The growth of museums in China

 

As reported by Justine Poplin in The Conversation, China’s museum sector has expanded at an unmatched pace this century. From 2010 to 2024, a new museum has opened, on average, every 1.5 days. There were 382 new museums registered in 2022 alone – and a total of 6,833 registered towards the end of 2024.

From state-backed mega museums to privately-funded contemporary art spaces, the expansion of China’s galleries, libraries, archives and museums – or ‘GLAM’ – sector is reshaping how the nation narrates its past and imagines its future.

The broader GLAM sector has expanded in parallel, with significant government investment in public libraries, archival digitisation projects and large cultural precincts. Museums, however, remain the most visible symbol of this transformation.

Read the full article on the trends in museums in China on The Conversation.

Image by Götz Friedrich from Pixabay.