Between the tenements in To Kwa Wan, there was once a folk museum—the Hong Kong Chinese Writing Brush Pen Museum, a charitable cultural institution dedicated to collecting, restoring, researching, and exhibiting traditional Chinese brushes. The museum is the legacy of six generations of the Zhang Yang family. Tracing back to the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty, the Cheung Yeung family served as royal brush pen makers in the Imperial Palace. In 1969, the fifth-generation curator, Zhang Hung Ni, moved to Hong Kong to expand the family’s brush-making business.
The museum’s collection includes various precious artifacts such as ornamental brushes from the Qing Dynasty, glass and porcelain brushes used by emperors, and brushes made from shaved hair. Additionally, the museum displays brushes made from exotic animal hairs like flying squirrel hair, peacock feathers, and horsehair, as well as penholders crafted from materials like whale ivory, eagle claws, and sheep horns, all of which hold significant artistic and historical value.
