Locating and Designing Participatory Conservation in the Museum: an analysis of Chinese practices

Abstract

With rich cultural heritage resources, there are increasing expectations and demands about engaging the public with conservation in China. This thesis intends to demonstrate the participatory conservation practices that can be enlightening for museum visitors. This paper focuses on the cases of Chinese practices at the Shaanxi History Museum and the Hainan Museum. It explores the aims, design and location of the conservation labs in each setting, and seeks to unpack the physical, intellectual and authority boundaries in this engagement space. The research builds upon the analyses of semi-structured interviews with professionals, individual observations of the two case study spaces, and a wide ranging literature review covering participation, museum space, museology and conservation. The thesis concludes that participatory conservation provides great opportunity and insights to meet audiences’ curiosity. This is achieved by opening the professional intellectual space to the public and inspiring people’s critical thinking together with their passion to care about cultural heritage. The thesis evidences how both Chinese and European museums care about the visiting experience of audiences and conservation outreach. However, it argues how Chinese museums might be seen to give attention to the security of objects – in terms of having more original work in areas open to the public. Whereas, in contrast, European museums there is a focus on communicating, interpreting and sharing the process of engaging audiences.