This special exhibition is the world’s first-ever museum exhibition devoted to the legendary Song Huai-Kuei, a revered figure in Chinese art, film, music and fashion from the 1980s to the 2000s. The exhibition sheds light on Madame Song’s fascinating multiple identities and professional pursuits. It features more than 320 objects, including rare archival materials, clothing designed by prominent fashion designers, movie costumes and footage, artworks, and large-scale tapestry installations. The exhibition chronicles Song’s life and work from the 1950s to the early 2000s and reveals Song’s previously overlooked and underestimated influence on transforming China through the Reform and Opening-up in the 1980s into the cosmopolitan and culturally diverse society we know today.

Photo 1 & 4 | Installation view of Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China , 2023; Photo: Dan Leung; Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
Photo 2 & 3 | Installation view of Madame Song: Pioneering Art and Fashion in China , 2023; Garments: Pierre Cardin Archives; Photo: Lok Cheng; Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
Photo 5 | Song Huai-Kuei in a Pierre Cardin evening dress at Maxim’s Beijing, 1985; Photo: © Yonfan