Public expectation of heritage sites in Hong Kong: the case of the revitalisation of Tai O Police Station

Abstract

Public sentiment towards heritage sites in Hong Kong has changed dramatically over the past decade. A city built entirely on its rapid urban development and redevelopment, Hong Kong has transitioned into a place where people start to concern about what is left in our heritage before it is too late. The change of public sentiment leads us to have a different set of expectation on heritage sites in Hong Kong, which is the topic of this paper. In response to the escalating public concerns regarding the administration's take towards heritage conservation, Hong Kong government's new Heritage Conservation Policy in 2007 launched the 'Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme', overseen by the new Commissioner for Heritage's Office. The Scheme (the 'R-Scheme') is an initiative to engage non-profit organisations (NPOs) to conduct adaptive reuse at government-owned historic buildings. The Batch I of the R-Scheme included the proposed revitalisation of the Old Tai O Police Station. Built in 1902, the Old Tai O Police Station is a Grade II historic building located on Lantau Island. The Hong Kong Heritage Conservation Foundation Limited (HCF) has been selected to restore and operate the site as Tai O Heritage Hotel, a boutique hotel in a non-profit social enterprise model. The R-Scheme is a pioneer initiative that builds up a framework for public-private partnership in heritage conservation. And as most pioneer programmes go, while the R-Scheme opens up new opportunities and broadens the field of heritage conservation, it also brings new challenges that one might not have foreseen beforehand. This paper uses Tai O Heritage Hotel as a case study to look into these new challenges, and how these challenges are arisen because of the change of public sentiment and expectation towards historic buildings in recent years. Part of this paper is written in first person narrative, as the author has been working on this revitalisation project and has personally encountered these challenges, including heritage interpretation and public engagement. The challenges and solutions covered in this paper focus on the "software" of the project, as she is involved mostly in the non-technical aspects of the project, and also this portion of the project contributes heavily on satisfying public expectation as well. ; published_or_final_version ; Conservation ; Master ; Master of Science in Conservation