned Egyptologist and language educator with a profound passion for antiquity. Before settling in Hong Kong, he spent over a decade lecturing on ancient history, culture, and the Ancient Egyptian language. Since relocating, he has continued sharing his linguistic and cultural expertise for another decade. A dedicated scholar, he served as Editor-in-Chief of The Heritage of Egypt Magazine for five years and has authored specialised textbooks on teaching Arabic and deciphering hieroglyphs. Today, Amjad Refai bridges the past and present as a weekly columnist for The Standard and the Director of the Arabic Programme at the University of Hong Kong, a position he has held for seven years.

Mr Li Zhongmou

Deputy Director, Collection and Learning, Hong Kong Palace Museum

Li Zhongmou is responsible for collection, conservation, learning and public engagement, digital strategy and cultural exchange of the Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM). He has over 30 years of professional experience across various museums, with extensive expertise in museum planning, curatorial affairs, collection development, conservation, research and international partnerships. Before joining the HKPM, he served as the Executive Director of Shanghai Jiao Tong University Museum and a professor of art history in the University from 2023 to 2026. Before that, he was the founding Director of the Fujian Shimao Maritime Silk Road Museum from 2019 to 2022. Previously he worked in the Shanghai Museum from 1996 to 2019 and held the position of Deputy Director since 2010. In 2014, he was seconded to the Palace Museum as an Assistant Director and head of exhibition department for one year. He graduated from the Fudan University Shanghai with BA and MA in history.

Dr Wang Wenxin

Associate Curator, Hong Kong Palace Museum

Wang Wenxin holds a PhD in Chinese art history from Leiden University, the Netherlands. She previously worked at Leiden University’s Institute for Area Studies, the Palace Museum, and the Overseas Chinese History Museum of China in Beijing, where she was involved in academic research, curation, catalogue publishing, and more. Her research focuses on art history and book history during the Ming and Qing dynasties, as well as cultural exchanges between East and West from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Wang Wenxin is the co-curator of the special exhibitions “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums” and “The Forbidden City and The Palace of Versailles: China-France Cultural Encounters in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

Ms Jessie Liang

Senior Conservator (Objects), Hong Kong Palace Museum

Jessie Jiafang Liang has been leading the conservation of 3D objects team at the Hong Kong Palace Museum since its grand opening, including preventive and exhibition conservation for the Museum’s grand opening and six special exhibitions. She is currently focusing on the conservation and technical study of the gold and silver collection, gift of Mengdiexuan.

Ms Liang graduated from the UCLA/Getty Conservation Program, specialising in the conservation of archaeological and ethnographic materials. She has served at the National Museum of Asian Art, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology in collaboration with the Romano-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz and the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation of the University of Melbourne, and the University of Hong Kong. She has published in international peer-reviewed journals. She made significant contributions to the Shigushan conservation and archaeological project, which won the third prize of the 2016 National Field Archaeology Awards. She was also a recipient of the UCLA/Getty conservation fellowship and Samuel H. Kress Foundation conservation fellowship. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Hong Kong.

Ms Yannick Ma

Assistant Curator, Hong Kong Palace Museum

Yannick Ma's research interests include critical heritage studies and new museology. At the Hong Kong Palace Museum, Ms Ma has serviced as an in-house co-curator for the major exhibition “Ancient Egypt Unveiled: Treasures from Egyptian Museums” and made curatorial contributions to two other exhibitions, “The Adorned Body: French Fashion and Jewellery 1770–1910 from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris” and “The Origins of Chinese Civilisation”. She holds a B.A. in archaeology from Peking University and a M.A. in museum anthropology from Columbia University.