ABSTRACT
Although the decolonization of museums has excited global interest and action, its understanding differs strongly—nationally, locally, culturally. As a result, museum institutions have had to face multiple challenges with respect to decolonization, both as a concept and as a practice. This chapter looks at the different ways decolonization is encouraged, supported, or resisted by museum spaces in Amsterdam, Warsaw, and Shanghai. It shows the implications of the perception that Amsterdam was a historic colonizer and the difficulties this poses to decolonizing in the present. In the case of Warsaw, it reveals a dichotomy between conservative institutions and more activist ephemeral actions and temporary curatorial interventions. Shanghai, in its struggle to decolonize from historic European colonizers, nonetheless, manages to show that decolonization is not necessarily a critical, self-reflexive endeavour. Finally, a comparative conclusion lists factors that account for the main differences between decolonization processes in the museums of these three cities.
