Heng Wu

In a country like China where the political regime is still defined as socialist and where the Chinese Communist Party is the only party in power, museums, as a part of the field of culture, are strongly affected by the political and economic strategies and decisions by local and national government. In the past over half century, China has been experiencing dramatic changes both in politics and economy. How did these changes influence museums? How have museums in China respond to these changes?

Focusing on Chinese regional museums, this project looks at 12 Chinese museums at the provincial level and explores the changes in these museums and the political and economic influence behind these changes. Common points may be drawn from all these provincial museums since they are formed by the same national political and economic changes - for example, the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949; the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976; Reform and Opening-up from 1978. Individualities, however, are also obvious as each region or province has its own characteristics such as location, resources and history, as well as local strategies and policies in response to the national strategies and policies.

There are two main lines of enquiry in this project: one is the changing process of China in general especially in the aspects of politics and economy; the other is the changing process of the regional museums. The focus of research and analysis is the interaction between the two lines.