In the eighth hall of the Hong Kong Palace Museum, food is more than something to eat—it is a gateway to 5,000 years of Chinese history and cultural identity. The special exhibition A Movable Feast: The Culture of Food and Drink in China invites visitors into an immersive journey through Chinese civilization, featuring over 110 historical artifacts, interactive installations, and multimedia experiences that help to explore how food has shaped the nation’s heritage and continues to be a key part of cultural expression today.
Food as Culture
Co-organized by the Hong Kong Palace Museum and the Palace Museum in Beijing, the exhibition runs from March 19 to June 18, 2025. Its exhibits are borrowed from major institutions such as the British Museum and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. They include bronzeware wine vessels, imperial banquet paintings, and folk lunchboxes. Together, they showcase the diversity of ancient Chinese culinary culture and highlight the close relationship between food, ritual, philosophy, and aesthetics in Chinese tradition. Divided into four themed sections, the exhibition explores Chinese food culture through the lenses of history, geography, design, and ritual—from ceremonial banquets and Silk Road influences to multimedia dining tables.
“As part of Chinese culture, food is far more than physical sustenance,” said Coco Huang, docent and co-curator of this exhibition. “It reflects the relationship between humans and nature, as well as among people. It plays a vital role in expressing family values, seasonal customs, and social order. That’s what we hope visitors can feel.”
Staging the exhibition in Hong Kong also prompts reflection on local identity. In Hong Kong, a city of cultural convergence, food has long served as a powerful medium for emotional and social connection. From HK style café(茶餐厅) and open food stalls(大排档) to soy sauce Western cuisine(豉油西餐), Hong Kong’s culinary traditions both inherit the legacy of Chinese heritage and record the city’s globalization journey. The exhibition also traces the evolution of local dishes and features artifacts that reflect historical interactions between China and other civilizations, highlighting both the continuity of culture and its capacity for fusion and inclusivity.
“Our favorite exhibit is the Western-style wine cup introduced to China. We find it probably influenced the design of later Chinese drinking vessels and even broader food ware forms,” said Australian visitors Jack and Rachael Wilson.
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A western-style wine cup introduced to China in the Tang dynasty
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The terracotta figurines of the Tang Dynasty portrayed the image of the envoys of the Western Regions, which shows the commercial and cultural exchanges between China and other countries in that period of time.
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An ancient Chinese ivory sculpture that illustrates the flourishing of water trade and culture during the Song Dynasty in China
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Ancient Chinese bowls made of jade
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A painting of the Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai going out on a picnic with his friends
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A bronze wine cup from the Warring States period in China 5,000 years ago.
“Hong Kong’s food culture is unique in its hybridity,” noted Isaac Yue, Associate Professor of Culture Studies at the University of Hong Kong. “This kind of exhibition allows audiences to trace the roots of familiar culinary practices and helps reinforce a sense of cultural identity and soft power.”
Tradition Meets Technology
Besides the elegant exhibits, the exhibition also has interactive elements that abound throughout its different parts. Visitors can stamp collectible seals in their exhibition booklets at each section, watch introduction videos, experience the weights of the ancient eating utensils, and so on.
“I never realized dining could be so elaborate and ceremonial,” said local visitor Daisy Lau, who just designed her own lunchboxes on a digital screen. “If restaurants today could bring back this kind of elegance, I’ll definitely go to try it.”
Among all the interactive installations, the most popular zone is the final digital experience area. There, guests sit at transforming multimedia tables to “order” virtual dishes, watch animations of their preparation, and download the pictures of their “ordered” food by scanning the QR code on the screen. They can also “open” a virtual food box to learn about ancient recipes and the aesthetics of ingredient arrangement or immerse themselves in tea gatherings of the Tang dynasty and palace feasts in the Qing dynasty.
“Yesterday my family had the famous Hong Kong food Cheong Fun(肠粉) for lunch, and today I got to experience how it is made through the animation. It is so much fun,” said a 10-year-old mainland tourist Yoyo Lu.
Coco Huang said: “We want visitors to do more than just view the exhibition. We want them to walk into the world of dining and feel the cultural logic behind it. And the installations helped a lot, especially for children.”
As urban life grows faster, cultural experiences need to be engaging and emotionally resonant, and tradition survives by constantly reinventing itself.” Olivia Milburn, Professor of Chinese History and Culture at the University of Hong Kong, noted. “Food culture still lives in our daily lives, but interactive technology effectively allows people to rediscover it in new ways.”
Emotion and Identity
Hong Kong is a diverse, East-meets-West city, and its food has always served as a bridge between past and present, tradition and modernity. From dim sum and street stalls to fusion diners, Hong Kong’s food culture represents a lifestyle that blends heritage and innovation. This exhibition is more than a historical showcase—it is also an emotional journey and a search for cultural roots.
Food is the most universal cultural language,” said Professor Isaac Yue. “It transcends generations and communities, helping people find a sense of belonging and identity in a changing city.”