Within Boundaries: Collecting and Exhibiting Chinese Contemporary Art in M+, Hong Kong

This thesis investigates how M+, Hong Kong’s museum of twentieth- and twenty-first-century visual culture, collects and exhibits Chinese contemporary art under political and institutional constraint. It argues that M+ operates through adaptive autonomy, a condition in which curatorial and educational strategies transform limitation into method. By analyzing the museum’s formation, exhibition practices, and comparison with other Asian institutions such as the Asia Culture Center in South Korea, the Power Station of Art in China, and the National Gallery Singapore, the study reveals how M+ sustains visibility of Chinese contemporary art with political sensitive topic through 绥靖 (Sui Jing; subtle appeasement) rather than open critique. These gestures, while ensuring survival, also expose the fragility of institutional agency in Hong Kong’s current cultural and political landscape. The thesis concludes that M+ must continue to raise visibility and foster regional solidarity, maintaining dialogues and critical engagements even when direct dissent on social issues that threaten the stability of the authority becomes strictly restricted.