The Representation of China in Western Ethnology Museums:Overseas Observations and Reflections by Republican-Era Scholars
Western ethnology museums were rooted in the colonial expansion move-ment and the rise of ethnology and anthropology.The early ethnology museums were estab-lished for the purpose of collecting and displaying the so-called"otherness"of the world out-side the West.The museums,in conjunction with universities,scientific laboratories,ar-chives,libraries and other complex institutions,had become an important part of what Bru-no La Tour called the Western scientific system.The"savage"collection and exhibition ac-tivities of Western ethnology museums had created a great deal of ethnic imagination of the non-Western world in Europe.Controversies and discussions had been provoked over the re-lationship between the indigenous epistemology and the construction of national image dis-played in the"collection"of the vast Asia,Africa,and Oceania.Based on the case study of the visit to the German ethnology museums by Wang Guangqi,a scholar who studied in Ger-many in the 1920s,this paper analyzes the early representation of China in the modern West-ern ethnology museums and the reflection of Chinese intellectuals on the knowledge produc-tion mode of ethnology museum.
Western ethnology museumrepresentation of ChinaWang Guangqiart exhibition
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维普
