Museum and Change Regional Museums in the People’s Republic of China Heng Wu Dissertation for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of Bergen 2011 Dissertation date: April, 2011 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks and gratitude to my supervisor Professor Katherine Goodnow, who has been not only a supervisor but also a good friend in the past years and has been offering me not only professional guidance and suggestions but also life advice. Thank you Kate for your constant support and help. Thanks for the encouragement and patience. Without you, this thesis would never have been possible. I would like to thank the Department of Information Science and Media Studies, University of Bergen, and the lovely people here. Thanks for offering me a good working environment and research facilities. Thank you Wenche Førre for having been always so kind and supportive. Thank you Prof. Knut Helland, Prof. Dag Elgesem, Prof. Jostein Gripsrud, Prof. Anders Johansen, Prof. Peter Larsen and the others for offering me support and advice. Thank you Ankica Babic for your friendliness and those nice chattings during coffee breaks. Thank you Weiqin Chen for sharing my concerns and giving me suggestions and encouragement. Thank you Ana Luisa Sanchez-Laws and Jose Andres Fonseca for good company in the office and sharing my happiness and unhappiness. I would particularly thank Gjartrud Kolås, Rune Arntsen and Terje Thue, thank you for having been always handy and helpful whenever I met practical problems. I would also like to thank Professor Jack Lohman for offering me the chance to meet and communicate with the professionals in his museum, and Professor Lu Jiansong who helped me to make contacts with various museums in China. I would like to thank all my interviewees and all those people who offered me help and facilities during my fieldwork. Thank you too Emily Goodnow Bjaalid for good assistance and company on the research trips. Finally, my thanks to my dearest parents Wu Huizhong and Zhao Qinzhen and my dearest brother Wu Cheng. Thanks for your everlasting love and care and support. 3 Abstract Chinese museums have experienced dramatic changes during the time of the People’s Republic of China (1949 - present) at the same time as the country itself has undergone dramatic changes. This thesis explores the correlation between museum and political and policy changes in the Peoples Republic of China with selected regional museums as the research object. The objective is to study what changes have taken place in selected Chinese regional museums and understand what roles political and policy changes in the country have had on the process. Six regional museums from four regions are examined. Major focus is on the broad changes within the museums at the same time as close examination on the specific museum representations has been carried out. Pertinent issues include diversity and unity, regional identity and national identity, representation of identity, regional development policy and cultural tourism. The research revealed that policy has a strong influence on all the museums studied but there are also differences between regions. Museums are not only the targets but also the instruments of policy and government. Key words: China, museum, change, policy, representation, identity, nationalism, diversity, unity, cultural tourism 4 Contents ! !" #!$ % & ' " # $ % ( ) * " *' + , - ' +" - -. " & ' $ (( ! "#"$ %& '/-0 ' . 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Introduction Museums are changing, which is reflected in their functions, their roles, their operations as well as their definitions. Kenneth Hudson (1998) once argued that “the museum refuses to stand still” (p. 43). Hudson notes one facet of museum change in that there is generally an aspiration of the museum, through its staff, for change. There is, however, another facet related to museums and change in that the museum is not immune to external change. Forces that generate museum change come from a number of sources including governments (of different levels), the public, related disciplines or peers. This thesis targets at museum and change and explores the correlation between museum and political and policy changes in the Peoples Republic of China (hereafter as PRC) through selected regional museums. While many studies have discussed the after-effect of museum change, namely what museum