Reviving the cultural power of China's museums (2)

Home to the ninth Shanghai Biennial which runs until March 31, 2013, the PSA hosts exhibitions ranging from a review of the past 30 years of Chinese contemporary art to works from the Pompidou Center in Paris, giving audiences a feast of world art and a mixture of different cultures.

In addition, the PSA also promotes art education and international art cooperation. Visitors can participate in art-related lectures, and interact with artists in the museum cafe to further appreciate the displays and learn more about the stories behind the exhibitions.

"We have deliberately blurred the definition of public space and exhibition space. Even the chimneys are now public spaces, and many people will have the chance to interact with the artwork in the open exhibition hall," says the PSA's designer, Dr. Zhang Ming.

Thanks to these visitor-friendly designs and free access to more than 1,800 museums nationwide, a total of 400 million tourists are attracted to China's museums annually, a 60 percent rise from 2007, according to latest official figures in 2012.

IMPORTANT ROLE OF PRIVATE MUSEUMS

China has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of private museums and galleries over the past five years. The country's 456 private museums, 13 percent of the nation's total, play an important role in protecting and promoting Chinese culture.

Beijing's China Red Sandalwood Museum is an outstanding example of private investment in culture. Founded in 1999 by Chen Lihua, chairwoman of Fuwah International Group, it is China's first and largest museum dedicated to collecting, researching and displaying red sandalwood works of art and classical furniture.

Located in Beijing's Chaoyang District and with an area of 5,000 square meters, the royal palace-style architecture of the Red Sandalwood Museum itself is a work of art. The museum has some 200 pieces of original Ming and Qing-Dynasty antique furniture collected by Chen, and hundreds of red sandalwood pieces including a miniature of the famous Temple of Heaven made by artisans under her supervision.