Professor CHAN, Lai-Pik Libby 陳麗碧教授

Professor of Practice


Contact

Office: Room LC847, Library Complex, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 12 Wai Tsui Crescent, North Point, Hong Kong
Phone: 2104-8247
Email: lpchan@hksyu.edu


Academic and Professional Qualification

Libby Chan currently serves as Professor of Practice in the Department of Sociology at Hong Kong Shue Yan University. In this role, she is dedicated to bridging academic scholarship with practical applications in the fields of museums, arts, and culture. Her responsibilities include fostering connections between the University and relevant industries, as well as developing and curating a university museum.

Prior to her current position, she served as the Director of Indra and Harry Banga Gallery, City University of Hong Kong, where she led the strategic development and art administration of the University Gallery. She was instrumental in advancing its curatorial and pedagogical practices, which bridge Asian and Western arts and cultures by integrating new media, science, and technology, while engaging the wider community. Before this role, she was the Chief Curator and Assistant Director (Curatorial and Collections) at the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, overseeing curatorial practices, collection management, research, and related art administration. She also provided strategic guidance to the Museum's Research Centre in developing its library and archives. Previously, Libby Chan held the position of Senior Curator (China) at the Asian Civilisations Museum under the National Heritage Board of Singapore, where she managed the development of the Chinese collection and spearheaded the China gallery revamp project. She has also served as Curatorial Consultant at the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas, as the J. S. Lee Postdoctoral and Curatorial Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., and as Research Associate and Curator at the Art Museum of Chinese University of Hong Kong. Additionally, she has lectured in the Department of Fine Arts. Chan earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Chinese art history and her bachelor's degree from the Department of Fine Arts at Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Chan's research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches, with an emphasis on cross-regional studies of exchanges and trade between Eastern and Western material cultures. Her research interests encompass Chinese rituals, decorative arts, court arts, and export arts; land and maritime archaeology in Asia; the Silk Routes in global history, museology, and the intersection of art and digital technology; and the heritage of Hong Kong within a global context. She has authored numerous articles and publications on these subjects.


Specialism and Research Interests

  • Museology, Curating, Arts and Cultural Management, and Connoisseurship
  • Digital Technology in Museums and Cultural Heritage
  • Decorative, Court, Ritual, and Export Arts
  • Cross-regional Studies on East-meets-West Material Cultures
  • World History and Archaeology of Silk Routes
  • Maritime Trade in China and Asia
  • History and Heritage of Hong Kong and Southern China in the Global Context


Courses

ACT301    Curating Exhibitions and Event Management
ACT311    Museum Studies
 

Selected Publications

(Co-editor). Might and Magnificence: Ceremonial Arms and Armour across Cultures. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong, 2025.

"Curatorial Statement: A Cross-Disciplinary Study of Ceremonial Arms and Armour and the Application of New Digital Practices." In Might and Magnificence: Ceremonial Arms and Armour across Cultures (Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong, 2025), pp. 11-22.

(Editor). The Grand Gathering of the Century: Zodiac Heads from the Yuanmingyuan and Important Treasures. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong, 2023.

(Author and Editor). Maritime Crossroads: Thousand Years of Hong Kong Maritime and Beyond. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2023. [Project granted by the Hong Kong Maritime and Port Board, HKSAR]

(Co-editor). Hong Kong's Maritime Miracles: The Story of Our City since 1945. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2022. [Project granted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club]

(Author and Editor). The Story of High Island--Activating the Local Records. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2022. [Project granted by Lord Wilson Heritage Trust, Hong Kong Home Affairs Bureau, HKSAR]

"Maritime Crossroads: Millennia of Global Trade in Hong Kong." Orientations, May/June 2021, pp.92-98.

"Revisiting the Origins and Development of the Chinese Export Silver." (再思清代外銷銀器之來歷與發展）In Divine Craftsmanship: Collected Essays on the History and Heritage of Cantonese Artifact Craftsmanship in the Qing Dynasty. (匠心神巧：清代廣作歷史及工藝傳承研究文集) Guangzhou: Guangdong Renming Chubanshe, 2019, pp. 98-118.

(Co-author and Editor [with Nina Wan]). The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade, 1784-1900. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2018.

"The New People: Early American Trade with China (1784-1900)." In The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade, 1784-1900. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2018, pp. 6-33.

(Author and Editor). East Meets West: Maritime Silk Routes in the 13th - 18th Centuries. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2017.

(Co-author and Editor [with Nina Wan]). The Silver Age: Origins and Trade of Chinese Export Silver. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2017.

"Navigating the Sea: A Discourse on Hong Kong's Maritime Silk Routes in View of the Discovery of the Stone Anchor Stock from the Song Dynasty near High Island, Sai Kung." In East Meets West: Maritime Silk Routes in the 13th - 18th Centuries. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Maritime Museum, 2017, pp. 209-234.

"Revisiting the Late Shang Marble Sculpture."(再思殷商的大理石雕塑) In The preceding of the Chinese Jade Culture in the Xia and Shang Dynasties Conference. (夏商玉器與玉文化研討會論文集). Guangzhou: Guangdong Museum, Lingnan Publisher, 2017, pp. 77-81.

"An Early Depiction of the Thirteen Hongs in Canton." Orientations, July/ August 2017.

"An Introduction of Two Recent Acquisitions: Han Bronze Hu Vessel and Han Pottery Rabbit and the Exchange of Animal Iconography in Southern China and Southeast Asia During the 1st BC to 1st AD Centuries."（新加坡亞洲文物博物館新藏漢代銅壺、陶兔介紹——兼初論青銅時代晚期中國南方和東南亞動物圖像的交會) In The International Symposium Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Excavation of the Han Tombs at Mawangdui. Changsha: Hunan provincial museum, 2016.

(Co-author [with Eugene Y. Wang, et al]). Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda: The Famen Temple and Tang Court Culture. Singapore: Asian Civilisations Museum, 2014.

"East-West Encounters: Tubo (Ancient Tibetan) Gold between the 7th and 9th Centuries." Arts of Asia. Vol. 43, No. 5, September-October 2014, pp. 121-135.

"Refusing to Stand Still, Reaching Out to the Public: The Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong's Current Public Outreach Efforts and Its Possible Future Directions." University Museums and Collections Journal. Vol. 6, 2014, pp. 17-24.

"Scientific Curiosity: Collecting in Hong Kong through The Dr. S.Y. Kwan Collection." Arts of Asia. Vol. 42, No. 3, May-June 2012, pp. 130-139.

"Jade Spiders and Praying Mantises of the Western Zhou Period (1046 - 771 BCE): Reconstructing an Ancient Cultural Mindset." Ars Orientalis. Vol. 41, 2012, pp. 165-185.

"Animal-shaped Bronzes and Their Relationship with the Western Zhou Society: Discussion Stretched from Yucui, Excavated from Yujiazhang." (西周青銅動物造型容器體現若干社會文化意義——寶雞茹家莊出土孟錐說起) In Collected essays on Zhou and Qin Civilizations, 2nd Series (周秦文明論叢（第二輯)). Baoji Bronze Museum ed. Xi'an: Shanxi Renming Chubanshe, 2009, pp. 158-167.


Community Service
Committee Member, Hong Kong Curators Association


Professional Membership
Fellow, J. S. Lee Memorial Fellowship, Bei Shan Tang Foundation
Member, Association of Asian Studies