Private museums are non-profit social service organizations, open to the public for purposes of education, research, and appreciation. Drawing on community support, they have obtained recognition as legal entities empowered to house and showcase privately held cultural relics, specimens, and explanatory materials.
Private museums can be divided into four categories according to the contents of the collection: relic sites, historical displays, art exhibits, and specialized subjects.
Tens of thousands of sites and specialized facilities pertaining to lifeways of ancient people have been discovered in China: these include works of architecture such as houses, palaces, villages, and fortresses, as well as workshops for pottery making, bronze smelting, iron making, and ceramic firing. Ancient ruins contain rich cultural connotations and can fill in gaps of the written record and clarify many unsolved mysteries of history. Architectural remains at the original sites with relics found therein were used to build such relic museums. Example are Datang Xishi Museum, Shuidonggou Site Museum, Yangguan Museum in Dunhuang, and Daming Palace Ceramic Art Museum in Xi’an.
A historical museum normally refers to one that collects objects from a historical perspective; they allow for study of cultural relics and materials to show the history of a country or a region. Such a museum may focus on the history of a certain industry. Historical knowledge provided in such museums aims to be systematic, specific, and comprehensive; such museums also aim to reveal the laws of history, making people aware of experiences and lessons to be drawn from the history. Such museums are good places for absorbing historical knowledge. Among them are Jingdezhen Ten Workshops Ceramic Museum; Chengdu Brocade Weaving and Embroidery Museum; Huizhou Cultural and Folklore Museum in Yuanquan, Anhui; Defu Museum; Qin Capital Ancient Pottery Museum; Huangshan Wancuilou Museum; Jianchuan Settlement Museum, and Guandao Museum.
Art museums showcase the artistic and aesthetic values of their collections, and the cultural fields involved are more extensive. Museums that house and exhibit cultural products such as painting, calligraphy, crafts, drama, music, and film belong to this category. When collecting, art museums first consider the artistic value of the objects they collect. By pointing out the aesthetic value of the exhibits, they help viewers to appreciate their artistic beauty and perhaps gain edification from the objects. Such museums include Baolin Museum in Chongqing; Xie Clan Art Repository (in Haining, Zhejiang); Huaxia Culture and Art Museum in Zhengzhou; Hengshui Museum of Inner-Surface Painting; and Eastern Hebei Folk Art Museum in Tangshan.
Specialized museums collect and exhibit objects pertaining to a single theme. Because this type of museum is highly specialized—in richness of its specialized collections, depth of its research, and systematic presentation—no other types of museums can compare with them. Those taking a knowledge-based approach to understanding and appreciating artifacts of a specific subject should first select this type of museum. Such museums include Xi’an Qin Brick and Han Tile Museum, Xi’an Chai Kiln Cultural Museum, Xuzhou Imperial Decree Museum, Xiamen Olympic Museum, Dehua Hall Chinese Ancient Bed Museum, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region Museum, Shanxi Merchants Museum at No. 58 Courtyard in Beijing, and Tianjin Aloeswood Museum.
A number of problems exist since private museums are still in the exploratory stage. For example, infrastructure is weak, management is not regularized, there are shortfalls in meeting professional standards, and the museum’s social function is not made clear. It is a prolonged, arduous process to regularize and promote the development of private museums, to mobilize social forces to participate in the protection of cultural heritage, and to take responsibility for constructing an advanced socialist culture. When the state attaches significant importance to developing private museums, private museums will achieve healthy and sustainable development.
