Higher expectations
As a contemporary art major from Tsinghua University, 30-year-old Pu feels a special connection with museums. He prefers to describe his work as a bridge between museums and the public, who are first and foremost schoolchildren. After graduating, Pu worked as a curator in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing. Everywhere, he found that Chinese museums were facing a common problem they were cut off from the people. Many museums give more importance to researching and displaying than to educating the public. “Most of the museums in China have weak and shortstaffed public education department,” Pu said. “Nowadays, we need to be skillful and tell stories through displays to explain why historical events happened the way they did. For this, creative-minded curators need to assume a very important role.”
By the end of 2015, the number of registered museums in China had reached 4,692, of which 85.5 percent were free of charge, according to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage. However, the misconception that museums are research institutions only good for the socalled social elite is enduring. This has led to a severe lack of public engagement.
Figures in 2015 showed that 76.3 percent of Chinese museums were state-owned, which also explains part of this disconnection. “When a museum is funded by the state, it tends to pay less attention to its visitors’ needs,” said Huang Chen, Director of Education and Publicity Department at National Museum of China.
Increasingly aware of these problems, Chinese museums are making changes to develop a closer relationship with the public. The country’s first regulation for museums took effect in March 2015, which gives top priority to function of education for the first time.
“This emphasizes museums’ role in public education,” said Guo Qingsheng, Director of Education Department in Shanghai Museum. Since then, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has raised the weight of public education in the assessment of a museum to more than 60 percent.
Pu welcomes this new focus. “It shows a sign of cognitive advancement on museums in China and I feel my work will be more promising in the future,” he said. Comments to xyy@chinafrica.cn