Tung Wah Group of Hospitals

Co-organized by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs) and Chinese American Museum (CAM), “Tales of the Distant Past: The Story of Hong Kong and the Chinese Diaspora (A tribute from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals of Hong Kong)” Exhibition, a year-long exhibition held at Los Angeles launches on 6th October (USA time). The exhibition features the story of the mass migration of Chinese to North America and bone repatriation services offered by TWGHs through which to enhance the public’s understanding of this period of history and to promote the benevolence spirit of TWGHs, “Spreading Philanthropy and Embracing the Needy”. The opening ceremony was held on 5th October at Los Angeles, with the participation of a group of student ambassadors selected from the secondary schools operated by TWGHs for an education tour led by Ms. Maisy HO, Chairman of TWGHs. The purpose of the tour was to allow the students to gain a deeper understanding about the philanthropy history and humanity values of TWGHs through direct engagement and participation.

Ms. Maisy HO said that the bonding between Hong Kong and Los Angeles was established since the 19^th century during which many Chinese left their hometowns in search of opportunities through Hong Kong and travelled to a number of American cities, including Los Angeles. They came to work, to build a new life and to send money back to their families in their hometowns. This was a remarkable chapter in Chinese history, one that TWGHs played a significant role in the provision of repatriation of remains services to overseas Chinese.

She added that “to heal the sick and to relieve the distressed” was one of TWGHs missions for 145 years. Chinese culture attached great importance to finding the way back to the hometown even after death. TWGHs closely coordinated with overseas Chinese organizations and helped by receiving the remains of the dead; housing them at the Tung Wah Coffin Home during transit; arranging for relatives to claim the remains; and even sending the remains back to their hometowns. The demand of Tung Wah Coffin Home service was tremendous, adding up to as many as 100,000 estimated sets of repatriated bones during that period, which demonstrated TWGHs’ care for the body and soul of the Chinese emigrants.

This period of history shows that Hong Kong and TWGHs were the center of the Chinese charity network and TWGHs has been serving the Chinese communities without boundary limit. The exhibition aims to offer people in Hong Kong and Los Angeles an opportunity to learn the history which most of them are unfamiliar with, to strengthen the ties between the two cities and people, to promote the benevolence spirit of TWGHs, and to preserve the heritage for passing on to many generations to come.

This comprehensive exhibition encompasses more than 100 valuable archives and artifacts from Chinese American Museum, Tung Wah Museum and other supporting collectors and organizations. A video documentary has been produced for the exhibition to showcase the bone repatriation services provided by TWGHs from the late 19^th century to mid-20^th century.

In order to promote the preservation of heritage among the young generations and support the implementation of TWGHs moral education curriculum, 18 student ambassadors nominated by 18 TWGHs secondary schools joined the tour to Los Angeles. They worked in groups on specific project topics through literature review and visits to local Chinese organizations in Los Angeles as to investigate the life-style and believes of the Chinese migrants in the past and the present. After the tour, they will produce short videos on the assigned topics, and the video clips will be developed into learning materials for TWGHs moral education curriculum to share with all TWGHs students.

“Tales of the Distant Past: The Story of Hong Kong and the Chinese Diaspora (A tribute from Tung Wah Group of Hospitals of Hong Kong)” Exhibition is running from 6^th October 2015 to 9^th October 2016 at Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles. For more details, please visit TWGHs 145^th Anniversary webpage (https://www.tungwah.org.hk/145th/en/ ) and CAM website ( http://camla.org/ ).

 

Since its establishment in 1870, TWGHs has been all along upholding its mission “To heal the sick and to relieve the distressed; to care for the elderly and to rehabilitate the disabled; to promote education and to nurture youngsters; and to raise the infants and to guide the children.” Nowadays, TWGHs has become the largest charitable organization in Hong Kong. For over a hundred years, TWGHs’ medical and health, education and community services have developed rapidly to fulfill the needs of the society and to provide high quality services at low rates. Today, TWGHs operates over 292 services centres, including 5 hospitals and health services and 27 Chinese medicine services centres, 53 education services centres, 205 community services centres that cover elderly, youth and family, rehabilitation and traditional services, whilst the Tung Wah Museum strives to promote, restore and preserve the heritage and relics of TWGHs. TWGHs Record Centre has been set up to preserve TWGHs’ valuable cultural assets.

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For media inquiries, please contact the Corporate Communications Branch of TWGHs at 2859 7482

The opening ceremony is officiated by Ms Subrina CHOW (Left 6), the Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco, Miss Maisy HO (Left 5), the Chairman of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs), Dr. John LEE (Right 3), 2009/2010 Chairman of TWGHs, Dr Ina CHAN (Right 4), 2013/2014 Chairman of TWGHs, Dr Gay YUEN (Right 5), the President of Friends of Chinese American Museum, together with other TWGHs Board of Directors and other VIP guests.

TWGHs has selected and trained 18 student ambassadors from TWGHs secondary schools to join the tour to Los Angeles.

Miss. Maisy HO (Left 2), the Chairman of Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWGHs), Ms. Subrina CHOW (Left 3), the Director of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco, The Hon, Ed CHAU (Right 3), California State Assembly Member, Dr. Gay YUEN (Left 1), the Board President of Chinese American Museum and Dr. Lee Yuk Lun (Right 1), the 2^nd Vice-Chairman of TWGHs pay a visit to the Exhibition.