The construction of the museum system and legitimacy of collecting in China

The discussion of heritage ethics in the museum context needs to explore who would hold the authority to collect various objects, what kind of objects would be treated as valuable to be collected, and the legitimacy of such a system. Based on the situation in China, this chapter suggests that the growth of state-owned museums was closely linked with the legitimacy of managing archaeological relics, which can be traced back to before the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The development of state-owned museums since the 1950s shows how Chinese authorities have kept their control over the official museum system and also why the authorities should not be seen as one unified subject. Meanwhile, the development of private museums also shows the duality of public and private and suggests the existence of social forces on the issue of collecting and museum construction. Also, this chapter notes that the growth of the New Museum Movement since the 1990s has already challenged the old ideas of what should be collected in China by taking the ideas of living heritage, daily life and bottom-up democracy into consideration.