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| Project Details |
| Funding Scheme : | Early Career Scheme | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Number : | 28605717 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(English) : | An Ethnographic Study on Chinese Private Museums in the Context of the China's Recent Cultural Policies | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Title(Chinese) : | 中國近代文化政策背景下的私人博物館民族志研究 中國近代文化政策背景下中國私人博物館民族志研究 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(English) : | Prof LEUNG, Hok Bun Isaac | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Principal Investigator(Chinese) : | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Department : | Faculty Office of Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Institution : | The Chinese University of Hong Kong | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E-mail Address : | isaacleung@cuhk.edu.hk | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tel : | 3943 1926 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Co - Investigator(s) : |
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| Panel : | Humanities, Social Sciences | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Subject Area : | Humanities and Arts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Exercise Year : | 2017 / 18 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fund Approved : | 162,498 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Status : | Completed | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Completion Date : | 31-12-2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Project Objectives : |
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| Abstract as per original application (English/Chinese): |
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| Realisation of objectives: | 1. APPLY interdisciplinary research methods and INTERSECT cultural studies, anthropology, and critical theories in the area of museum study of China. [Ethnography] During field trips to Shanghai, structured around long-term personal relationships with various players in the art world, the PI has gathered first-hand experience and novel insights concerning how day-to-day practice, social action, and built environment inform the institutional structure and fabrics of the broader live-world. [Topology] This project also adopted Heidegger’s notion of “topology” in order to understand how spatial setting and constituent parts of the three museums are interrelated or arranged. This concept offered the PI a framework to observe and portray the stories of the three museums in order to map the interconnectedness of the objects they contain. The PI’s experiences in these locations further offered insights into how various distinct locations are interconnected in a set of relationships. [Insights concerning museum study] By synthesizing various field experiences, such as observing exhibition designs, collections, architectural arrangements and audience interactions, as well as understanding the rationale of the key players through in-depth interviews, this project explores the roles of the three museums in Shanghai society. In addition to the exploration of activities and audience engagement, collecting and curatorial direction, public program and education, this project expanded the scope of museum studies by exemplifying a phenomenon in China—the establishment and operation of museums being mediated by private collectors, real estate companies, the state within expanding field of contemporary art as a strategy to facilitate economic growth, increase the cultural profile of the city, produce middle-class values, and sustain the state’s power structure. As such, this project intersected various theories and further articulated museology in China in a broader context. 2. QUESTION the relationship of contemporary art to the state under the backdrop of the current cultural policy. This project studied the cultural policy of the 19th CCP National Congress and questioned how the establishment of the three museums are mediated by the policy framework characterized by the promotion of “cultural soft power.” Particularly, this project studied how the 19th CCP National Congress contemplated the integration and development of leisure life and culture, as well as the promotion of cultural heritage and revolutionary culture to deepen role of the collective “socialist spiritual civilization” and acknowledged the present moment as a decisive period for building a “moderately well-off society” in all areas. The cases studied in this project show a coexistence of top-down mandates and bottom-up initiatives where commercial, artistic, and political pursuits increasingly converge. At Long Museum, the West Bund branch discursively linked with other newly established recreational and cultural activities, the promenade complex provided residences with a chance to exercise and relax. At the Pudong branch, the permanent collection “Revolutionary Art Since the Yan’an Era” aligns with the cultural policy which emphasized the promotion of historical narrative concerning the CCP’s past, which subsequently serves as a tool to nurture and edify the public through exhibition and educational programs. As such, this project illustrated how the state- and history-induced pictures of selfhood has been articulated in the consumption of art. 3. STUDY how the establishment of contemporary art museums has become an important benchmark of cultural reform and urban renewal. This project studied how urban renewal projects are closely related to museum establishments, as well as how urbanization in Shanghai occurs under the framework of its cultural reform initiatives. In order to demonstrate the extent to which culture has become a major motivating factor behind the urbanization trajectory, this project studied the history of how land has been altered by studying the locations of the three museums. For example, Minsheng Art Museum, founded by financial institution Minsheng Banking Corporation, was first established in Red Town on Huaihai Middle Road in 2010, which subsequently opened another branch in the former French pavilion of the 2010 World Expo. This case reeals that museums enjoy a relatively short life-span in Shanghai in which both branches were closed alongside with the rapid process of gentrification. This project illustrated how the two branches of Minsheng Art Museum have helped transform the formerly low-value area, such as an abandoned steel plant and a former exhibition building, into highly valued districts. Museum’s functions, including its role economically and socially, have proven to be short-lived. The former world expo district is transforming itself into a larger art, commercial and residential district, including a new museum in collaboration with the Pompidou and a film production warehouse working with Dreamworks. Many of these museums are further replaced by bigger culture-led urban regeneration projects, making cultural development an endless cycle enveloped by the real-estate market. 4. ILLUSTRATE the social networks and geographic spaces of art in relation to a broader cultural and urban landscape of Shanghai. The PI has interviewed several key players associated with the museums, including Justine Alexandria, Director of Yuz Museum; Zoe Cheung, Assistant Curator of HOW Museum, Ramen Hsieh, Senior Curator of Rockbund Art Museum, Vivian Li, Operation Manager of of Rockbund Art Museum; Yu Yuan; Media Relation Officer of Rockbund Art Museum; and many artists such as Lu Yang. This project took the spatial dimensions into account and acknowledged how the newly established museums enable players in the charismatic-networking game within the art world. For example, Justine Alexandria transformed herself from an environmental science graduate to a museum director. As the daughter of a billionaire who owns one of the biggest food processing companies, she learned art from scratch and now manages all aspects of her father’s museum, from collecting art to fundraising for her foundation and networking with government officials. The daily routine of her exemplifies how players and art institutions function together by forming social networks through the establishment of museums. Under the logic of market-driven economy, these players deployed strategies to their own ends, networked with other players within and outside the art world, and ultimately have survived by breaking, playing by, or re-inventing rules in their everyday life. In addition, these museums attracted the newly emerged middle-class shoppers, businessmen and residents, forming a much broader complex chains of commodity culture. 5. ARCHIVE photographs, found text and exhibition catalogues by using visual anthropological methods. This project collected over 2000 pictures and 50 exhibition catalogues, books, and other printed materials. By comparing the collected materials with pictures the PI has taken previously, this project sheds light on the process of change, the relationships between place and culture, and the dynamics of museum and urban developments in Shanghai. 6. ORGANIZE a seminar with museum practitioners and artists to share and test the findings. The PI has curated a seminar at Photofair Shanghai, panel members includes artist Hon Ho, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park and Birdhead, as well as art critic Li Bowen. 7. Produce two journal essays: 1) ANALYZE the conceptual underpinnings in contemporary Chinese art history 2) REPORT critically my ethnographic data and CONCLUDE my research with an evaluation of the sustainability of cultural industry in China. The PI is consolidating the two journal essays and they are ready for journal submission by the first quarter of 2021. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary of objectives addressed: |
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| Research Outcome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Major findings and research outcome: | [Policy] The museums studies show that different locations play a key role in sustaining government/institutions in the overall power machine. Key concepts such as strengthening cultural soft power, deepening the role of the collective “socialist spiritual civilization” and the integration of leisure life and culture in order to build a “moderately well-off society” of the 19th CCP National Congress have been vividly applied in the spatial settings, events, collections, and administrations across the various museums. The practitioners from the museums studied were conjoined by compatible goals under the overarching political agenda. This project suggests that a continuity of top-down power and the alignment of disciplinary knowledge are seen in the cases in Shanghai. Art functioned as an effective disciplinary tool. [Culture-led urbanization strategy] Various museums studied play a key role in increasing the cultural profile of the city. Museum development becomes a part of a larger strategy to employ contemporary art to facilitate economy, raise China's cultural profile, and promote a new lifestyle integrating leisure life and culture for the newly emerged middle-class shoppers, businessmen and residents. Many of the museum establishments are short-lived and many locations are constantly replaced by bigger, culture-led urban projects once they have served certain purposes, including turning formerly low-value area into highly valued districts. [Selfhood and networks] Art has become a framework for individuals to pursue a new forms of selfhood in many of the cases studied. Museums and newly established have become a productive space for individuals to exercise their power and transform themselves into key players in the art world. Their pursuits are seen to be a convergence of the commercial and the artistic, a singular mentality that aligns with the discourses project by the state. Yet, they constantly reinvent rules despite the existence of top-down mandates enforced by the state. The rapid changing landscape of the art world in Shanghai has also opened up new opportunities for individuals to network, forming new ecological institutions, communities, and social networks. So-called “bureaucratic” and “disciplinary” aspects among the museums studied have helped shape the multiplicity of relationships intersecting with audiences, art practitioners, artists, and collectors within the sphere in which the field of contemporary art operates. The establishment of various museums constitute a recognized area of organizational life in Shanghai and beyond. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Potential for further development of the research and the proposed course of action: |
Museum establishment is occurring in China at a historically unprecedented scale in a relative short period of time, and many of the newly established museums have a short life-span. Due to the radically changing urban landscape and organizational forms within the field of contemporary art in Shanghai, cultural practitioners are constantly switching jobs and transient employment is accepted as a norm. Within the research period of this project, museums have been closed and opened, employees of the museums have come and gone. A longer study of the museums concerning how, what, and when various locations are further transformed would potentially provide more valuable insights concerning the broader patterns in which the artistic field prevailed in the context of radical changes in urban space. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Layman's Summary of Completion Report: | This project provides perspectives offering alternative explanations to the existing literature concerning museum studies, particularly in the cases in Shanghai. By adopting ethnographic methods, this project reveals how business interests and urban strategy, together with the state’s power structure, play a key role in shaping museums practices. On the one hand, museums in Shanghai inform a much broader complex chains of commodity and disciplinary culture within the overall power machine. On the other hand, the state-induced pictures of contemporary lifestyle also provide an opportunity for individuals to reinvent themselves through the production, consumption and distribution of art. A coexistence of top-down mandates and bottom-up initiatives are seen to converge, forming an emerging landscape of art that is extremely dynamic and unpredictable. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Research Output | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Peer-reviewed journal publication(s) arising directly from this research project : (* denotes the corresponding author) |
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| Recognized international conference(s) in which paper(s) related to this research project was/were delivered : |
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| Other impact (e.g. award of patents or prizes, collaboration with other research institutions, technology transfer, etc.): |
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| Realisation of the education plan: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| SCREEN ID: SCRRM00542 |