Private museums offer individual cultural slant
Print Edition
JIADING is home to 38 private art museums. Founded by individuals, the museums are more than a place to show off private collections but an attempt to preserve a splendid culture and history.
They may face difficulties in capital and management but that doesn’t mean they play second fiddle to the government-backed museums. Some even have an eminent reputation among collectors nationwide.
Ming Zhi Tang on Zhangpu Road, Juyuan New Area, is one such private museum. Ming Zhi Tang is currently China’s largest inscription brick museum and it has a collection of more than 30,000 bricks, most of which are from the Wei (220-265 AD), Jin (265-420 AD) and Northern and Southern (420-581 AD) dynasties.
More than 200 bricks with word inscription in the collection come from central China and ancient Sichuan regions. A further 200 are stone plates from the Tang (618-907 AD), Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, including a number of city wall bricks.
According to the museum’s owner Zhu Mingqi, these ancient bricks can verify and complement our knowledge of historical events.
They can also give an insight into subjects such as ancient economics, architecture history, folklore, painting, intellectual history, seal cutting and fine arts, Zhu says, adding that bricks represent a neglected treasury of knowledge.
Zhu’s interest was sparked more than a decade ago when he went to Anji in Zhejiang Province to sell his company’s products.
Along the township roads from Huzhou to Anji, various ancient bricks from the Han (206 BC-220 AD) and Jin dynasties were scattered in the fields of old villages and behind traditional town houses. He collected more than 300 of these bricks and that formed the basis for Ming Zhi Tang.
From an initial study of these ancient bricks, Zhu found abundant stories of Chinese ancient culture. The bricks record our ancestors’ activities during their struggle for survival, their cultural achievements and even their thoughts, as well as their aesthetic values and a record of what was happening in their world.
Since 2014, seminars on ancient Chinese bricks have been held annually in Jiading. They are jointly hosted by the China Society of the Pre-Qin History and Shanghai Ming Zhi Tang Ancient Brick Culture Research and Conservation Center.
Meanwhile, the abundant exhibits at Jiading’s private museums are popular with local residents.
Take Shanghai Zhuyun Art Museum as an example. It has a collection of more than 300 Jiading-related paintings, calligraphy and bamboo-cutting artworks. All exhibits are from the museum owner Zhou Jia’s private collection, most of which were bought at auction both at home and overseas.
Zhou attends overseas auctions in Paris, London and New York every year and is always on the lookout for items with relevance to Jiading.
“Exhibits in the private museums are special, different from traditional museums,” says Gu Hongbin, a resident from Jiangqiao Town.
The Xiang Art Museum features three exhibition halls in a 2,000-square-meter factory conversion inside Nanxiang Shineland Park in Jiading.
The museum holds regular exhibitions of ceramics, oil paintings and wood carvings, with around 200 items on show. The venue is also used for auctions and lectures.
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