Offline Memories: Hong Kong LGBTQ+ Archive of Printed Matter from the Pre-Internet Era

The Hong Kong LGBTQ+ Archive of Printed Matter from the Pre-Internet Era (hklgbtqarchive.com @hklgbtqarchive) is a comprehensive online resource preserving the vibrant history of Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ communities before the internet. With around 1,000 items—including group newsletters, indie zines, handwritten letters, AIDS education leaflets, government consultation papers, event promotions, and more — the archive offers a rare glimpse into activism and daily life from the early 1990s to the 2000s. Archives are fascinating. They capture the past, yet shape the future. Their true potential lies in how people use them, continually expanding their meaning and relevance.

This exhibition brings together seven Hong Kong queer and trans artists, spanning generations from their twenties to their sixties, who respond to archival materials from Hong Kong’s LGBTQ+ printed matters of the pre-internet era. Working across a range of media, including video art, computer game, mixed-media sculpture, installation, poetry, encaustic art, and expanded photography, the artists engage with the archive not as a record of the past, but as living memory for the future. The exhibition opens up possibilities for how history is appropriated, reimagined, and woven into visions of queer futurity across time.