Missionaries and early museums

Though museums founded by missionaries are not mentioned in some works (e.g. Ma J.X. 1994; Wang H.J. 1990), it is generally agreed that the Zikawei Museum founded by the French Jesuits in Shanghai is the earliest museum in mainland China (SACH 1985; Leung 2000; Pao 1964). However, its founding year is in question. Père Savio (1882–1935), director of the Zikawei Museum from 1929 to 1933 (Piel 1939a), claimed that the museum was founded in 1868 when the founding director Père Heude arrived in Shanghai (Savio 1932). Père Piel, director of the Zikawei Museum in 1939, argued that ‘what constitutes a museum is the collection, not the walls’, ¹ and reaffirmed the year 1868 as the founding year. This opinion has been accepted by other scholars (SACH 1985; Leung 2000; Pao 1964).