thesis 0

RETHINKING THE EARLY MODERN MUSEUM IN CHINA
IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CONTEMPORARY CHINESE MUSEUM BOOM
By
 
FENGTING ZHAO
____________________
A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College
In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors degree
With Honors in
Anthropology
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
AUGUST 2016
Approved by:
____________________________
Dr. Irene Bald Romano
School of Anthropology

ABSTRACT
The recent museum boom in China has drawn much attention in the West, but few have paid
attention to the ﬁrst museum boom in China in the early modern period, from 1911-1937. During
this period, museums in China developed in a fast and vibrant manner, and aspects of these mu-
seums have shaped museums in China today. I investigate early modern museums on a micro
scale, and provide a detailed account of historical information about the pioneering private mu-
seums like the Zikawei Museum, Shanghai Museum, Nantong Museum, as well as the signiﬁcant
national museums like the National History Museum, Institute of Antiquity Exhibition, and
Palace Museum. Then, I examine the development of contemporary museums on a macro scale,
with an analysis of regulations and laws, notable museums and exhibitions, in order to explain
the basis of the Chinese museum boom today. I also discuss the international loan exhibition, a
device that ran though the history of Chinese museums and serves the diplomatic needs of the
Chinese government. Lastly, I shed light on the rising demand for foreign exhibitions in China,
and point out how important it is for the West to understand the history of Chinese museums in
order to facilitate successful cooperative traveling exhibitions.

Introduction
“Museum,” as a public cultural institution, was an “imported good” from the West during
the second half of the nineteenth century. With the defeat of the Second Opium War (1857-1860),
the Qing Court and the educated elites saw the need to learn from the West, and initiated the
Self-Strengthening Movement or the Westernization Movement (1861-1895). With the
goal of strengthening themselves to defend foreign armies, they sent personnel abroad to learn
from the West. Although the main focus was on scientific, industrial, and political knowledge,
museums were often notable destinations on their travel routes. A Qing official, Bin Chun ,
who wrote a travel memoir called “Notes on the Raft” , praised the royal collections in
Europe; he commented, “I have never heard anything like it, and I have never seen anything like
it.”1
It was not until Li Gui , a custom and taxation officer who went to Philadelphia as a
Chinese delegate for the Expo in 1876, that the word “ ,” the official translation of “muse-
um,” started to occur in Chinese literature. After Li attended the Expo, he traveled to Washing2 -
ton D.C., New York City, London, Paris, Rouen, Marseille, and wrote four volumes of memoirs
called “A Travel around the Globe” (Fig.1). In this travelogue, he described the
British Museum as “a museum made of white stones,” and the translation of the word, “muse-
um” meant an institution that collected and displayed everything in the world.3
Wu, 2007.1
Zhejiang Dang’an Wang, 2014. See http://www.zjda.gov.cn/dawf/dacy/201004/t20100429_1737.html2
Ibid.3

With the accounts of the Western museums documented in the Qing officials’ memoirs, the
call for a Chinese museum heated up. From 1873-1899, there were more than 30 scholarly and
newspaper articles focusing on museums in the West and later, on the missionary museums being
built in Shanghai, Tianji, Lushun and Chengdu. Educated elites like Zhang Jian made pro4 -
posals to the Qing court for a national museum and library, with the purpose of educating the
public. The Qing court never responded, and it was not until The Institute of Antiquities Exhibi-
tion (IAE) opened in 1914 that the first National Museum finally opened to the pub-
lic. Due to political turmoil, it was missionary museums like the Zikawei Museum
and the private university museums like the Nantong Museum that broke the
ground for the development of museums in China.5
The panorama of museum industry in modern China (1883-1949) was often pictured as iso-
lated nodes, with each of them bearing significant historical meaning by themselves, but unable
to be connected with a single thread. Whether it the lack of historical materials or the lack of
imagination, China actually experienced the first wave of a museum boom from the Revolution
of 1911 to the full outbreak of the Japanese-Sino War in 1937, and developed diverse
models of museum management (Fig.2). The number of museums registered at the Museum As-
sociation of China reached 62 in 1936, and some argued that the number was underestimated.6
Methodology
Wu, 2007.4
Ibid.5
Museum Association of China 1936, 1-6.6

In the following thesis, I will adopt a holistic approach to the development of Chinese mu-
seums. Due to limited documentary resources, I will investigate early modern museums in China
(before 1949) on a micro scale. I will provide a historical account of each important museum
through an examination of collections, structures, permanent exhibitions, traveling exhibitions to
the West, publications, and their significance in the historical context of the modern China. Then
I will examine the influences the early modern museums had on the contemporary Chinese mu-
seums on a macro scale. I will provide an overview of the museums in this period of time with
the help of statistics, the regulations and laws guiding the developments of the museums, and
accounts of representative museums, exhibitions and personnels. Then, I will examine the appa-
ratus of international loan exhibition, both in the early modern period and the contemporary pe-
riod, to unveil that how the contemporary museums are influenced by the early modern ones in
terms of ideology, and the opportunities and challenges facing the Chinese museums today.
Early Missionary Museums: The Zikawei Museum
The first modern museum in China, the Zikawei Museum, was founded by
the French Jesuits in Shanghai, under the guidance of Father Pierre Marie Heude (1836-1902). In
remembrance of Father Heude, the founding year of the Zikawei Museum was set to 1868, the
year that Father Heude arrived at Shanghai, although the construction of the museum was not
completed until 1883. The Zikawei Museum, along with a cathedral, a library, an observatory,7
orphanages, and a university ( Aurora University), had been planned as part of the
French Jesuits’ mission to the Yangzi Delta.
The first half of the Zikawei Museum’s history (1868-1930) witnessed a ‘working museum’
of natural history serving the needs of the Europeans, that was not open to general public and
Dai 2013, 334.7

could only be visited upon the approval of the director. Father Heude, a trained zoologist, col-
lected specimen of plants, reptiles, fish, birds and mammals from the entire Orient, and built the
museum as a center of studies and scientific research. The Zikawei Museum8
was renamed the Heude Museum in 1930, which marked the beginning of the sec-
ond half of the museum’s history (1930-1952). Shifting from a privileged working museum to a9
university and public museum belonging to Aurora University, the Heude Museum
opened an exhibition hall of zoology and other of antiquities(Fig.3).
Expanding the collection to Chinese ancient antiquities collected by Father Beck, the Heude
Museum contained both samples of Western scientific glory and pieces of Chinese civilization
which constructed a discourse of an obsolete Chinese ‘past’ versus a “European modernity.”10
The visitors of the Heude museums from 1930-1952 were mainly university students and well-
educated social elites, thus the educational function of the museum was emphasized, and it was
on the agenda of the Catholics to provide Chinese youth a higher education in a Christian envi-
ronment.11
The Shanghai Museum: First Public Museum in China
If the Zikawei Museum was the first modern museum built in China, the Shanghai Museum
(literally, “The Asian Society Museum”) (1874-1949) was the first modern mu-
seum opened to the public (Fig.4). The governing body of the Shanghai Museum was the North-
China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (NCBRAS), and the land was granted by the British
L-D Lu 2014, 22-23.8
Dai 2013, 331.9
Dussel 2000, 465-78.10
Wiest 2001a, 33.11

Crown in the colonial part of Shanghai. NCBRAS was founded by a group of Westerners living12
in China in 1857 for the study and publications of the natural history and culture of China. For13
such a purpose, the collection of the Shanghai Museum resembled the Zikawei Museum, which
included specimens of natural history, humanities and the arts.
The Shanghai Museum received donations from European merchants, as well as the Shang-
hai Municipal Council, but for the most part, its funding came from taxpayers in the colonial part
of Shanghai. The curators of the Shanghai Museum were members of NCBRAS, and they were14
unpaid because of the limited funding. The audience of the museums consisted of two-thirds
Chinese and one-third foreigners, and before 1930s, the labels and catalogues were mostly in
English.15
The mission of the Shanghai Museum experienced a change from promoting Sinological
studies in Shanghai among Europeans to disseminating Western knowledge and ideologies to the
educated Chinese social elites during 1930s. The Shanghai Museum started to display Chinese16
labels and guidebooks accordingly, which also contributed to the increasing fundraising needs of
the museum among the Chinese elites.
After all, the Shanghai Museum, as well as the Zikawei Museum, was established and oper-
ated by Europeans in the foreign concessions of Shanghai. Both of them served the needs of the
Western residents, whether scientiﬁc, cultural or nostalgic of Western-styled public facilities in
their home countries. In addition, the early modern museums built by the Europeans helped to
Mason 1927, viii-ix.12
Staunton 1847, 7-813
L- D Lu 2014, 73.14
Ibid, 74-75.15
Sowerby 1933, 219-25.16

mark the social boundaries between those who knew English, who were the social elites educat-
ed in a Western school, and those who did not. From this perspective, these museums were re-
garded as part of the Westernization process of Shanghai in the colonial period.
The Nantong Museum: First Modern Museum of China
While the Zikawei Museum and the Shanghai Museum were ﬁrst museums in China, the
Nantong Museum was recognized as the ﬁrst modern museum of China (Fig.5). The
founder and operator of the Nantong Museum was Zhang Jian , a wealthy entrepreneur, a
well-educated social elite, and a pioneer of China’s modernization in the late 19th and early 20th
century. Although the proposals of building a modern museum of China were raised during the
Hundred Days’ Reform , the young Guangxu Emperor failed to make it a
reality. Zhang Jian realized the educational power of the museums during his business trip to
Japan, and made two proposals to the Qing Court for the establishment of a national museum in
1905, but received little attention. With little hope for the Qing Court to build a national muse17 -
um, Zhang Jian started to build a private museum as part of his educational plan to modernize the
important commercial town of Nantong.
Zhang Jian’s family was the founder and sole funding entity of the Nantong Museum, and
Zhang Jian purchased 666 square meters of land from 29 families to construct his private muse-
um. The collections included four categories, which were nature, history, the arts and education,
which came from his personal collection, purchase, or donations. At 1913, the Nantong Museum
had 2,900 items, and the number increased to 3,605 in 1933. The Nantong museum was divided
into a zoo, a Chinese garden, several exhibition galleries and Zhang Jian’s private residency. All
Zhang 1905.17

the items were put on display, so the management of the collections became a problem, with the
result that some of the items were broken by visitors or stolen from the museum.
The museum was opened to the teachers and students of the Nantong Normal College
, a college funded by Zhang, and members of the social elites at 1912. Due to the18
recklessness of the visitors, Zhang Jian started to issue permits for entrance. And later in 1927,
the museum was finally opened to the public, free of charge.
The establishment of the Nantong Museum served the needs of Chinese social elites in the
modernization movement during the early 20th century. It was unclear whether the Zikawei Mu-
seum and the Shanghai Museum had influenced Zhang Jian’s museum management, but Zhang
believed that Westernization was a solution to China’s problems at that time. The Nantong Mu-
seum was partly destroyed and occupied by Japanese troops during WWII, and taken over by the
government after 1949. Today, the Nantong Museum is advertised as the first modern museum of
China, and Zhang Jian is the patriotic hero who was proactive in establishing the importance of
museums in China.
Impact of the privately-funded museums in China before 1949
Searching through the history of Chinese museums today, the first modern museum in the
official history of museums in China is a disputed subject. Although the Zikawei Museum and
the Shanghai Museum were among the first modern museums established on Chinese soil, some
Chinese scholars denied its position as the first modern museum in China. The rejection was19
not a simple question of their governance by foreign missionaries instead of by Chinese scholars
and officials, but a more complex one involving the nature of their collections and their objec-
Zhao 2002.18
National Museum of China Website. See: en.chnmuseum.cn19

tives. The early missionary museums were built upon natural history collections and only incor-
porated minor antique collections, thus they were not easily accepted by the national Chinese
museums, which formed around historical cultural artifacts. The museum objective of educating
Chinese youth in a Catholic fashion, as well as serving the needs for the Western residents in the
semi-colonial China, reflected a colonial ideology that made it difficult for the later nationalist
museums to accept. The model of missionary museums was not adopted by subsequent muse-
ums, and gradually lost its influence on the development of the museum field.
On the official websites of National Museum of China , the Nantong Museum is
often referred to as the origin of modern Chinese museums, while the missionary museums are
not mentioned. As a private museum built by a social elite, the collection of the Nantong Mu20 -
seum was built upon its founder’s private collections and expanded with his personal funding.
The objective of the Nantong Museum was to aid the founder’s private university to educate the
students. The educational function of the Nantong Museum has been inherited by the university
museums in China ever since, but the mainstream of Chinese museums bear little resemblance to
the model of the Nantong Museum.
Historical Backgrounds in Beijing from 1911 to 1924
The success of the Revolution of 1911 marked the abdication of the last Qing emperor, Puyi,
and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) in Nanjing. Although the leader of the Na-
tionalist party, Sun Yat-sen , served as the first provisional president of China in Nanjing
since January 1, 1912, the power in Beijing was still seized in the hands of Yuan Shikai ,
who led the Beiyang army . Yuan arranged the abdication of the Qing court, and in re-
Ibid.20

turn, demanded the position of the provisional president of ROC in 1912. Yuan remained the
president of the ROC for four years, and his government was often referred to as the Beiyang
Government . In 1912, Yuan signed “The Articles of Favorable Treatment of the Qing
Emperor” with the Qing Court, which permitted their residence in the inner court
of the Forbidden City and treated like a foreign monarch. The articles were torn to pieces dur21 -
ing the Beijing Coup in 1924, and the Qing court was finally removed from the For-
bidden City. Separated by the Gate of Heavenly Purity and two courtyards, the Outer
Court contained three grand ceremony halls on the central axis and two smaller halls flanking the
sides, awing the officials and impressing the ambassadors. The inner court occupied less than
half of the Forbidden City, but contained more buildings than the outer court, which were smaller
in size and diverse in style, and serving as domestic areas for the emperor and his concubines
(Fig. 6).22
Public Museums before 1949
It was during this period, from 1912-1925, that the Forbidden City became a competing
ground for three important public museums in Beijing (see fig.5). Led by different departments
or parties, the three of them shared the palace, just like different political parties shared China.
All of them, at one point or another, received foreign funds or sent artifacts to the West for trav-
eling exhibitions. When the government of ROC was established in 1912, museum management
fell under the governance of the Ministry of Education. The First Division of Public Education
was established under the Ministry of Education, overseeing the manage-
The Articles of Favorable Treatment of the Qing Emperor, 1912.21
Wood 2005, 30.22

ment of history museums, libraries, art museums and exhibitions, as well as theatrical and musi-
cal performances; the management of antiquity was under the control of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, and since museums were not well-established, the duties to protect antiquities became
the role of the Division of Etiquette and Custom . Under the lead of the Ministry of Ed23 -
ucation, the National History Museum occupied the Duan Gate and
Meridan Gate , two structures with arches serving as the gates of the Forbidden City, with
pavilions above serving as government offices (Fig.7) ; under the lead of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs, the Institute of Antiquities Exhibition took the Hall of Marital Valor
in the outer court of the Forbidden City; under the lead of the Committee for the Disposition of
the Qing Imperial Possessions , the Palace Museum took over the
inner court when the Qing emperor was removed from the Forbidden City.24
The foundations of Chinese museums were built by the three museums located in the For-
bidden City and the first museum boom in China came before the Sino-Japanese war in the
1930s. Although bearing different ideologies and representing different parties, they all tried to
represent the history of a glorious Chinese civilization, as well as mirroring the struggles of Chi-
na in the early 20th-century.
National History Museum
The National History Museum (NHM) was the first state-sponsored mu-
seum in China, with the preparation works starting in June 1912. The Minister of Education of
L-D Lu 2014, 90.23
Ibid.24

ROC, Cai Yuanpei , appointed Hu Yujin , a respected scholar who went to Japan
to observe and study the universities, museums and libraries, as the director of the National His-
tory Museum Preparatory Committee . The Committee chose the Im25 -
perial College to house the museum, emphasizing its educational function from the start
(Fig. 8). The National History Museum Committee started with the collections from the Imperial
College and the Confucian Temple in Beijing, which were composed of classic texts, teach-
ing aids of the classics, sacriﬁcial vessels from the Qing Dynasty, ritual vessels from the Zhou
Dynasty, as well as recently acquired burial artifacts excavated from Luoyang, Henan. The26
NHM was prepared with the intention of building a national collection of historical cultural arti-
facts that could produce a new cultural identity for the modern China. The objective of the NHM
was stated in the newspaper Education Weekly , “ the historical artifacts will enlighten
the dull, and calm the agitated. It will serve to impress the civilized countries in the world, as
well as support the public education inside China.”27
Since China was the origin of bookmaking and print making, the Royal Academy for the
Graphic Arts and the Book Industry in Leipzig, Germany approached the Beiyang Government
(1912-1927) in 1913 for ancient books and artifact for the International Exhibition
For The Book Industry and the Graphic Arts held in Leipzig in 1914 . German delegates28
worked with the Ministry of Education to borrow some artifacts for the international exhibition,
Li 2000, 173.25
Ibid.26
Ibid.27
Ibid.28

and eleven artifacts were selected from the NHM. In their agreement, German delegates29
claimed that, “all the artifacts would be protected with glass cases, and there would be labels
demonstrating they belonged to the NHM in Beijing.” In November, 1913, the Ministry of For30 -
eign Affairs approved the request for the traveling artifacts, arranged for the transfer of the arti-
facts, and sent catalogues regarding the artifacts. Ironically, the ﬁrst time NHM put their collec-
tions on public display occurred in Leipzig, Germany instead of Beijing, and the Chinese needed
to wait nine years before a special exhibition on recent archaeological excavations was opened to
the public in 1921.
In 1917, the Ministry of Education proposed to move the NHM to the Meridan Gate and
Duan Gate in the Forbidden City, since the Imperial College only had limited space for display
and collection management. During that time, the Institute of Antiquities Exhibition was already
opened to the public in the outer court with the support of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The
delay in the development of the NHM was a direct result of limited funding, and when the NHM
was ﬁnally established as a museum by the Ministry of Education in 1920, the NHM only had
enough funding for collection acquisition, management, and research. In this sense, the NHM31
developed at a much slower pace than the IAE and the Palace Museum. One major difference
between them was that the NHM was trying to build a collection from a humble start, while the
IAE and the Palace Museum were brought into existence for the management of the royal collec-
tions.
Li 2015.29
Ibid.30
Li 2015.31

In order to expand their modest collection size, the NHM turned to archaeology, like the for-
eign expedition teams and collectors. The NHM sent out buyers to collect artifacts from antique
shops and excavation sites, and at the same time, they assembled teams of archaeologists around
the country to initiate and participate in archaeological excavations. For example, in 1921, a
Song dynasty ruin was located in Julu, Henan, and the NHM sent out experts for excavation,
with a harvest of over 200 pieces of Song artifacts. This was the first time a Chinese museum
sent out an archaeological team to acquire archaeological collections, setting the model for col-
lection acquisition for provincial museums. A temporary exhibition was put together for the ar-
chaeological findings in Julu, with a aim to fundraise for the flood victims in Henan. The NHM
also received donations from local merchants, and kept the diplomatic gifts from other countries
on display.32
The funding shortage continued to trouble the NHM, that due to the complexity of the politi-
cal structures, they failed to raise funds from the Beiyang government. When a famous educator
Hong Ye visited the NHM in 1926, he realized the value of the collection and the difficul-
ties of the museum. As a result, Hong persuaded the director of the Yenching University
, John Stuart, to donate $6,000 to the NHM with the endowment he received from the Charles
M. Hall Foundation. The funding was used to purchase equipments and display cases, as well33
as hire more personnel to prepare for the opening. On October 10, 1926, the NHM was opened to
the public, with free access to public.
In 1927, the objective and organization of the NHM were modified, with four departments
established under the guidance of a director. Based on the No. 168 Regulations published by the
Ibid.32
Li 2015.33

ROC on Oct 16, 1927, the objective of the NHM was “to collect historical artifacts and to pro-
mote public education.” The organization of the NHM was made up of a General Affairs de34 -
partment overseeing official documents drafting, accounting and budget; an Acquisition
department researching, collecting, displaying and managing historical artifacts; an Edi-
torial department in charge of cataloguing, translation and publication; and an Art de-
partment responsible of copying and taking photographs of the collection. With a well-
established structure for collection acquisition, documentation and publication, the NHM ex-
panded their collection size to 200,000 artifacts when the Japanese troops evaded China. The
NHM transferred its collections to the South along with the Palace Museum and the IAE.35
At the dawn of 1949, part of the NHM’s collection was selected and transferred to Taiwan,
while the other part stayed in Beijing. The museum was renamed the National Beijing History
Museum in 1949, as Museum of Chinese History in
1959, and finally in 2003, it merged with the Museum of Chinese Revolution
to form the National Museum of China today (see fig.8).
The Institute of Antiquities Exhibition: Proto-National Museum in China
The institute of Antiquities Exhibition (IAE) was the first palace museum in
China, although its short history of thirty-four years (1914-1948) made it less well-known to the
world today than the renowned Palace Museum . In the translated texts, people often
Ibid.34
Ibid.35

mistake IAE for the Palace Museum, since both of them resided in the Forbidden City and dis-
played imperial treasures. As argued by Duan, the vice director of the Palace Museum and muse-
um scholar, IAE was also the first proto-national museum opened to the public and the first art
gallery in China.36
Proposals for a national museum were brought up by scholars and officials alike since the
Hundred Days’ Reform. The early twentieth century saw the coming of a collecting spree of
Chinese artifacts among European and American museums; scholars were hired and expedition
teams were established with the agenda of enriching their oriental collections. From 1876 to
1928, more than 42 foreign expedition teams visited and appropriated valuable cultural artifacts
from China. Government officials, antique dealers, as well as foreign collectors, all played a37
part in the antique trade, with the result that the only antique collections left untouched were in
the Chengde Palace and the Shenyang Palace . In response to the loss
of artifacts overseas, social elites and government officials made proposals to the Emperor Puyi
for the establishment of a royal museum.
Zhang Jian, the founder of the Nantong Museum, twice advised the Qing Court to set up a
royal museum, based on the model of Japanese royal museums. With the ignorance of the Qing
Court, he finally established his own museum. Another educated elite who proposed the estab-
lishment of a royal museum was Jin Liang , the director of the Ministry of Home Affairs in
the Shenyang Palace. In 1910, Jin wrote a letter to Puyi for permission to catalogue the royal
treasures and to establish a royal museum. After the Beiyang Government was in charge, the38
Duan 2004, 14.36
Huo 2013, 242.37
Wu 2005, 51-52.38

royal family abdicated but still resided in the inner court of the Forbidden City. The Qing court
still operated as a ‘foreign sovereignty’ and was recognized by the Beiyang Government from
1912-1924. There was still hope for the restitution of the monarchy, thus Jin further advised the
emperor to protect the royal property by establishing a royal museum. In a secret letter from Jin
to the emperor in 1924, Jin believed that the main task for them was to protect the royal palace
and preserve the royal treasures. Jin wrote, ”First of all, we need to make catalogues of all the
royal collections, and preserve them in a royal museum. The museum should be opened to the
public, and the traveling exhibitions to other museums in the East (Japan) and the West (Europe)
shall be put onto agenda. If the collections are made public, nobody can lay their hands on
them.”39
A royal museum was never founded due to the objections to the restitution of the monarchy
in China during the time. Instead, the Beiyang Government founded the IAE under the supervi-
sion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1913. With the Qing royal family residing in40
the inner court, the Ministry of Home Affairs granted the Hall of Marital Valor, once a royal li-
brary located in the west part of the outer court, as the exhibition gallery for the IAE. The head of
the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Zhu Qiqian , hired German architect, Curt Rothkegel, to
renovate the Hall of Marital Valor (Fig. 9). The renovation projects modernized the Hall of41
Marital Valor, with the wooden windows changed into glass windows, and public water systems
as well as a telephone introduced into the Forbidden City. Rothkegel also opened up the space
Ibid.39
Duan 2005, 56-57.40
Ibid, 56.41

inside the Hall of Marital Valor to accommodate more visitors. It is worth noting that the initial
funding of the IAE, 200,000 yuan, came from the returned money of the U.S. government.42
The collection of the IAE came from the royal collection in the Chengde and
Shenyang palaces , with more than 119,500 pieces of furniture, bronzes, jade wares,
paintings and calligraphy, clocks, books from Chengde Palace, and 114,600 bronzes, porcelains,
calligraphies and paintings, books, jewelries from Shenyang Palace. An agreement was signed43
between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the abdicated Qing imperial family in 1913, with an
understanding that the majority of the royal collections would be purchased by the Beiyang Gov-
ernment at a reasonable price set by a third-party antique dealer. In reality, the Beiyang Govern-
ment paid the Qing court 3,511,476 yuan, which was an outrageously low price that the Qing
court was forced to take.
The IAE opened its door to the public on October 10, 1914, which was also the National
Day for the ROC (see ﬁg.9). Considering Puyi was still residing in the Forbidden City, the
Beiyang Government downplayed the opening of the IAE, compared to the opening of the Palace
Museum in 1925. The display cases were loaded with artifacts that lacked proper labels, such
that a famous writer and scholar, Lu Xun wrote in his diary that it was more like a antique
shop than a museum exhibition. Although opened to the public, the price of the ticket was set to44
the equivalence of 1 dollar, about a third of the average monthly salary in Beijing. The majority
of the audience was the educated elites, government ofﬁcials, university professors, merchants,
In 1906, Beiyang Government realized the Qing court paid the U.S. more than they demanded after the42
Boxer Protocol, and asked for the return of the difference in 1908. See Ibid, 56-58.
Ibid.43
Ibid.44

as well as a great number of foreigners. In 1929, the annual visitors of the IAE reached its peak45
of 79,304.46
Although it had not sent or received any traveling exhibition internationally, the IAE host-
ed visits from a British prince, a French general, a Japanese congressman, a Russian diplomat,
and an American National Gallery director. John C. Ferguson, a collecting agent hired by the
trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, wrote about the early exhibition halls
of the IAE, which he called “The Government Museum,” “The Government Museum at Peking,
containing some of the best art treasures of China, is unique among the museums of the world. In
architectural design and detail and historical surroundings, as well as in the examples of art
products stored within its walls, this Museum is exclusively and characteristically Chinese. The
bronzes and jades, paintings and manuscripts, pottery and porcelain, inks and writing-brushes, all
owe their common origin to the genius of the Chinese race.” It was worth noting that, the col47 -
lection of the IAE came from the treasures of the Chengde and Shenyang Palace, while the impe-
rial collections in the Forbidden City were still controlled and dispensed at Puyi’s will.
In summary, the Institute of Antiquities Exhibition was regarded as the ﬁrst national art
gallery in China. The IAE was the ﬁrst attempt to transform the Qing Royal Palace into a public
facility, and served as a proto-national art museum in China. The establishment of the IAE
happened three years after the overthrown of the monarchy, with an objective to protect Chinese
artifacts from smuggling and pawning, but it was not a political symbol for a modern state, since
Puyi continued to reside in the inner court of the Forbidden City for thirteen years.
Duan 2004, 29.45
Ibid.46
Ferguson 1919, I.47

The Palace Museum
If the opening of IAE in 1914 signified the partial opening of the Forbidden City to the pub-
lic, the opening of the Palace Museum in 1925 marked a full conversion of the For-
bidden City from a royal palace to a public facility. The Beiyang Government in Beijing was not
a homogenous entity, while a group of people advocated for the restoration of the monarchy, an-
other opposed Puyi’s stay at the inner court like a “foreign sovereignty.” As a result, Feng Yuxi-
ang , a revolutionary warload of the Beiyang Army, initiated the ‘Beijing Coup’ and took
control of the Forbidden City in 1924. After the coup, Huang Fu was appointed the acting
president of the Beiyang Government, and tailored new policies based on revolutionist ideas. As
part of the plan, Puyi was expelled from the Palace, and the Committee for the Disposition of the
Qing Imperial Possessions was put together to order a complete inventory of
the palace contents. The committee consisted of revolutionary Beiyang officials, professors and48
graduates from Peking University , and Nationalist Party members. They complied
twenty-eight volumes of reports in 1925, with an inventory of more than 1,700,000 objects left
behind by the Qing court.49
While the IAE’s collection contained royal collections of the Chengde and Shenyang Palace,
the Palace Museum’s collection included nearly every item once kept at the Qing imperial court,
whether a daily utensil, a religious item, an antique or collectible. The collection was confiscat50 -
ed from the hands of Puyi without any form of compensation, because they were elevated as
Chiang 2014, 19.48
Zheng 2009, 6-8.49
Chiang 2014, 19.50

“national treasures,” and rightfully belonged to the country. The collection included collectibles
like bronzes, jades, ceramics, paintings, calligraphy, enamel wares, lacquer wares, and daily
utensils like a wooden stool.51
The Committee started to face obstructions when Feng was forced to leave Beijing, and the
new warlord Duan Qirui tried to restore the monarchy and stop the task of nationalizing
imperial treasures. In order to diminish the chance of restoration, the Committee believed the52
best plan was to turn the Forbidden City into a museum. On September 29, 1925, the committee
decided to open the Palace Museum to the public on October 10, 1925, the National Day of the
ROC. Also, a provisional committee of 21 board members was selected as the governing body,53
and a council of nine people was selected as the executive body. Curatorial departments were54
established in the Palace Museum, including the Antique Department , the Library
and later the Archive Department . Huang Fu gave a speech at the opening ceremony
of the Palace Museum, declaring the Palace Museum was a national symbol of the ROC, and the
collections of the Palace Museum national treasures.55
As opposed to the IAE, which received full political support and abundant fundings from the
Beiyang Government, the Palace Museum struggled ﬁnancially to maintain its political indepen-
dence. From the establishment of the museum in 1925, the board refused sponsorship from the
Duan Qirui Government, and maintained museum operations with admission incomes, personal
Ibid, 1, 19.51
L-D Lu 2014, 100-101.52
Ibid.53
Ibid.54
Chiang 2014, 20.55

funding and loans. Na Zhiliang , a researcher at the Palace Museum, wrote in his memoir
that the Palace Museum experienced four reorganizations from 1925-1928, while two directors
of the Palace Museum were imprisoned for their political views. In June 1928, when the Na56 -
tionalist party took over the control of Beijing, the Palace Museum received steady funding and
protection until 1949.57
From 1925-1931, the major tasks for the Palace Museum were to classify, identity, and ex-
hibit the collection, as well as to conserve the palaces. Over one million objects needed to be58
put into catalogues, at the same time, the staff needed to identify their authenticity. Artifacts had
been smuggled out of the palace by the eunuchs for years, and they were often replaced by fakes.
The first exhibition of the Palace Museum faced a situation similar to the IAE, that it looked like
an antique shop more than a museum gallery. One of the curators wrote, “boxes of artifacts were
laid upon one another, which made it hard for us to move the boxes or check the contents. Even
when a box of artifacts was opened, it was difficult for us to tell the authentic from the fake, let
alone the superior over the inferior.” Considering the number of artifacts left for the committee59
and the urgent need to open the door to the public, the curatorial quality of the exhibitions was
sacrificed. The exhibition galleries were not remodeled by modern architects, and without much
funding, they cleaned out some of the palaces and repainted the interiors themselves to make the
palaces suitable for exhibition.
Na 2008, 16.56
L-D Lu 2014, 101-102.57
Ibid, 103.58
Chenliebu 1985, 11.59

Nevertheless, the opening of the Palace Museum was a huge success. In the first two days,
over 50,000 visitors came to the museum to see the House of Qing and their treasures. The ad-
mission fee for the Palace Museum was also the equivalent of 1 dollar, like the IAE, which also
suggested that the targeted audience was also the well-to-do members of society. While the IAE
occupied the outer court of the Forbidden City, the Palace Museum developed five routes for vis-
itors to navigate inside the inner court. The permanent exhibition was the palace with its original
decorations left by the emperors, while temporary exhibitions were hosted in the renovated gal-
leries surrounding different palaces. For example, porcelains, calligraphy and paintings were60
exhibited near the Qianqing Palace , while precious books and archives were exhibited
near the Ningshou Palace (Fig.10). 61
When the Nationalist party took over the control of Beijing in 1928, the Palace Museum
stepped into its zenith period. The staff finished the initial classification and identification of the
artifacts, while three curatorial departments organized exhibitions to showcase ancient Chinese
culture and civilization. The Antique Department developed six palaces into fine art galleries for
paintings, porcelains, clocks, bronze wares, and jade, and another 12 smaller ones into exhibition
rooms for decorative arts like lacquer wares, silk, etc. The Library only occupied two palaces,62
one for Buddhist texts and portraiture, another one for rare books. The Archive Department took
seven palaces, for historical paintings, imperial paintings, imperial documents and Qing curren-
cy. The overall quality of the exhibitions in the Palace Museum showed a lack of overall plan63 -
Chenliebu 1985, 11.60
ibid.61
Na 2008, 43-44.62
Ibid, 44-45.63

ning and research, with the artifacts roughly selected by three curatorial departments, and put
together based on basic categories like time period or medium. The authenticity as well as the
quality of the artifacts was not ensured in the exhibition, and most of the artifacts only had a
name on the labels.64
The educational function of the Palace Museum was fulﬁlled by making ink rubbings of im-
portant bronze or stone slabs, publishing monthly and weekly magazines and monographs, as
well as reproducing their collections in the form of postcards, calendars and greeting cards. The65
staff at the Palace Museum, mostly well-educated scholars in the Peking University or in the
West, aimed to “revitalize Chinese culture and civilization,” in order to “revitalize and guide the
culture of our nation-state.”66
When Japanese troops invaded China in 1931, to ensure the safety of national treasures, the
Nationalist government transferred more than 60,000 items from the Palace Museum to Shanghai
in 1932. During the time in Shanghai, the Chinese government was approached by the Royal67
Academy of Arts at Burlington House, London for a traveling exhibition. With the political
agenda of getting recognized as the legitimate ruling government of China, and making China
known to the world through its art, the National Government agreed to lend 984 objects to the
Royal Academy of Arts, including 735 objects from the Palace Museum. The International Ex68 -
Chenliebu 1985,13.64
Na 2008, 27-28.65
Yi 1929, 1.66
Na 2008, 62.67
Steuber 2006, 532.68

hibition of Chinese Art from November 28,1935 to March 7, 1936 remained the largest exhibi-
tion of Chinese art ever mounted, and attracted a total of 401,768 visitors. 69
Less than seven years from the opening of the museum, a significant number of collections
were packed up and transported to Shanghai in 1932, to Chongqing in 1937, to Nanjing in 1946-
1948, and finally more than one third were transported to Taipei with the Nationalist party in
1949. From then on, there were two palace museums in the world, one located in the “Forbidden
City” in Beijing, another in the suburbs of Taipei, which claimed to be the largest repository of
Chinese cultural treasures in the world.70
In the first thirty-four years of the Palace Museum’s history (1925-1949), the collections
were moved six times, while the governing body was changed four times. The history of the
Palace Museum reflected the prolonged struggle of China following the 1911 revolution. The es-
tablishment of the Palace Museum marked the end of the Qing monarchy and the beginning of
the modern nation, and it served both as a symbol of cultural authority and political legitimacy
for the Nationalist Government. The Palace Museum also preserved Chinese civilization, pro-
tected artifacts from further loss, and turned royal treasures into national cultural heritages.
Impact of the Public Museums
The objectives of the NHM, IAE and Palace Museums differed from the beginning. The
NHM was proposed based upon the need for a national museum to serve the newly formed Re-
public of China; the IAE was formed as an art museum to preserve artifacts in the Chengde and
Shenyang Palace from the illegal antique trade; while the Palace Museum was established to ful-
Ibid, 528.69
Hamlish 1995, 20.70

fill the counter-reconstitution agenda, and symbolized a turning point of Imperial China to Re-
publican China.
The display method of the early public museums reflected how Chinese museums “localized”
the “imported museum.” While the common practice in Western museums at the time was to dis-
play artifacts in a chronological order, Chinese museums like the NHM and the Palace Museum
favored a display strategy that emphasized materiality. In the West, the display method was a
temporal one that progressed through different dynasties, while in Chinese museums, the arti-
facts were first categorized by material types like bronzes, jade, ceramics, paintings, and then
arranged in chronological order within each material type. The Chinese display method, in the
analysis of scholars, as “promoted a timeless universality of cultural treasures and at the same
time portrayed Chinese art proceeding along historical development.” This strategy concurred71
with the cyclical view of history in premodern China, that all the powers that ruled China could
be traced back to the same origin, and each dynasty was a repetition of rises and falls, that in
Chinese art, as John Ferguson stated, “the art spirit which found its expression in these various
forms during the historic period joins hands even with the earliest mythological and legendary
traditions of the country.”72
In terms of collections acquisition, both the IAE and the Palace Museum relied on the royal
collections of the Qing court. When they were founded, they were presented with the question of
how to transform the royal treasures into public property, instead of where to obtain a sizable
collection. The IAE transformed royal collections into the setting of an art museum, which
served as a model for the disposal of aristocratic collections in China. The Palace Museum, was
Huang 2008, 29-30.71
Ferguson 1920, 1.72

unique and unduplicatable in terms of its collections, that the historic architecture of the museum
as its most valuable collection. The establishment of a public museum on a royal residence was
both political and symbolic, which served the propagandist need of the Republican government,
but failed to represent the identity of a new, modern nation. In order to shed light on the collec-
tion acquisition of municipal Chinese museums today, it is essential to analyze the logic behind
the construction of the National History Museum, which was built from scratch and intended to
showcase the rich culture and history of China.
Understanding Contemporary Chinese Museums on the Model of NHM
As a national museum, the NHM constructed an authentic past of China with the aid of ar-
chaeological excavations. This served as a model for collection acquisition of other provincial
Chinese museums followed. The close tie between museum formation and the development of
archaeology was well-illustrated by scholars, and there was a “near universality of a relationship
between nationalist politics and the practice of archaeology”. The early inﬂuential Chinese mu73 -
seums, as well as the ﬁrst-class Chinese museums today, relied on continuous archaeological ex-
cavations to expand their collections, such that Kirk Denton described these museums as “the
public face of archaeology.” The inseparable ties between archaeology and museums becomes74
more powerful in contemporary China, since all the state-funded museums are under the gover-
nance of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) , instead of Ministry
of Education, that in direct translation, means “State Administration of Cultural His-
torical Artifacts.”
Denton 2014, 2773
Ibid.74

In contemporary China, the connection between archaeology and museums is so profound,
that the PRC government ensures the rightful ownership of the state-funded museums over ar-
chaeological findings in the Law of the Peoples Republic of China on Protection of Cultural
Relics . In Article 34, the archaeological relics should be “turned over for col-
lection of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central
Government or to the State-owned museums, libraries or other State-owned institutions for the
collection of cultural relics designated by the administrative department in charge of cultural
relics under the State Council,” and the “institutions engaged in archaeological excavation may
retain a small amount of unearthed cultural relics as samples for scientific research.” Thus, it is75
common practice for provincial institutes of archaeology to deposit their archaeological finds in
provincial museums, since both institutions work under the State Council. Also, site museums
are built to preserve important archaeological sites, like the Museum of Terracotta Army of the
First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty in Shaanxi Province (Fig. 11).76
The reason for the emphasis on the cultural historical artifacts was that they often served as
material evidence when constructing a regional or national identity. In order to construct a na-
tional and cultural identity for the new Republican China, the NHM turned to collecting the arti-
facts from its glorious past, with the period before the 1800s. During the 1800s, China experi-
enced defeats and setbacks that was still haunting the ROC. Thus, in order to put aside the recent
negative view of the role that China played in the Opium Wars, it was logical to generate a new
Chinese identity out of its more distant past, when China was a great power in the world. The
distant past of China, in this sense, seemed like a repository of glorious civilizations, and the ma-
Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of Cultural Relics, 2007.75
See: www.bmy.com.cn76

terial culture of which would construct a solid narrative for the citizens of a newly formed Re-
public China to cling to.
Likewise, the historical cultural artifacts could also contribute to the construction of a regional
identity. Every provincial museum in China would develop permanent exhibitions to tell the his-
tory of its region, often starting from the prehistoric period, with the help of cultural historical
artifacts. In these exhibitions, archaeological finds or the historical cultural artifacts often served
as the evidence for the glorious past of the region. Denton argued that these provincial museums
often intertwined their local identities with the national identities, exaggerating their cultural im-
portance. For example, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, which housed the archaeological ex77 -
cavations of the prehistoric Hemudu culture, exhibited the Hemudu artifacts in its permanent ex-
hibition with a label saying:” The excavated relics prove that along with the Yellow River Valley,
the Yangzi River Valley was also the birthplace of the Chinese nation.” Thus, each major exca78 -
vation seemed to recover a piece of the glorious past, and special exhibitions would be arranged
to display the archaeological finds of the early modern eras.
A recent excavations in Jiangxi told a more vivid story of such celebration. After a five-year
excavation and research, the Provincial Institute of Jiangxi transferred the archaeological find-
ings of the royal tombs of Marquis of Haihun State to the Jiangxi Museum. Over 20,000 items79
were unearthed from the Western Han (206 BC-24 AD) tomb, and before the excavation was
even completed, the Jiangxi Museum worked together with the archaeologists to select 113 arti-
Denton 2014, 42-43.77
Denton 2014, 42.78
Jiangxi Museum: http://www.jxmuseum.cn/79

facts for a special exhibition on the archaeological findings. The special exhibition was titled80
“Archaeological Findings in the Tomb of Haihun Marquis during the Western Han period in
Nanchang” , and displayed in the Jiangxi Museum from
Nov 17, 2015 to Dec 17, 2015. During its time in Jiangxi, the special exhibition attracted81
10,000 visitors per day on weekends, and 4,000 per day on weekdays.82
Recognized as the most complete Western Han Tomb unearthed, after a short display in the
Jiangxi Museum, more than 400 pieces were selected for a traveling exhibition in the Capital
Museum in Beijing from March 2, 2016 to June 2, 2016 (Fig.12). The exhibition83
attracted 422,485 visitors in Beijing, during which time, the exhibition was thoroughly docu-
mented and turned into a virtual museum, which was put online on May 31, 2016. In the mean84 -
time, the archaeological findings of Haihun Tomb was selected as one of the Six Major Archaeo-
logical Discoveries in China in 2015, and an archaeological site museum
was under construction for its significant impact.
Contemporary Museum Development and the Museum Boom
The Regulation on Museums (referred to as ‘the Regulation’ hereafter) was re-
leased on March 2, 2015 by the State Council and signed by the Premier Li Keqiang, which
helped to fill the gap of a law specializing in museums. A book interpreting the Regulation was
written by SACH in July 2015, and they believed the incentive for the State Council to publish
Ibid.80
Ibid.81
Ibid.82
The Capital Museum: http://www.capitalmuseum.org.cn/.83
Virtual Museum: http://www.4dage.com/BigScene/index.html?m=5584

such a regulation was the intrinsic differences between museums and other cultural institutions.85
The SACH described the differences as, “there are two systems operating in museums, one is a
closed or semi-closed… that collects, documents, preserves and research on the cultural relics;
the other is an open one… like the one in any public cultural institutions… which is responsible
for public education.”86
Museums are deﬁned in the Regulation as “non-proﬁt organizations that collect, protect and
display to the public the witness of human activities and natural environment for the purposes of
education, research and appreciation, which have been registered by the registration administra-
tive authorities in accordance with the law.” Different from museums in the West, Chinese mu87 -
seums are put into categories according to funding types. In Article 2, the Regulation discusses
the categories of museum: “museums include state-owned museums and non-state-owned muse-
ums. The museums formed with or mainly with state-owned assets are state-owned museums.
The museums formed with or mainly with non-state-owned assets are non-state-owned muse-
ums.”88
In 2008, the SACH assessed museums in China, and put them into three grades. The as89 -
sessment was based on the quality of museum management, infrastructure construction, collec-
tion conservation and research, display and public education. In 2008, the SACH announced 8390
SACH 2015, 3.85
Ibid, 3-4.86
The State Council, 2015. (Order of the State Council No. 659, Article 2)87
Ibid.88
SACH 2008. http://www.sach.gov.cn/art/2008/2/15/art_8_99597.html89
Ibid.90

museums as the first batch of national first grade museums. In 2009, 171 museums were select91 -
ed as the second grade museums, and 288 museums as the third grade museums. Seventeen92
museums were announced as the second batch of national first grade museums in 2012, while
additional 52 museums were announced as second grade museums, 144 as third grade museums
in 2013. Among them, only one non-state-owned museum was selected as a first grade muse93 -
um, and 11 were selected as third grade museums. On top of that, in 2009, the SACH and the94
Ministry of Finance selected eight museums from regional state-funded museums as the first
batch of State-Local Co-sponsored National museums . Shanghai95
Museum , Nanjing Museum , Hunan Provincial Museum
, Henan Museum , Shaanxi History Museum , Hubei Provincial
Museum , Zhejiang Provincial Museum , and Liaoning Provincial
Museum were selected because they were believed to have the potential to repre-
sent Chinese civilization.96
In term of types, Chinese museums are divided into five types today. In 2014, among the
4510 registered museums in China, 1,743 are multipurpose museums, 1,840 historical museums,
411 art museums, 196 natural science museums, and 320 other types of museums. For the state-97
SACH 2015, 12.91
Ibid.92
Ibid.93
Ibid.94
SACH 2010. http://www.sach.gov.cn/art/2010/9/19/art_8_99782.html95
Ibid.96
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage 2015, 20.97

funded museums, especially the provincial museums, most of them are multipurpose in nature.
As observed by Holland Cotter, most Chinese museums tended to mix “history, ethnography, sci-
ence, politics, art and entertainment (see ﬁg.13).”98
State-owned Museums
State-owned museums hold the dominant role in the museum world in China, and they are
subdivided into two categories in terms of jurisdiction. In Article 7 of the Regulation, the SACH
is responsible for the museums containing cultural historical relics, which comprise up to 80% of
state-owned museums; and the rest of the state-owned museums are supervised by other gov-
ernmental branches. The funding for the state-owned museums comes from local governments99
and is included in their ﬁscal budget every year. The funding source of state-owned museums100
is rather singular, compared to the museums in the United States, or the early modern museums
in China like the Palace Museum. For example, a federally-funded museum, the Smithsonian,
also received non-federal funds, like private endowments, personal donations, and memberships,
while federal funds make up only 60 percent in 2016. In light of the differences and probably101
inspired by the western model, in Article 5, the State Council “encourages the establishment of
public welfare funds to provide funds to museums, and encourages museums to raise funds by
multiple means so as to promote their own development.”102
Cotter 2013, New York Times.98
SACH 2015, 33.99
State Council 2015, Article 5.100
From Smithsonian website: http://newsdesk.si.edu/factsheets/facts-about-smithsonian-institution-short101

To attract more public funds and participation, the State Council advocates for a governance
reform: “museums shall improve their corporate governance structure, and establish and improve
the relevant organizational and management rules.” Up to now, four national ﬁrst grade muse103 -
ums, Guangdong Museum , Shanxi Museum , Yunnan Provincial Muse-
um , and Suzhou Museum , have established their governing coun-
cils. The Museum Councils invited local social elites to become their board members, and in104
the case of Suzhou Museum, the social council takes up more than half of their board seats.105
On June 28, 2016, along with the establishment of the Museum Council, Suzhou Museum also
established the Suzhou Museum Development Fund of two million RMB. According to Chen106
Ruijin , the director of Suzhou Museum, all the money came from private and corporate
funds, and was entrusted to the Suzhou Bank for investment (Fig.13).107
Non-state-owned Museums
Non-state-owned museums, also referred to as private museums, have a small share of re-
sources in China. Although the ﬁrst modern museum in China was a private museum established
by Zhang Jian, the Sino-Japanese War ruined most of the legacy left by the private museums.
The Cultural Revolution that followed provided no support for their resurgence. On the contrary,
private collectors were “reformed” for their accumulation of wealth, and their collections were
http://www.top-news.top/news-12217392.html104
Ibid.105
Ibid.106
Fung 2016. Interview with Chen Ruijin: http://www.ce.cn/culture/gd/201607/01/t20160701_13345472.shtml107

confiscated and burnt. Thus, in PRC, private museums are described as “a new type of cultural108
institution,” which flourished under the reform and openness policy. From 2010 to 2014, pri109 -
vate museums grew from 456 to 982, which suggested a growth rate of 115%, and for the first
time, took up more than 20% of the total number of museums (Fig.14).110
After 2010 the rapid growth in the private museum sector was a direct result of a joint regula-
tion published in 2010 by seven departments of the State Council, called “Advice on the Promo-
tion of Non-state-owned Museums” . The seven depart111 -
ments involved were the SACH, the Ministry of Civil Affairs , the Ministry of Finance
, the Ministry of Land and Resources , the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural
Development , the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration
of Taxation . In order to promote the development of private museums, taxation112
benefit and financial support were available at national level and local level. For example, in
2013, the Ministry of Finance set a special fund of one hundred million RMB for private muse-
ums. Due to the beneficial policies for land acquisition, constructions of private museums of113 -
ten meant that private developers would receive a significant amount of public lands. As a re114 -
sult, increasing numbers of private museums became the byproduct of the “Enclosure Move-
Hu 2015. http://www.ccrnews.com.cn/index.php/Zhuanlanzhuankan/content/id/58929.html108
SACH 2015, 11.109
Ibid, 33.110
Ibid, 13.111
SACH 2010. No.11112
SACH 2015, 13.113
Wong 2015.114

ment,” in which they either lacked sufﬁcient collections or displayed fake objects. Chen Dan115 -
qing , a contemporary artist and art critic, commented on the 2014 Annual meeting of
China Museums Association that the opportunism behind the development of private museums
would turn museums into architecture trash.116
The Origins of Chinese Traveling Exhibitions: The International Exhibition of Chinese Art
at Burlington House, London, 1935-36
By referring to its long and continuous history, the ROC established museums to construct a
national identity for the new China. When an opportunity came that a transnational exhibition on
Chinese art would be hosted in London in 1936, the ROC government seized their chance to
build an international identity with the help of art and archaeology. As the largest exhibition of
Chinese art until that time, the International Exhibition of Chinese Art of 1935-36 was hosted by
the Royal Academy of Arts at Burlington House in London (Fig.15). Successfully obtaining117
3,080 exhibited works from over 240 lenders, the International Exhibition of Chinese Art at-
tracted 420,048 visitors and earned over 47,000 pounds in three months. To the West, the ex118 -
hibition helped to shape and deﬁne “China” and “Chinese art,” while to China, the exhibition
provided a chance for the Nationalist government to construct an international identity on the
world stage.
The idea of hosting an international loan exhibition of Chinese art was not new in Europe. In
1925, the Vereniging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst (Society of Friends of Asiatic Art) host-
Zhan 2014. http://epaper.taihainet.com/html/20141124/hxdb533900.html115
Ibid.116
Steuber 2006, 528.117
Huang 2008, 14.118

ed an international loan exhibition of Chinese art in the Stedelijk Museum, Amesterdam, which
comprised 212 objects loaned from private collections and museums. In 1926, the Freunde Os119 -
tasiatischer Kunst (Friends of East Asian Art) organized an international exhibition of East Asian
art in Cologne, which exhibited nearly 600 objects loaned from European institutions, private
collections and art dealers. In 1929, the Gesellschaft fur Ostasiatische Kunst and the Preussis120 -
che Akademie der Kunste organized the Exhibition of Chinese Art in Berlin, which included
1,272 exhibits from 171 contributors from Europe, Asia and North America. In 1932, when the121
Burlington Fine Arts Club, a private organization promoting art exhibitions, proposed a major
Chinese exhibition in London, they aimed for the culmination of international exhibitions of
Chinese art.122
The ﬁve chief organizers of the 1935 International Exhibition of Chinese Art were a hetero-
geneous group of people who collected and researched Chinese art. Among them, Sir Percival
David, a wealthy ceramics collector, became the director of the 1935 exhibition. David envi123 -
sioned the 1935 exhibition to “bring together the ﬁnest and most representative arts and crafts of
China from the dawn of its history to the year 1800” that would surpass all such previous exhibi-
tions. In order to mount such an exhibition, the London organizers laid their hopes on foreign124
Steuber 2006, 530.119
Ibid, 530-531.120
Ibid, 531.121
Ibid, 532.122
Huang 2008, 19.123
Ibid, 20.124

collections from China, especially the collection of the Palace Museum, and approached the
British Foreign Ofﬁce in 1934 for “support and patronage.”125
The ROC, facing the invasion from Japan in 1931, had transferred the national treasures from
the NHM, IAE and Palace Museum from Beijing to Shanghai. The Nationalist government126
saw the proposal from the Britain as a chance to further claim its ownership over the national
treasures, thus reinforce its legitimacy to rule, and use the cultural artifacts to glorify the nation
in an international arena. The Nationalist government agreed to the proposal for an in127 -
ternational traveling exhibition in 1934, on the condition that an English naval ship would guard
and transport the national treasures from Shanghai to London, and Chinese museum experts
would travel with the artifacts. With the initial agreements, the Nationalist government as128 -
signed the task of collection selection to the Chinese Preparatory Committee, which made up of
ofﬁcials from the Ministry of Education and the experts from the Palace Museum.129
Na Zhiliang , a member of the Preparatory Committee, documented in a detailed
fashion the preparations they did for the 1935 exhibition in his memoir. In terms of artifact130
selection, 1,022 exhibit items were selected from seven institutions and a private collection.
Among which, 735 pieces were selected from the Palace Museum; 47 from the IAE; 113 from
the NHM; 50 from the Beiping Library ; 8 from the Henan Museum ; 4
Scaglia 2016, 114.125
Na 2008, 62.126
Scaglia 2016, 116-117.127
Na 2008, 83-85.128
Huang 2008, 21.129
Na 2008, 83-85.130

from the Anhui Library ; and 65 from a private collector called Zhang Naiji
. The types of artworks spanned bronzes, porcelains, paintings and calligraphies, jades, ar131 -
chaeological finds, rare books, furniture, enamels, embroideries, fans, and others. To make the132
selection representative of Chinese art, and to ensure the safety of the most treasured pieces, the
committee would only select the masterpieces but withhold any “one of a kind”, and the final
selection would be made after the consultation with the London organizers in 1935. To prepare133
the selected artifacts for transportation, the committee restored and framed the paintings and cal-
ligraphies, and ordered customized exhibition cases for the other artifacts from experts in Bei-
jing.134
Chinese press in Shanghai and Beijing responded to the 1935 exhibition with protests, be-
cause they suspected that the Nationalist government were sending national treasures to the West
as diplomatic gifts or secretly trading them for money. In order to demonstrate its trustworthi135 -
ness, the Nationalist government arranged a pre-exhibition in Shanghai for a month before the
national treasures left the country, followed by a post-exhibition in Nanjing for three weeks after
the national treasures safely returned to China. In the preliminary exhibition, all the exhibits
would be photographed and documented in the published exhibition catalogues. In this way, the
citizens could confirm the return of the real objects in the post-exhibition in Nanjing. The Na136 -
Ibid, 84.131
Ibid.132
Huang 2008, 23.133
Na 2008, 83.134
Huang 2008, 22.135
ibid.136

tionalist government also turned the transportation of artifacts itself a public ceremony. On June
7, 1935, the ninety-three cases carefully-packed Chinese treasures were loaded onto the English
naval ship H.M.S. Suffolk, along with two Chinese ofﬁcials who would travel with the
artifacts.137
The British government was very cooperative along the way, since they wished to help the
Nationalist government calm the public. From a letter asking for a warship for artifact transporta-
tion,the foreign secretary, Sir John Simon, wrote to Sir Bolton Eyres: “What is desired, is that
something should be done which would show how greatly His Majesty’s Government appreciate
the carrying out of this proposal and how sincere is their wish to contribute in any way they can
to carry the scheme through successfully and without untoward incident.” The warship would
help the Nationalist government make the Chinese public “considerably relived.” Although138
much effort was expended on both sides to ensure the safety of the Chinese artifacts, all the arti-
facts remained uninsured to keep the cost down. The diplomatic gesture of sending a warship,139
which did not add to the security during transportation, seemed to matter more to the Chinese
public than the legal and ﬁnancial commitment through insurance. It was also possible that140
neither the Palace Museum nor the Nationalist government had enough experience in handling
international loan exhibitions, so that they did not realize the risks they were taking without
proper insurance. Loaning an exhibition without insurance has persisted to today between the
Scaglia 2016, 120-121.137
Ibid, 119-120.138
Ibid, 116.139
Ibid, 117.140

state-funded museums in China, since the ownership of the artifacts belong to the country instead
of the individual museums.141
After the artifacts arrived at the Portsmouth harbor on 25 July 1935, they were transferred to
the Burlington House. British curators were responsible of researching and designing the exhibi-
tion, and they took little advice from their Chinese colleagues. When the Chinese officials and
scholars who guarded the treasures attended the opening of the exhibition on 28 November 1935,
they had a mixed feeling toward the way Chinese civilization was presented in Britain. Sixteen
galleries were labeled with the names of the dynasties and arranged in a chronological order:
Gallery 1: Shang-Yin-Zhou; Gallery 3: Wei and Tang Dynasties; and Gallery 10: Late Ming Dy-
nasties. The chronological organization exhibited an interest in the continuity and progress of142
Chinese culture, and the focus on dating signified the scientific attitudes of the curators. The143
presentation strategy of the British curators troubled the experts from Beijing, so that when the
British curator mistakenly labeled Gallery 1 as Shang-Yin-Zhou instead of Yin-Shang-Zhou, ex-
perts from Beijing believed that the British scholarship on China was “superficial and thin.”144
Despite of their inaccuracies, Chinese experts praised British scholars’ determination to conduct
original research, and when word went back to China about the exhibition, interest in the disci-
pline of Chinese art history burgeoned.145
The 1935 exhibition also turned out to be financially fruitful for the Nationalist government,
for when the artifacts safely returned to China in 1936, a revenue of 9,000 British pounds also
Personal observation.141
Steuber 2006, 528.142
Huang 2008, 30.143
Ibid.144
Ibid, 32-33.145

came back with them. The Nationalist government received half of the revenue and constructed
an identity as “the originator and early leader of world civilization,” with the help of newly ex-
cavated objects from Yinxu that dated to 2000 B.C.146
International Traveling Exhibitions After 1949
Cultural diplomacy included art, archaeology and politics that benefited the Nationalist Gov-
ernment and continued to serve the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after 1949. Although the
Nationalist government fled the mainland with the best collections of the public museums, they
left a significant number of treasures behind. Archaeological excavations after 1949 continued147
to enrich the public collection in the PRC, and the CCP used the cultural assets to reconnect to
the West. After Zhou Enlai , the first Premier of the PRC, adopted a diplomatic policy148
of re-approaching the West in 1971, the PRC started to prepare for an international traveling ex-
hibition. When China established diplomatic relations with the British government in 1972 a149
traveling exhibition with collections spanning the Paleolithic period (ca. 600,000-7000 BCE) to
the Yuan Dynasty (CE 1271- 1368) was mounted and sent to London in 1973. “The Genius of150
China: An Exhibition of Archaeological Finds of the PRC,” was shown at the Royal Academy of
Art, the same venue as the 1935 exhibition. This time, the display of ancient Chinese civiliza151 -
tion served the propagandist needs of the PRC, and demonstrated the CCP’s righteousness to
rule. The presence of cultural relics from recent archaeological excavations proved CCP’s trust-
Wang 2007, 176.146
Hamlish 1995, 20.147
Wang 2008, 25.148
Ibid.149
Barnes 2014, 103.150
Ibid, 105.151

worthiness to preserve cultural relics, despite the criticized Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).152
The four months’ exhibition (29 September 1973 to 23 January 1974) was so successful that it
traveled to the U.S. in 1974, five years before China and the U.S. officially established diplomat-
ic relations. The exhibition visited the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, the Nelson-
Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, and the Asian Art Museums of San Francisco from Decem-
ber 1974 through August 1975.153
Diplomatic reasons remained at the top of the list for traveling exhibitions, especially when
the PRC wanted to build an international identity like the ROC once did. The statistics for154
traveling exhibitions show that in 2010, exhibitions loaned from China were seven times the
number of exhibitions loaned to China (Fig. 16). In 2013, exported exhibitions were two and a
half times the number of imported ones. The figure might suggest China had a favorable balance
of trade, but considering the museum boom in recent years, Chinese museums had a demand yet
to be met.155
Unlike the West, China has no encyclopedia museum today. With the museum boom, lack156
of collections to fill the museums, and growing artistic needs, introducing traveling exhibitions
from the West is a necessary. Wang Limei , a former government official at the SACH
specializing in cultural exchange, established an art museum dedicated to world civilizations in
Ibid, 103-104.152
Wang 2008, 25.153
Ibid.154
Xu 2014. Speech.155
Wang 2008, 3.156

2003. Beijing World Art Museum was built out of her vision to introduce157
world civilizations to China through loan exhibitions (Fig. 17). Without a comprehensive col158 -
lection, Wang used her connections in the West to lend her masterpieces by artists such as
Raphael, Da Vinci, and Titian without a fee. Wang opened her private museum with the exhi159 -
bition “Italian Renaissance Masterpieces” in 2006, and less than six months later, another exhibi-
tion “From Monet to Picasso” came to Beijing from the Cleveland Museum of Art.160
Wang’s success might not be duplicatable, but the need for traveling exhibitions was written
in a plan regarding museums’ long-term development issued by the SACH in 2011. The Long161
Term Development Plan for Museum Industry (2011-2020)
(referred to as “Development Plan”) was issued by the SACH in 2011. In the section about162
international traveling exhibitions, the SACH pointed out that museums need to set up plans to
introduce outstanding exhibitions of world civilizations, in order to fulﬁll the many needs of the
public. According to Guo Xiaoling , the director of the Capital Museum in163
Beijing, the plans to introduce exhibitions from abroad meant the preparation of proposals for
exhibitions for approval ahead of time. The proposal would be submitted to the local adminis164 -
Ibid.157
Ibid. For Beijing World Art Museum, see: http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/158
Sohu 2006. See the interview: http://news.sohu.com/20060707/n244144637.shtml159
Ibid.160
SACH 2011.161
Ibid.162
Ibid.163
Guo 2014. Speech at Nanjing Museum.164

tration of cultural heritage and the SACH for approval, and then, the museum would apply for
special funds for the exhibition from the local government.165
Conclusions
The origins of early modern Chinese museums started from the travelogue of late Qing offi-
cials in the mid-nineteenth century. Museum were officially “imported” to China with the estab-
lishment of the early missionary museums around 1870s. With the westernization attempts made
by the Zikawei Museum and Shanghai Museum, the early missionary museums focused on col-
lecting natural specimens and reinforced the colonial ideology by constructing language barriers.
As a result, their influences on the early modern Chinese museums were limited, and their status
as first modern museums in China overlooked. Social elites in China had called for a national
museum in China since the beginning of the twentieth-century, but the ignorant Qing Court de-
layed the establishment of a national museum of China, and gave way to the development of pri-
vate museums. The Nantong Museum paved the way for the modern museums of China, and
contributed to the regional public education. Attached to a private university, the model of the
Nantong Museum also had little influence on the mainstream museums about to come. To imag-
ine early modern museums in China as a social network, then the earliest nodes were surprisingly
small, private institutions, the importance of which is seldom mentioned today. While non-state-
funded museums in China today only make up less than 20 percent of the total number of muse-
ums, it would be beneficial for them to look back to the pioneers of early modern museums in
China.
Although, early private museums in China have left few traces of their influence on the con-
temporary museums, the early national museums certainly shaped the structures of Chinese mu-
Ibid.165

seums. The NHM, IAE and Palace Museum came into existence for different objectives, yet all
of them answered the call of preservation of antiquities, and later worked together to build a new
Republican identity of China out of its long and glorious past. With IAE merged into the Palace
Museum and NHM renamed as the National Museum of China, the legacy of the early modern
museum continues to serve as the most influential on national museums in China today. The
model of NHM was adopted by the state-owned museums after 1949, and is still visible in the
museums in China today. The method of collections acquisition of NHM, which relied on ar-
chaeological excavations, was copied by the latter museums. To establish an infrastructure and
wait for the collections to come has been a complaint about contemporary Chinese museum dur-
ing the museum boom period in the last five years, but I would argue it is a model with its root in
the early modern period. The looting of artifacts by the West in the early modern period had such
a traumatic effect on the Chinese museums that the very idea of “museum” has been linked with
the preservation of antiques. Another impact of the early modern museum is is the creation of a
multipurpose type of museum that dominates the Chinese museum world today and confuses
Westerners.
The development of contemporary museums certainly bears the unique mark of the CCP, in
that state-sponsored capitalism created a situation whereby state-owned museums comprise more
than 80% of museums. The SACH has tried to reform the museum industry by introducing ideas
like board systems, public funds, an encouraging the development of the private museums. All of
this may seem to have been learned from the West, but with the historical background of the ear-
ly modern museums, it also seems likely to have been learned from the past.
The international loan exhibition is another device that ran through the history of Chinese
museums. Since the first large-scale international loan exhibition of 1935, traveling exhibitions

of cultural relics have served the cultural diplomatic needs of China. Cultural artifacts are like
agents that spoke for China. Despite the political situation of China, these artifacts never failed to
perform their role of constructing an international identity of a country with the longest surviving
civilization. Contemporary Chinese museums have more freedom in importing and exporting
exhibitions with the supervision of the SACH. It is different from the early modern period, in
that Chinese museums actually need exhibitions of world civilizations more than ever. With near-
ly one museum arising in China per day in 2011-2012, the demands for traveling exhibitions
from the West will be continuously on the rise. The development of the mechanisms for traveling
exhibitions is still in its preliminary stage, and successful collaborations will require the efforts
from both sides. For the West, the ﬁrst step would be to understand the Chinese museums and the
museum boom today, especially the history beginning with the ﬁrst museum boom less than a
hundred years ago.

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Figures
Figure 1: Photo of Chinese Exhibit in Philadelphia Expo of 1876.
Source: Jennifer Pitman, "China's Presence at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876."
Studies in the Decorative Arts , Volume 10, Number 1, 2002, p. 46.
Figure 2: Numbers of Museums in China before 1949.
Source: Wu, 2007.

Figure 3: The Exhibition Gallery of the Zikawei Museum.
Source: http://tsw.xuhui.gov.cn/xOldPhoto.aspx?pid=97
Figure 4: The Exterior of the Shanghai Museum.
Source: http://history.eastday.com/h/20130627/u1a7481191.html

Figure 5: Exterior of the Nantong Museum.
Source: http://nantong.lotour.com/zj/262906
Figure 6: The Layout of the Forbidden City.
Source: http://www.oocities.org/maywong519/Map/map.jpg

Figure 7: The Merdian Gate.
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/MeridianGate.jpg/800px-
MeridianGate.jpg
Figure 8: The Imperial College.
Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Pyd.jpg

Figure 9: The Hall of Marital Valor.
Source: http://www.dpm.org.cn/ﬁles_out/image/8831/2008/3239%20/img0007%5b400PX
%5d.jpg
Figure 10: The Interior of the Qianqing Palace.
Source: http://img.ivsky.com/img/tupian/pic/201104/02/gugong_qianqinggong-010.jpg

Figure 11: The Interior of the Museum of Terracotta Army of the First Emperor of the Qin Dy-
nasty in Shaanxi Province.
Source: http://s7.sinaimg.cn/middle/6c085597tc9f4056abcf6&690
Figure 12: The Exhibition “Archaeological Findings in the Tomb of Haihun Marquis during the
Western Han period” in the Capitol Museum.
Source:http://culture.people.com.cn/NMediaFile/2016/0301/
MAIN201603011813000201872075457.jpg

Figure 13: Exterior of the Suzhou Museum.
Source: https://photo.tuchong.com/66200/f/8007250.jpg
Figure 14: Quantity of the State-owned Museums versus Non-state-owned Museums, from
2010-2014.
Source: SACH, 2015.

Figure 15: Ancient Bronzes and Jades displayed in Gallery I: Shang-Yin and Chou dynasties.
Source: Steuber 2006, 529.
Figure 16: Statistics of the Loan Exhibitions to/from China, from 2008-2013.
Source: Guo, 2014.

Figure 17: The Exterior of the Beijing World Art Museum.
Source: http://www.worldartmuseum.cn/Upload/image/20151230/20151230131924_7031.jpg

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