Lung Fu Shan Environmental Education Centre and guest co-curator Maxime Decaudin are pleased to present Ecology in the Making, Hong Kong’s first historical exhibition featuring local amateur naturalists from 1816-1986. Including notable naturalists such as Father Anthony Bogadek and Chinese writer Yip Linfeng, the exhibition presents 12 passionate individuals and their work in discovering, collecting, identifying, conserving and popularizing Hong Kong’s nature. 

In Hong Kong, amateur naturalists played significant and surprising roles. This group of varied individuals were not necessarily professionally trained in the sciences, but importantly had a great passion for studying natural things such as birds, butterflies, rocks and plants. Not only did their work contribute to our current understanding of ecology, they also promoted the natural sciences to audiences in Hong Kong and abroad. In this exhibition, their stories and the species they interacted with are grouped into five loosely chronological chapters, each exemplifying a particular approach to nature characteristic of an era.

Being ‘amateur naturalists’, studying the natural world and in so doing re-building our relationship with nature  – this exhibition reminds us that this is not something only scientists can do. As guest co-curator Maxime Decaudin describes amateur naturalists and their contributions in this exhibition: “the fact that these individuals were not always scientists is a great incentive for all of us to think of our role in future challenges.” 

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Stories from 1816 to 1984 are divided into five chapters in chronological order, click image below to view the full content. 

Twelve naturalists who contributed to Hong Kong's natural history, click to view their stories.