This Is Alan Chan’s Favourite Hong Kong Object

Over 50 years, designer, artist and collector Alan Chan has assembled more than 10,000 objects, including paintings, sculptures, refined lacquer boxes, antique scrolls and dynamic Ju Ming sculptures. Some are museum-quality rarities; others humble finds from his travels to China, Paris and London. Chan never collects for investment — he buys what catches his eye and captures his imagination.

Yet when asked to name his favourite Hong Kong object, Chan doesn’t hesitate. He points to a simple, traditional Chinese porcelain figurine of a young boy holding a peach. The figurine once held pride of place in his father’s fruit and vegetable shop in Sheung Wan, a talisman of prosperity and good fortune, its cheerful smile welcoming customers for over 20 years until financial difficulties forced his father to close the shop. Everything had to be sold.

Everything except the figurine, which has remained a constant companion following Chan, moving from home to office and back again, always in view, and a constant presence spanning the past and present.

“Even when my father went bankrupt, he kept it,” says Chan. “It held so many memories for him. And when he passed away, it came to me. I’ve been looking at this figurine since I was about five years old. My whole life, really.”

Alan Chan’s favourite Hong Kong object – Photo by May james for Zolima CityMag

More than sentimental

That early experience with a single object — its weight, glaze, and the way it occupies a space — would shape how Chan understood design for the rest of his life.

He first made his name in 1970s Hong Kong’s advertising world, a period when the city became a magnet for creative talent, attracting leading British, Australian and American art directors, copywriters and designers who found its energy irresistible. 

Working alongside these expatriates, and seeing his own world and culture through their eyes, was a revelation. “I was intrigued,” he recalls. “They brought a completely different perspective to everything that I took for granted — even fans, chopsticks and bamboo birdcages.”

Expected to do his own research and to come up with original ideas, Chan began visiting the antique galleries along Hollywood Road. Recognising his passion, many antique dealers acted as mentors, advising him on what to read and on the importance of materials and designs. Some generously loaned him beautiful objects to study: Song dynasty ceramics, carved pieces of jade and export silverware, as well as historic textiles, books, paintings and prints. 

Chan quickly realised that holding an object in his hands and appreciating the way it is made, the materials the designer has used and, most importantly, how it makes you feel is key to innovation. This formative period marked the beginning of a lifelong practice where collecting and creativity would become inseparable, and where his attraction to visual language, especially when two cultures come together, sparked an approach that would develop into his signature design philosophy: “Oriental Passion, Western Harmony” — a deliberate fusion that challenges traditional hierarchies. 

“I have always been fascinated by the relationship between East and West, and in particular how they come together to create something unique,” he explains. “It is not that one way is better than the other, but when Eastern passion is combined with Western symmetry, technology, and transparency, a very special harmony is created, and it becomes temperamentally satisfying design.”

Chan’s instinct for linking old and new, tradition and innovation, has built a long, successful and multifaceted career. He established Alan Chan Design Company in 1980 and has delivered a stream of distinctive projects since then, including collaborations with international brands such as Louis Vuitton, Alessi, Pinton, Bernardaud and Ferragamo. Repetition does not interest him. The excitement comes from developing something fresh from a variety of sources. For instance, in a packaging design project, he once reinterpreted the design of antique Chinese boxes held closed with tiny sticks into the process and textures of a modern tea caddy. And a pair of antique Japanese bronze vases decorated with sinuous dragons became the inspiration for a wall mural.

In addition to his commercial successes, Chan’s work is exhibited in museums and galleries around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and M+ in Hong Kong. He is a committed supporter of the arts and design in Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan, hosting arts and crafts exhibitions showing work by master and emerging designers, plus photographers, illustrators and artists.

Chan believes that objects, especially those that have been part of someone’s life for decades, often absorb a spiritual resonance. He owns more than 10,000 pieces, and for him each one and especially the porcelain boy, has a story and a memory that contributes to his artistic thinking.

“When I was putting my book Collecting Inspiration for Design together, my initial idea was to illustrate how objects shape my creative thinking, but then I started to see different themes emerging in my collection,” explains Chan. “So I realised how diverse it was, yet also that I could categorise it: dragons, tea, boxes, and figures. My figurines, especially, tell a coherent story about my life.”

A traditional Chinese porcelain figurine of a young boy holding a peach – Photo by May James for Zolima CityMag

A collector’s haven

Chan is also drawn to spatial design. Having undertaken numerous interior projects in both China and Hong Kong, he created his own personal sanctuary in Quarry Bay: Salon 27, where he is surrounded by his collection. The 5,000-square-metre loft in a renovated industrial building is a real cabinet of curiosities that reflects Chan’s tastes and interests over decades. The set-up is never static nor reverential, and arranging the spacious interior into a salon and dining room allows him to develop a closer relationship with his ever-evolving collection, and also to spend time with clients and friends for whom he enjoys hosting sumptuous lunches or intimate dinner parties.

“I love laying a table to create a landscape with flowers and foliage, and a mix of art and design, and seeing how people interact with the space, the collection and, most importantly, each other,” he says.

Emotional about details, shapes and silhouettes, and how a material feels, Chan explains how the elements of the prized figurine reveal a quiet artistry and deeper meaning. “He’s not sitting upright like in prayer; he’s actually sitting in a very comfortable way, and he’s not looking straight ahead; he’s looking slightly off to one side, as if thinking about something.”

Then the delicate materiality of the porcelain adds another layer of meaning. “The whiteness is so pure,” Chan reflects. “And then you have these small but important details: gold around the wrists, the painted hair, the red lips. The ears are quite detailed, too. Compared to the Japanese figurines I have, this one feels much more vivid. More alive.”

But the porcelain boy offers more than aesthetic pleasure. He is a crucial link between generations, an emblem of resilience and a quiet testament to perseverance. Through him, Chan carries forward his father’s legacy and also a piece of Hong Kong’s cultural memory, for he is a reminder that objects are never just objects; they are keepers of individual and collective stories.

“It’s always good to remember where we come from,” says Chan. “I tell my son and daughter the story of this figurine, just like my father told me. It reminds us that nothing comes easy. You have to work for it.”