Seminars of International Museum Day, Macao 2012

Ms SIU Lai Kuen, Chief Curator, Hong Kong Museum of History

Ms Susanna SIU Lai Kuen

Ms Susanna SIU Lai Kuen received her Bachelor degree (History) from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, her Master in Conservation from the University of York in the UK and Master in Architecture from the Tsinghua University in Beijing. Ms SIU joined the Hong Kong Museum of History in 1986 responsible for local history. In 1991, she was tasked to plan the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. In 1993, she joined the Antiquities and Monuments Office and promoted to Curator (Historical Buildings) the next year responsible for built heritage conservation. She was sent to the University of York in the UK for the Master course in Conservation in 1996 and 1998. After her education in the UK, she resumed her duties in heritage conservation. Two of her conservation projects, i.e. the restoration of the Hung Shing Temple in Kau Sai Chau and the King Law Ka Suk (ancestral hall) in Tai Po won an outstanding award of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2000 and 2001 respectively. In 2001, Ms SIU joined the Home Affairs Bureau taking up the post of Chief Curator (Policy Review) responsible for reviewing the heritage conservation policy of Hong Kong. In 2003, she was conferred the Master of Architecture by the Tsinghua University. In 2005, she moved to the post of Chief Curator (Heritage). In 2006, she took up the post Assistant Secretary to assist in the planning of the M+, an innovative cultural institution of the West Kowloon Cultural District. In 2008, she took up the post of Chief Curator (Heritage) again responsible for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, the hospitality work for the International Dignitaries visiting Hong Kong for the Equestrian Events of the 2008 Beijing Olympic and Paralympic Games as well as to help seek funding from the Legislative Council for the establishment of M+. In September 2009, Ms SIU took up the post Chief Curator (Heritage and Museum Services) of the Headquarters of Leisure and Cultural Services Department, assisting the monitoring of the management and development of the fourteen public museums and three other cultural and arts institutions. In July 2011, Ms SIU re-joined the Hong Kong Museum of History to take up the post of Chief Curator responsible for developing and managing the museum and its five branch museums.

Ms SIU has been an adjunct associate professor of the History Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong since 2000 teaching a course on the antiquities and monuments of Hong Kong. She has been a member of the Advisory Panel of the Hong Kong Museum of Education of Hong Kong Institute of Education since 2009. She was an advisor of Museum of Correctional Services from 2010-2011. Recent publications of Ms SIU include 'Ancestral Halls in Tai Po' (collected in Traditions and Heritage in Tai Po, published by Tai Po District Council, 2008), 'Meeting the Challenges - The New Roles of Museum Collections in Hong Kong'(collected in Incorporated in Interesting Times: New Roles for Collections published by Museums Australia Inc, 2011) and Custody and Correction - Development of Hong Kong's Prison System (Correctional Services Department, 2012).