Hong Kong Palace Museum | HKPM Special Exhibition Talk Series | From Picnic Sets to Boxes of Curiosities: Youyan and Its Impacts on the Material Culture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Picnicking and outdoor feasting have long been important traditions in Chinese culture. During the late Ming dynasty, advancements in transportation and a flourishing economy popularised food and drink outings across social classes. Ming literati placed great emphasis on excursion paraphernalia, particularly picnic sets, portable stoves, and utensil boxes. They wrote many books discussing the elegance and vulgarity of picnic sets, materialising the abstract concept of the “literati taste”. By the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), multi-layered food boxes gradually turned into baishijian (boxes of curiosities), used for holding various imperial court objects.

This talk accompanies the special exhibition “A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China”, which is on view in Gallery 8 at the Hong Kong Palace Museum from 19 March to 18 June 2025. The exhibition is jointly organised by the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum. The exhibits mainly come from the Palace Museum and the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The British Museum, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the Hong Kong Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware have also provided a number of loans. The Robert Chang Art Education Charitable Foundation is the exhibition’s Supporting Sponsor.

* The exhibition catalogue (English and Traditional Chinese) is now available for sale at the Museum’s gift shop ART EXPRESS by The Commercial Press (G/F). A special discount will be offered on the event day, exclusively at the sales counter outside the Auditorium (In case of dispute, the decision of the organisers shall be final).

Details