Huang Kam Chak Yee Collection 

In October 2024 Dr Chenya Huang kindly agreed to gift his wife's collection to Durham University together with a generous gift of more than £600,000 to support the cataloguing, research and display of the collection at the Oriental Museum.  

The Huang Kam Chak Yee Collection was created by the late Mrs Huang (1943-2021) over more than 40 years. It focuses on Chinese women and their lives, including objects ranging from lacquer storage boxes and wooden cake moulds to silk textiles and hairpins decorated with king fisher feathers.  

The Collection complements the existing Chinese collections at the Oriental Museum with their strengths in jade and ceramics by adding more depth in areas such as metal jewellery, lacquer and wooden objects and fills major gaps through its focus on women and their stories.  

Research into the Collection 

Dr Huang's generous funding will support the appointment of an assistant curator for two years and a photographer for one year, both focused on opening up Mrs Huang's collection to students, researchers and the public. The curator will undertake the cataloguing of the collection in order to make it available via our online Discover database together with full colour photography of the complete collection undertaken by the photographer.  At the same time, under the guidance of Dr Qin Cao, our Curator of Chinese Collections, the assistant curator will research the objects and curate a special exhibition focused on highlights of the collection. This is scheduled for summer 2026 and will be followed in 2027 by a full publication of the collection.  Following the special exhibition, a permanent display focused on the lives of Chinese women will be created within our Malcolm MacDonald Gallery of China.  

Transforming the Oriental Museum 

Dr Huang's generous financial support to the Oriental Museum, is not just focused on his wife's collection.  This project will include the complete refurbishment of the museum's temporary exhibition gallery and the final phase of upgrades to our permanent China Gallery including the installation of new state-of-the-art display cases in both galleries.  In recognition of the importance of Dr Huang's gift, we will be renaming our special exhibition gallery in honour of Mrs Huang.  

Updates on the project's progress will be posted on this page.