ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates China's new museum movement through both diachronic and synchronic perspectives, offering a comprehensive interpretation of local history museums within the development of new museological approaches. The museum has been constructed as a symbol of civilization and a cultural instrument in China society since 1905, the year in which the first Chinese museum, Nantong Museum, was opened to the public. From 1905 to 1937, the China Museum was established, and during this period, the Palace Museum at Beijing and National Museum of History at Beijing opened to the public. Looking at specific practices among new museums, the chapter notices big changes in museological approaches in China. It specifically reviews the shift in museological philosophy in the evaluation of objects, technological practices and curatorial methods recently introduced for the protection of intangible cultural heritage. Every local person forms personal and collective level links to past, thus developing his/her history and place identity, and experiencing it in emotionally laden way.
