Museum of Coastal Defence hosts “The Great War at its Centenary” exhibition

     In commemoration of the centenary of the end of World War I, the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence is currently holding the exhibition "The Great War at its Centenary". Through the display of news publications, postcards, fund-raising posters, commemorative medals and guns from the war period, the exhibition revisits the Great War that changed the world order, as well as reflects on the cost of war.
      
     An assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 became the immediate cause of World War I. An arms race between the Central Powers and the Allies escalated, close to 65 million soldiers were mobilised, and devastating new weapons were introduced during the War, causing more than 30 million casualties among the warring countries. The exhibition reveals the situation on the battlefield, as well as illustrates the far-reaching impact the War had on modern China and Hong Kong on political, military and social levels.
      
     Highlight exhibits include a postcard sent from a war prisoner in the Hung Hom internment camp to Germany, a postcard showing warships anchored in Victoria Harbour before the outbreak of World War I, a Shanghai pictorial that illustrates the military actions of the Allies during the war, and a .303" British Lee-Enfield rifle used in the War.
      
     The exhibition, which runs until January 30, 2019, is presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence. For details of the exhibition, please visit the museum's website at hk.coastaldefence.museum/en_US/web/mcd/exhibition/special/wwi.html, or call 2569 1500.
      
     The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence is located at 175 Tung Hei Road, Shau Kei Wan.