200 Years of Hong Kong Characters: From White Elephants to World Cultural Heritage

"Hong Kong Type 200 Years: From "World's Best" and "White Elephant" to World Cultural Heritage" tells the story of "Hong Kong type," originally created for evangelism. It served as a bridge for Western sinology and the transmission of Western learning to the East, recorded the politics, economy, culture, and livelihoods of the late Qing Dynasty, and profoundly changed the development of modern Chinese printing technology.
In the mid-19th century, amidst Parisian and Berlin typefaces, Hong Kong type earned the reputation of being the most elegant Chinese lead movable type. However, by the early 20th century, it was derided as an outdated "white elephant" and eventually phased out and forgotten. By 2020, this forgotten Chinese lead movable type was transformed into cultural heritage, becoming a contemporary printing art with dedicated typecasters, compositors, researchers, and creators.

This publication is funded by the 3rd "Aspiring Writers Publication Subsidy Scheme." The scheme is organized by the Hong Kong Publishing Federation and funded by the Create Hong Kong.