Published on : 30/07/2024
Since its opening, HKPM has continued to innovate and launch a series of cultural and creative products inspired by Chinese art and culture.
Recently, HKPM has launched a new series of cultural and creative products called "HKPM Palace Pals", which presents the culture of the Palace Museum in the form of cartoon dolls, what are their special features?
"HKPM Palace Pals" includes 20 imperial cartoon characters
Apart from a series of summer exhibitions, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (HKHM) has recently launched a new series of cultural and creative products.
The new "HKPM Palace Pals" creative product series from HKPM comprises 20 cartoon characters themed on people from the Ming and Qing imperial courts.
The first batch of products includes tea gift boxes, enamel pins, and embroidered stickers, which are now available for sale at the HKPM Shop "ART EXPRESS by Commercial Press".
In the "HKPM Palace Pals" Team, characters representing the Ming Dynasty include Emperors (3 styles), Empress, Noble Consort, Senior Grand Secretary, Official, General, Lady-in-Waiting, Scholar.
For the Qing Dynasty, the characters include Emperors (2 styles), Empress, Consort, Imperial Concubine, Grand Minister of State, Bannerman, Prince, Imperial Cat, Imperial Dog.
All 20 characters representing Ming and Qing Dynasty court figures were designed in-house by the museum, emanating charm and cuteness!
Read more: How much do you know about the "Eight Banners" of the Qing Dynasty?
The imperial cartoon characters are based on ancient paintings
As it turns out, the characters of the "HKPM Palace Pals" represent different statuses in the Ming and Qing courts.
Furthermore, the character prototypes have a great deal of consideration, and the design inspiration comes from character paintings from the Ming and Qing eras!
One of the "Ming Dynasty Emperors" wears a winged crown, a ceremonial robe, and a jade belt, which corresponds to painting "Seated Portrait of Ming Emperor Guangzong", a painting done by court painters.
Another character, the "Ming Dynasty Official' dressed in a blue official robe, corresponds to the painting "Birthday Gathering in the Bamboo Garden" drawn by court painters Lu Wenying and Lu Ji.
The "Ming Dynasty Scholar" wearing a headscarf, and a cross-collar wide-sleeved robe reminds people of "Portrait of Shen Zhou".
These three aforementioned paintings can be appreciated in "The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Stories Untold — Figure Paintings of the Ming Dynasty from the Palace Museum".
In addition to the cartoon characters of the Ming Dynasty, everyone is also welcome to visit HKPM to find paintings that inspired the prototypes of other "HKPM Palace Pals" characters!
Read more: Do you know the Emperor has ten titles?