ABSTRACT
For the Chinese state, ensuring that all information the public receives is consistent with its official propaganda is of paramount importance. Therefore, the state, through the CCP, used to control even minor details of “cultural organizations” (wenhua jigou) such as museums. In the case of the National Museum of Chinese Revolution, the approval of an exhibition was contingent on whether the exhibition portrayed positive representations of “revolution” such as, for example, the wise leadership of the Party and heroic resistance of the Chinese people against foreign repression. During the countdown to Hong Kong’s return to China, the Chinese state gradually allowed state-owned and -operated organizations to evolve from cultural organizations to “cultural enterprises” (wenhua chanye) by incorporating economic principles into their operation and organization. At the First Chinese Communist Party Congress Meeting Hall, the National Museum of Chinese Revolution, Yuanming Yuan, and elsewhere, stories of economic success and prosperity replaced narratives of national humiliations and revolutionary practices. “Culture” (wenhua), the core of these organizations, was conceptualized in such market-oriented terms as “cultural products” (wenhua chanpin), “cultural market” (wenhua shichang), and “cultural public relations” (wenhua gongguan). And their “visitors” (guanzhong) became “consumers” (xiaofeizhe) or “tourists” (youke).
