Museums in China

Power, Politics and Identities

Tracey Lu

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781138120709
• eBook ISBN: 9781134081622
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Regional Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

From the earliest museums established by Western missionaries in order to implement religious and political power, to the role they have played in the formation of the modern Chinese state, the origin and development of museums in mainland China differ significantly from those in the West. The occurrence of museums in mainland China in the late nineteenth century was primarily a result of internal and external conflicts, Westernization and colonialism, and as such they were never established solely for enjoyment and leisure.

Using a historical and anthropological framework, this book provides a holistic and critical review on the establishment and development of museums in mainland China from 1840 to the present day, and shows how museums in China have been used by a wide range of social, political, and state actors for a number of economic, religious, political and ideological purposes. Indeed, Tracey L-D Lu examines the key role played by museums in reinforcing social segmentation, influencing the economy, protecting cultural heritage and the construction and enhancement of ethnic identities and nationalism, and how they have throughout their history helped the powerful to govern the less powerful or the powerless. More broadly, this book provides important comparative insights on museology and heritage management, and questions who the key stakeholders are, how museums reflect broader social and cultural changes, and the relationship between museum and heritage management.

Drawing on extensive archival research and anthropological fieldwork, as well as the author's experience working as a museum curator in mainland China in the late 1980s, Museums in China such will be of great interest to students and scholars working across museology, heritage studies, tourism studies Chinese culture and Chinese history.

1 China between 1840 and 1949

Though antiquity collection began at least 3200 years ago (Lu J.M. 2009), the establishment of museums between the 1860s and the 1930s in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao is a result of external and internal dynamics between different local and foreign social segments. To understand why and for what purposes museums were established in China, who were the key players, and why there were different causal factors for the founding of museums, as well as the legacies and influences of the early museums not only on museology but also on social sentiments such as the senses of superiority or inferiority, envy and gratitude (Kolm 1995), nationalism and individual and collective identities in contemporary China – to understand all this, we must first understand China, albeit briefly, in this period of time.

China between 1940 and 1949

This period has been considered by many scholars as probably the most chaotic period in the history of China, in terms of economy, political structure, social stability and the relations between China and other countries (e.g. Liang Q.C. 1916; Qian 1995; Yan F. 1896). The growth of population and a decrease of arable land plus a higher frequency of natural disasters resulted in the diminishing of farming returns and worsened the living standard of ordinary people (Fairbank and Goldman 2006), and caused famines, diseases and the deaths of people in many regions (Chen A.Y. 1998). To make things worse, the Qing court and the succeeding governments taxed farmers heavily, because they desperately needed money to pay indemnities to foreign powers after being defeated, or for the cost of wars between warlords (Feng R. 1929; Wu T.C. 1957). Sometimes farmers and ordinary urban residents were forced not only to pay tax for the current year but also to pay tax provisions for several succeeding years (Feng R. 1929), and their lives were made even worse.

In addition, a major economic, social and political blow to China and its people between the 1770s and the early nineteenth century was the opium trade, which was a monopoly controlled by the East India Company from 1773 to 1834, after which the opium was smuggled into China by merchants of various Western countries (Qian 1995). British merchants were the major carriers, but American merchants also played a significant role in this highly unethical trade, as opium was an ideal substitute for silver to trade with tea and silk from China, and the American merchants brought opium from Turkey to China at least from 1804 onwards, making enormous profits from it (Downs 1968).

The opium trade resulted in the outflow of China's silver and the loss of the labour force and family property, worsening the living and health conditions of many Chinese even more (Qian 1995). Further, the incoming of foreign technologies, finance and factories also caused the destruction of local craftsmanship and markets in many rural regions, though it also facilitated industrial development in some cities and towns and the Westernization of the economic and social systems in China (Chen A.Y. 1998; Fairbank and Goldman 2006).

This period also witnessed a series of wars between China and the West. There were the two Opium Wars, from 1839 to 1842 and from 1856 to 1860 respectively; the war between China and France from 1883 to 1885; the first Sino-Japanese war, from 1894 to 1895; the Boxer War in 1900; and the second Sino-Japanese war, from 1937 to 1945 (Fairbank and Goldman 2006; Qian 1995). Apart from the last, China was defeated in all these wars and had to pay substantial amounts of indemnity, raised by squeezing its already poor people, and to cede its territories to Britain, Japan and Russia (Fairbank and Goldman 2006; Qian 1995). In addition, the continuous defeats caused widespread stress, frustration and demoralization in society in China at the time (Fairbank and Goldman 2006).

With the above causal factors, plus a weak Qing government led by several incompetent emperors and corrupt and demoralized officials, it is not surprising to see many domestic rebellions occurring between 1840 and 1949 in mainland China, including the Taiping Uprising from 1851 to 1864, the Nian (or Nien) Rebellion from 1853 to 1868, the Chinese Muslim Uprising in Southwestern and Northwestern China from 1855 to 1873, the Boxer Rebellion from 1898 to 1901, as well as many other small-scale uprisings (Fairbank and Goldman 2006; Franke 1970). The beginning of the twentieth century witnessed civil wars between local warlords from the 1910s to the 1930s, and between the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1934 to 1937 and from 1945 to 1949 (Qian 1995). No one knows exactly how many houses were burned down and how many lives were lost in each of these conflicts, but ordinary people must have suffered enormously from the warfare.

Briefly put, the era between 1840 and 1949 is a period of natural and economic disasters, of social and politic instability, of suffering, insecurity, massacre, destruction and, consequently, psychological hopelessness in China. ‘It is better to be a dog living in a peaceful time than be a human being living in a period of chaos and wars.’¹ This Chinese proverb reveals the desperation and stress of the ordinary Chinese people at that time. ‘[W]ith the arrival in force of the West in the mid-nineteenth century, … it [China] suffered the humiliations of innumerable foreign penetrations of its domestic space and interests’ (Womack 2010: 5). ‘In these dimensions the long-term foreign invasion of China proved to be a disaster so comprehensive and appalling that we are still incapable of fully describing it’ (Fairbank and Goldman 2006: 189). Many Chinese scholars have described this period as the darkest era in Chinese history, a ‘Century of Humiliation’, when the nation was at risk of being completely colonized and people were subjected to genocide (e.g. Chen A.Y. 1998; Hu Sheng 1991; Liang Q.C. 1916; Yan F. 1896). This grave concern was expressed in the lyrics of a song by poet Tian Han in 1935: ‘The peoples of China are at their most critical time.’²

Powerful social segments

There were powerful social segments playing significant roles in China between 1840 and 1949, including the Qing rulers and officials, many of them also scholars; warlords from 1911 to 1949; the Chinese intellectuals; the political parties occurring after the 1890s, some of which becoming the ruling parties of China after 1911; representatives of the Western states; and the social elite and missionaries from the West, associated with their local converts. In the process of founding the earliest museums in China, the Chinese intellectuals, the Western social elites, the political parties and the missionaries played the most important roles, and were directly responsible for the establishment, management and development of many museums.

Chinese intellectuals

The intellectuals in ancient China consisted of scholar-officials and independent scholars, but the position of members of each group was not fixed and could always change, and the two groups had various connections through social, political, intellectual and kinship ties (Wu and Fei 1975). From the ninth century to the end of the nineteenth century, the ancient states of China had maintained a national examination system, which was the main channel of social mobility. Generally, only male members of society were allowed to participate in three levels of examinations, and if they scored highly, they could enter the ruling class (Qian 1995).

Generally speaking the Chinese intellectuals had learnt Confucianism and accepted the political discourse of the ancient state from childhood. By the seventeenth century China was still quite isolated, and the emperors and the majority of literati considered China as ‘the centre of the world’, with its own ‘advanced’ economic, social, political, ideological and academic system. This discourse had shaped the Chinese intellectuals' mindset. However, after defeats by Western powers in several wars from the 1840s to the 1890s, and with all the aforementioned economic, political and social problems to be faced, this sinocentrism, long-existing prior to the 1840s among the intellectuals, was shattered, and heated debates among them were triggered, focusing on how to ‘save’ the Chinese nation.

The Chinese intellectuals during this period consisted of scholars holding different political and ideological stands. Very briefly, some scholars were very conservative and strongly against ‘foreignism’ and Westernization. Others vigorously defended the ideology of Confucianism while accepting social Darwinism and called for reform; these are represented by Kang Youwei (1858–1927) and Liang Qichao (1873–1929) (Grieder 1981). The most extreme group within the intellectuals was very reformist. Represented by Yan Fu (1854–1921), Zhang Binlin (1869–1936) and Gu Jiegang (1893–1980), scholars of this group questioned the values (or usefulness) of Chinese civilization, challenged the authenticity and accuracy of Chinese historic documents, refuted the teaching of Confucianism and traditional values, strongly criticized the nation's bureaucratic, economic, social and military structures, and cried out that China must change and learn everything, from technology to education, from the West (e.g. Gu J.G. 2002; Liang Q.C. 1896; Wang Tao 1875; Yan F.1896).

In 1898, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao persuaded Emperor Guangxu to implement the Hundred Days' Reform, which eventually failed (Qian 1995). Yan Fu translated classical Western literature into Chinese, including Darwin's book On the Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection, Thomas Huxley's work Evolution and Ethics, Adam Smith's book Wealth of Nations, John S. Mill's work On Liberty and Herbert Spencer's book Study of Sociology (Benjamin 1964), hoping that China could learn from the West. There were other scholars who set up factories, schools and other modern facilities for the sake of strengthening China and educating Chinese people. No matter what actions they took, almost all the Chinese intellectuals strongly believed that China needed reform, and the majority of Chinese people needed education.

As full-time education was a heavy burden for ordinary families, particularly for farmers at that time, more than 90 per cent of the ordinary Chinese could not afford education and were illiterate in imperial China (Twitchett and Fairbank 1978). Consequently, the majority of Chinese people at that time were poorly informed, could hardly participate in the management of social matters, and were often subjected to the power and abuse of the ruling class (Elwell-Sutton 1934).

After being defeated by the Western powers, the Chinese intellectuals strongly believed that educating the public, not only males but also females, was one of the most crucial approaches for the salvation of the nation, as they believed that only knowledgeable people would be able to command the sciences and technologies introduced from the West, along with developing China's own industries, infrastructures, technologies, arms and sciences (e.g. Liang Q.C. 1896; Zhang Jian 1905a, 1905b; Yan F. 1896). Some of the Chinese intellectuals had the chance to go to European countries after the 1840s and visited museums, which seemed to be institutions that could help people to broaden their knowledge and increase their intellectuality, particularly museums on science and technology; therefore, they argued that museums should also be established in China, and that museology should be included in the school curriculum (Ma J.X. 1994).

Chinese intellectuals were very active during the first half of the twentieth century, taking leading roles in the fields of archaeology, the arts, biology, geology and other disciplines, as well as in education and museums. Zhang Jian, a Chinese intellectual, established the first private museum in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, in 1905 (Zhang Jian 1905–13). By the 1930s more than 80 museums had been founded in mainland China. In 1934, a group of Chinese intellectuals proposed establishing the Museum Association of China, and in 1935 the Association was inaugurated in Peking (today's Beijing; the name ‘Peking’ was used before 1949 and ‘Beijing’ after 1949), with several committees in charge of museological studies, museum buildings, exhibitions and publications respectively (Pao 1964). The Charter of the Association was also passed in the same year (Pao 1964). The Association held its first annual meeting in 1936 in Qingdao, Shandong Province, but its activities were soon suspended owing to the outbreak of the anti-Japanese war in 1937 and the following civil war between the Nationalist Party and the CCP (Pao 1964).

China's political parties

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Qing Dynasty lost almost all the economic, administrative and political sovereignty in China, and was almost a puppet of the Western powers led by Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the USA (Huang D.S. 1966). Although Emperor Guangxu (1875–1908) tried to launch a reform in 1898, his attempt failed because of the opposition of the conservative power led by Empress Dowager Cixi (Huang D.S. 1966). The Qing court was no longer able to lead the country and govern the people.

Very disappointed by the incompetence of the Qing court, some revolutionaries determined to overthrow this polity. One of the most well-known revolutionaries was Sun Wen, or Sun Yat-sen (1866–1925), who formed a political party, Tongmenghui (the United League) in 1905 in Tokyo and was a leading figure in a series of uprisings in 1911 against the Qing rulers. The uprisings were supported by the declaration of independence of many provinces and threatened the Qing Dynasty (Qian 1995). In October 1911 the Qing court in Beijing appointed Yuan Shikai (1859–1916), then the most powerful official and military officer of the Qing Dynasty, to lead Yuan's New Army to attack Sun and his political party. On 1 January 1912, Sun was elected by delegates of the independent provinces to be the first provisional president of the Republic of China, with Nanjing as its capital city. But Sun and his colleges did not have a strong army, so they had to negotiate with Yuan and finally agreed to let Yuan become the provisional president of the newly founded republic, with Peking as its capital. In return, Yuan agreed to force Puyi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, to abdicate (Huang D.S. 1966; Franke 1970).

Yuan Shikai was elected as the president of the Republic of China in 1912, but he suspended the Parliament in 1914 and declared himself ‘emperor’ of the Empire of China on 12 December 1915. His act immediately triggered widespread rebellions in China, and he was on the throne for only 83 days before being forced to step down on 22 March 1916; he died shortly afterwards (Huang D.S. 1966). After Yuan's death, warlords fought for control of the government in Peking, and China was again in chaos (Huang D.S. 1966).

Dissatisfied with the political situation, Sun Yat-sen established another government and an army in Guangzhou in 1917, and led military campaigns against the warlords' Beiyang government in Peking. After Sun Yat-sen's death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) became leader of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang). He successfully led the Northern Expedition from 1926 to 1928, and became the president of the reunified Republic of China in 1928 (Huang D.S. 1966). The Nationalist Party ruled China until 1949 when it was forced out to Taiwan by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The Nationalist Party and the CCP were led by their very powerful respective leaders from the early to the mid-twentieth century, so the values and ideologies of the party leaders actually were the doctrines of their party. The two parties have been governing the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China since the 1920s and 1949 respectively. As all the public museums in mainland China after the 1920s have...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Routledge studies in the modern history of Asia
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• 1 China between 1840 and 1949
• 2 Missionaries and early museu
• 3 Social elites and early museums
• 4 Museums in modern state formation
• 5 Museums under the communist state
• 6 Ecomuseums, ethnicity and the management of intangible cultural heritage
• 7 Museums, tourism and local cultural changes
• 8 Museums in a changing China
• Bibliography
• Index