The previous section discussed the influence of western aesthetic criteria on Chinese artistic production in the 1980s, which was the first significant attempt by Chinese artists to apply western aesthetic theories and principals to their own work. This section will now discuss the possible existence of a common curatorial/displaying environme nt, shared by the two art forms in China. Similar to their Western peers, it is not uncommo n for the curators to apply internationally standard exhibiting arrangements to the contemporary art exhibitions in China. This section will examine the main three factors – lack of experience in curating contemporary exhibitions, lack of experts, limited time for development – that might contribute to this institutionalised approach to curatorial strategy.
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First, due to a lack of experience in developing and managing contemporary art exhibitions, institutions in the PRC tend to mimic, rather than localise or alter, the modern museological practices of their Western peers. The reason might be due to the three mechanisms of institutional isomorphic change, highlighted by DiMaggio and Powell (1983) highlight: coercive isomorphism (due to political influences and legitimate pressures), mimetic isomorphism (organisations become standardised in responding to uncertainty) and normative isomorphism (related to professionalisatio n).
For them, the reasons why non-Western exhibiting institutions model themselves on their Western counterparts are as follows: 1) the ambitious goals and the environme nt generate symbolic uncertainty for the organisations, 2) indigenous cultural and politica l constraints and pre-existing orthodox ideological boundaries lead to a lack of options and 3) organisations aim to achieve more legitimate status in the field (Ibid:150). In this respect, rather than enthusiastically developing their own cultural character, one might argue that Chinese contemporary art museums and galleries tend to achieve status as internationalised institutions, which in turn results in an internationalised curatorial approach. Meyer et al. (1997) refer to institutions’ international standardisation as one of the consequences of the diffusion of rationalistic ‘world culture’. Following the exogenously driven construction, it is believed that the Chinese exhibiting institutio ns ’ adoption or appropriation of internationally standard structures enabled those institutions to gain competitive advantages over those institutions that refused to follow this isomorphic development. According to Meyer and Rowan (1977), the
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internationally acceptable account of organisational activities provides the former institutions more opportunity to acquire legitimacy, stability, and resources that allow them to survive than the latter institutions.
Further to this, there were also policy decisions made by the Chinese museums that re-enforced an internationalised curatorial strategy rather than encouraging the development of their own model. For Zhang (2005), four main steps were widely taken among Chinese museums after the thirteenth national congress of the CPC in 1978 in order to secure the ‘up-to-date’ process of internationalisation and standardisation: 1) enhancing international collaboration with exhibiting institutions abroad, which includes positively promoting international collection exchange programmes and cross-country exhibitions; 2) introducing ‘innovative’ and ‘advanced’ curatorial strategies by arranging international standardised exhibitions; 3) organising international academic activities such as conferences and workshops; and 4) actively participating in the activities arranged by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). According to Zhang, the aims of these steps are as follows: 1) enhancing the role Chinese museums can play in the international scope of the field for promoting Chinese culture abroad, 2) improving contact with different cultures and people around the world culturally, and 3) enhancing the ‘professional skills and dispositions’ of the museum staff (Ibid:5). Lu agrees with Zhang and contends that Chinese museums ‘have been influenced by ideas and practices from the West since the 1980s’ (2014:207). In support of this claim, one might argue that the reason Lu considers the start of the Westernisation of Chinese
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museums to be the early 1980s is because of the political movement that took place at the time and that significantly changed Chinese society as a whole. According to Zigeng and Yi, two events – the implementation of the Chinese economic reform (the Reform and Opening Up-Policy) in 1978 and the government’s decision to constitute the principle of developing China’s modern art museums (2009:120) – have greatly stimulated the growth and institutional Westernisation of museums in China. These decisions influenced the development of an internationalised curatorial strategy.
Second, the confused managing system of the exhibiting institutions and their lower administrative status among the Chinese civil servants determines that art museums and galleries can hardly attract management and research professionals. To be specific, the definitions of art museums and galleries are extremely vague due to the fact that, in China, art museums have been divided into five categories according to their sources of financial income. First are government funded institutions, which include the National Art Museum and some province-owned exhibiting agencies such as the Shanghai Art Museum and Guangzhou Art Museum. The issue that these types of museums have is that they are being managed by different government departments, such as ‘the Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio/Film and TV; Civil Affairs Bureau; Press and Publication Bureau; Universities; Department of Artistic Affairs;
China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, etc.’ (Zhang and Luo, 2002:29). The subordinate level that art museums hold in these government systems means that these institutions have to face two main issues: being guided and managed by unprofessio na l
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higher-authorities and the availability of limited financial resources (Ibid, 2002:30).
One might argue that this could explain why art museums and galleries in China tend to adopt/borrow universal international exhibiting strategies without making any effort to localise these curatorial policies and strategies: there is a lack of expertise and funding.
Third, the curators have had a very limited time to develop a localised version of curatorial arrangement. In 1905, based on his visiting experience in the Empire Museum in Japan (Xi 2008:53), Zhang Jian established the first ‘domestica lly conceived, managed and developed’ western model of a museum in China: The Nantong Museum (Claypool 2005: 565). The development process of China’s museums experienced a brief period of growth after the 1911 revolution; however, this development was soon suspended due to the invasion of Japan and the occurrence of China’s civil war after the anti-Japanese national revolutionary war (1937-1945). The establishment of China’s new government had a positive impact on the developme nt process of China’s museums. During the period, the Chinese museums were mainly established and managed based on museological practices that were introduced from the Soviet Union and the eastern European countries (Zhang 2006 :2). However, the effect was also brief because the museum development process was disrupted by the continual deterioration of the national economic situation, natural disasters, the split between China and the Soviet Union (1959), and a series of ‘improper’ politica l
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movements, such as the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 7 and the Great Leap Forward of 1958-19608) (Chen 2001:3).
The development of Chinese art museums and galleries gradually recovered after the three years of China's Cultural Revolution. Two events, namely the implementation of the Chinese economic reform (Reform and Opening up policy) in 1978 and the government’s decision to constitute the principle of developing China’s modern art museums (Zigeng and Yi, 2009:120), have greatly stimulated the growth of Chinese art museums and galleries. The number of art museums in China thus reached more than 100 by 2004 (Xin, 2008:209). Given the disruption that the development of Chinese art museums and galleries have experienced throughout this period, there have been only relatively short periods of consistency in which a localised curatorial approach could develop. This has not been long enough for such an approach to develop organically.
This section looked at the three main factors that resulted in an internationalised curatorial approach being adopted by the Chinese art museums rather than a localised approach. Firstly, a lack of experience encouraged the mimicking of western curatorial strategies. Secondly, the low status and limited financial resources of the Chinese art museums resulted in a lack of the managerial expertise necessary to formulate a
7 The Cultural Revolution started in 1966 and ended in 1976. Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the CPC set the socio-political movement in motion. The goals of this movement were to prevent the restoration of capitalism, to maintain the purity of the party and seek the developmental model of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
8 The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960): within the 2nd Plenary Session of 8th CPC Central Committee, the Committee adopted the General Line of Socialist Construction. The campaign was aimed at transforming the country from an agrarian economy into a socialist society in a short time.
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localised museological strategy. Thirdly, there have been few periods without significant disruption in the lifetime of Chinese art museums during which a consistent localised curatorial strategy could form.