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Emma White

On a steep slope humming with wind and quiet birdsong, a group of hikers gaze at a place where the past and present converge.
Abandoned tea terraces, first recorded in 1688, jut out of the landscape before them. Their broken-down walls form a herringbone pattern across the upper slopes of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest peak, visible from afar as tiny scars on the land.
Usually, the terraces are entirely concealed by thick vegetation, but they reappear each time deforestation or fires strip the mountain bare – most recently, after a hill fire in 2004.
No one knows their precise history, though many believe that tea was first planted in the area during the 17th century.
For ecologist Coskun Guclu and artist Pun Tsz-wai, the terraces’ reappearance is a powerful metaphor – and one they highlight in a new exhibition at the non-profit cultural platform WMA. They describe the terraces as “silent witnesses” to the many timelines coexisting upon this land, human and non-human alike.
Today, the site is part of a forest restoration project led by Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. New saplings are appearing among the old stones, and Pun and Guclu are leading a walk through the ancient plantation to illustrate how new life can be built around scars of the past.

“I’d like to ask all of you,” Guclu says, facing the group, “when you think of restoration, what do you think of?”
“Loss,” one woman says.
“Rebirth,” another replies.
For Guclu and Pun, loss must be acknowledged for true restoration to begin.
Why was an exhibition created?
Back in the city, the site’s intersection between history and rebirth is the central theme of “Bones of Our Land”, a multimedia exhibition at the WMA Space gallery in Hong Kong’s Sheung Wan district. The exhibition is co-curated by Louise Fedotov-Clements, director of Photoworks, a UK platform dedicated to the art of photography, and Chloe Chow, WMA’s head of exhibitions and programmes.

The show consists of three parts, and its main theme is the search for hope when climate degradation is all around us. The exhibition title comes from a 49-minute documentary about Tai Mo Shan, which was produced with the help of cinematographer Nicole Ip.
The documentary takes viewers through centuries of life on the mountain, through multiple ecological destructions caused by deforestation and hill fires. Four interviewees are included in the film: a local historian, a Nepalese Gurkha soldier brought to Tai Mo Shan’s army camp in the 1970s to train for the British army, a villager who witnessed the effects of the 2004 fire and an ecologist working to restore the landscape.
The film describes Tai Mo Shan as “the place where timelines converge”, where stories happen simultaneously. And so some of the stories told by the four interviewees become intertwined: the British seek out local villagers to find out the origin of the terraces, and Gurkha soldiers meet the villagers and give them food on their way into town, for example.
Why we should not forget
Patrick Hase, a historian and retired civil servant, recounts the history of how the terraces were revealed during World War II. There were massive fuel shortages during Japan’s occupation of Hong Kong, and Tai Mo Shan’s forests were decimated to meet the demand for firewood, Hase says.
Past events like these may not seem very important to us now, but it is dangerous to erase the past, or to lose the records that piece it together, he notes.
“Forgetting is quite common,” Hase says in the film. “People try to forget, I think. They try to pretend the past is other than it was. We’ve got to try and be honest with ourselves about our past.”
Along with the film, the gallery show is an amalgamation of different ways of telling the story about the tea terraces. Art and old artefacts line the walls, and there are scheduled performances in which artists act out stories told by the villagers with whom Guclu and Pun spoke.
Scattered throughout the exhibition space are microscopes highlighting microorganisms taken from soil samples from the mountain. An adjacent space, humming with faint music, displays a single microscope that reveals the biological make-up of soil from Tai Mo Shan. The music, made by Guclu, is inspired by the genetic codes found in the soil.

Guclu compared the study of soil DNA and microorganisms to the connections made in human genetics across a vast expanse of time.
The DNA that we all have as individuals tells a story about our family’s history, and that’s just in a few hundred thousand years,” Guclu says, “but all of the DNA that I collected from that site, it’s come over hundreds of millions of years.”
Why marry ecology and art?
To Guclu and Pun, the pairing of their two disciplines seems natural.
“I feel like science, or ecology, is another way of looking at the world, which is very much what art is trying to do,” Pun says.
To see the terraces yourself, join the monthly nature walks organised by WMA and Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. Elaine Lin, the director of WMA, says the walks are a way for the audience to bear witness to the restoration process.
“We are in such proximity to it, and there are so many stories and so much research that the artist film probably wouldn’t show you,” Lin says.

Guclu and Pun hope the exhibition can help Hong Kong’s people connect to the past and counter the hopelessness that runs rampant in climate discussions in this generation. The slopes of Tai Mo Shan have weathered fires and logging, and the terraces stand firm, with new life sprouting among the stones.
“They’re still here, even though we can’t see them very clearly any more, because they’re being slowly buried by the growing forest above, but they persist,” Pun says of the terraces.
In this time of great loss for global ecosystems, Pun and Guclu’s exhibit reminds us of one fundamental truth: the landscape remembers what people forget.
“Bones of Our Land” at WMA Space, 8/F, Chun Wo Commercial Centre, 23-29 Wing Wo Street, Sheung Wan. Noon to 7pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Until September 30, 2026. For more information, visit wma.hk.


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Taking inspiration from the handpainted backdrops of dioramas
traditionally used in natural history museums and theatrical
forced perspective, the Tai Mo Shan backdrop depicts the
northern slopes of Tai Mo Shan, featuring vignettes drawn from
the interviewees’ stories and archival materials. The backdrop
was painted by a scenic painter commissioned by the artists.

One of Tai Mo Shan’s burn scars snakes across the slope, with green undergrowth growing on top of the burn site as part of Kadoorie Farm’s restoration efforts. White tree guards line the slope. Photo: Emma White

Ecologist Coskun Guclu and artist Pun Tsz-wai. Photo: courtesy of WMA

A backdrop at the “Bones of Our Land” exhibition, depicting the northern slopes of Tai Mo Shan and featuring vignettes drawn from interviewees’ stories and archival materials. Photo: Felix Wong

Microscopes placed along the walls of the exhibition show various microorganisms extracted from the soil of Tai Mo Shan. Photo: Felix Wong

Guests walk along Kadoorie Farm’s Tai Mo Shan trail for the first of the exhibition’s monthly nature walks on Sunday, June 14, 2026. Photo: Emma White

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Chinese fashion label HuDieGongZhu’s World Champion dress (right) is one of 10 displayed on mannequins on a makeshift fashion runway at “Dreamedcore”, a mixed-genre exhibition focusing on Chinese dreamcore at the Gold art salon run by Serakai Studio in Hong Kong’s Wong Chuk Hang neighbourhood. Photo: HuDieGongZhu via Serakai Studio

Curator Shirley Lau at Gold in Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

A view of “Dreamedcore” at Gold. Photo: Serakai Studio

Shuang Li’s Heart is a Broken Record fountain was picked by curator Lau for the exhibition because she remembers that when going to mainland Chinese shopping centres in the 2000s, there would always be a fountain. Photo: Daniel Perez/Serakai Studio

Hong Kong contemporary Chinese fashion label Yat Pit’s corner at “Dreamedcore”. Photo: Ashlyn Chak

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An installation view of “Dreamedcore”. Photo: Serakai Studio

Ming Wong’s video work at “Dreamedcore”. Photo: Ashlyn Chak

Tobias Berger and Lau stand in front of items from Yat Pit at “Dreamedcore”. Photo: Jonathan Wong

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Chen prepares matcha at Colourliving in Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Photo: Dickson Lee

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An exhibition view of Shao’s “The Nature of Things” exhibition at Mirrored Gardens in Guangzhou, which shows his ink paintings on rice paper and furniture sculptures. Photo: courtesy of Shao Fan and Vitamin Creative Space

Shao’s King Chair (1995), which is part of the M+ Sigg Collection at Hong Kong’s M+ museum. Photo: M+

One of Shao’s furniture pieces on show at “The Nature of Things” in Guangzhou, which features the artist’s adaptations of traditional Chinese furniture along with his paintings. Photo: Wen Peng; courtesy of Shao Fan and Vitamin Creative Space

In The Name of the Rabbit 0322 (2022), an ink on rice paper work by Shao Fan, is part of his exhibition at White Cube Mason’s Yard. Photo: White Cube/Theo Christelis

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Fruit 1924 (2024), an ink on rice paper work by Shao that is part of his “Refrain” exhibition. Photo: White Cube

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Hong Kong Sinfonietta musicians ruffle sheets of paper while performing Wings’ Matra at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall on April 13, 2024. Photo: HKS

Yeung and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, with conductor Christoph Poppen, stand for an ovation after the premiere of Yeung’s work Wings’ Matra on April 13, 2024, at the Hong Kong City Hall Concert Hall. Photo: HKS

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Tai Mo Shan’s hidden tea terraces are examined in ‘Bones of Our Land’, an exhibition blending ecology and art to explore history and restoration


Tai Mo Shan’s hidden tea terraces are examined in ‘Bones of Our Land’, an exhibition blending ecology and art to explore history and restoration.


What to do in Hong Kong

Climate change

Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

The history of Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong’s highest peak, unearthed in new exhibition

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tai Mo Shan’s hidden tea terraces are examined in ‘Bones of Our Land’, an exhibition blending ecology and art to explore history and restoration

Tai Mo Shan’s hidden tea terraces are examined in ‘Bones of Our Land’, an exhibition blending ecology and art to explore history and restoration