Abstract
The rise of the cultural economy has given prominence to the museum both as a cultural institution and as an economic enterprise. China has caught up with this trend. The central question Tracey Lu attempts to answer is whether or not this phase of rapid museum expansion has loosened the state’s grip on museums and turned them into more socially inclusive establishments. In the past, museums have always been considered elitist institutions serving the interests of the state. The proliferation of museums may create space for different voices and practices.
Lu undertakes a historical study of the development of museums in different political periods, complemented by case studies of individual museums. These cases are well researched and backed with detailed information, providing readers with highly nuanced views of the role and position of each museum situated in its time.
The first museum in China was the Zikawei Museum founded by French Jesuits in Shanghai in 1872 (p. 19). An investigation of some of these early museums leads Lu to conclude that they performed two primary functions. Firstly, some of them served as laboratories of Western-based museums ‘for storage, classification, identification, research and publication’ (p. 56) of natural and social objects, ‘in the process of building a superior and dominating science of the West’ (p. 57). Secondly, similar to the schools, orphanages and hospitals established by missionaries, these museums were part of the religious establishment’s goal to spread their religion in China. Contemporaneous with these missionary museums were the private museums built by the foreign and Chinese elites. They either aimed to disseminate Western knowledge to local communities, or helped foster a westernization project of Chinese society.
Chapter 4 looks at the museums in the state formation process of the early Republican government. The national museum project launched by the newly established government sought to preserve national treasures and to put an end to the smuggling of these treasures. However, from the start of the project, pro-Republican forces were embroiled with pro-monarchist restoration forces. The setting up of the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in 1925 was ‘first and foremost’ (p. 107) a political move to evict the abdicated Qing court, and to end once and for all its restoration ambition.
The rest of the book covers the post-1949 period. Chapter 5 describes the way the early communist regime used museums ‘for ideological and political control’ (p. 138) of the population. Chapters 6 and 7 examine museums in the reform period. The former looks into the setting up of ecomuseums in remote ethnic areas (specifically, Guizhou in this chapter) for cultural preservation and for economic growth through tourism. Ecomuseums are controlled by non-local party officials and outside funders in ‘a top-down process’ (p. 163). The benefits tend to accrue to actors outside of the community. Efforts to preserve heritage have failed to reverse the general perception of ethnic communities as ‘backward’ and ‘uncivilized’, and have hardly ameliorated the racial discrimination inflicted on minorities. Under such circumstances, younger generations of ethnic communities have no interest in their cultural traditions. Ecomuseums have become ‘tourist attractions, showrooms of exotic yet dying artefacts and commercialized “rituals” and performing arts, while the community’s culture and “heritage” are fast disappearing’ (p. 166).
In Chapter 7, Lu takes readers to the Grotto Museums in Gansu Province. While these museums have brought economic growth to the region, and helped to conserve this important heritage, they do not sustain any organic connection with local people. Exorbitant admission fees deter residents from visiting the site, and they no longer understand the significance of the grottos. In the hands of the museum elite, it is true that the grottos have been preserved, but they have become irrelevant to people’s lives and devoid of any empowering potential.
The last chapter wraps up the book with an exploration of two recent developments: enhanced state efforts in museum construction to shore up the image of China as a ‘strong country of culture’ (p. 199) and the re-emergence of private museums in China, for example, the Jianchuan Museum Cluster in Anren, Sichuan. However, private museums are usually controlled by wealthy Chinese elites who have little affinity with democratic aspirations, the poor and less educated, and their museums ‘seldom reflect the interests and concerns of the ordinary people’ (p. 214).
Lu ends the book on a sad note, ironically at a time when ever more museums are built with state and private sponsorship. The century-long development of museums in China, so well articulated and systematically presented in this volume, apparently demonstrates stasis rather than dynamism in the museum sector with the ever-tightening grip of the state and social elites. Lu has not attempted to analyse the critique on the current elitist practices concerning museums in China. There is little effort to explore alternative movements nor attempt to bring in new thinking and models with regard to people-centred museums. Attention should be given to the way forward: how museums in China today can play a role that is socially inclusive.