The first private museum in China: Guanfu Museum

Miles
3 min readMar 24, 2022

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Guanfu is an art museum in Beijing, China. It was founded by Ma Weidu on 30 October 1996, and it was among the first private museums in the People’s Republic of China. The Guanfu Museum is a non-profit organization and it has a qualification of Independent Legal Entity.

Introduction

The Guanfu Museum was approved by the government on October 30, 1996, and Mr. Ma Weidu was the founder. In 2004, the council system was implemented.
Guanfu Museum has local pavilions in Xiamen, Shanghai, Shenzhen (under construction) and Tianjin.

Ma Weidu

The Guanfu Museum has a ceramics hall, a furniture hall, a crafts hall, a door and window hall and an oil painting hall, and various exhibitions are held all year round. The exhibition layout focuses on open forms, emphasizes the communication between people and history, and highlights the affinity of traditional culture.

Western museum

In addition to the cultural relics containing traditional Chinese elements, the Guanfu Museum also collects some Western cultural relics for tourists to watch.In the 18th century, China was in a prosperous period of prosperity, while Europe entered the industrial revolution after the Renaissance. The civilizations of the Eurasian continent collided at this moment. At that time, maritime trade exchanges promoted the integration of Eastern and Western cultures. The mysterious Chinese culture’s influence on European high society in the 18th century was beyond ordinary people’s cognition. Most of the 109 exhibits in this museum are from the east to the west, reflecting the popular Chinese elements in European society at that time, and the craftsmanship and patterns that yearned for China.

Guanfu Cats

In the early days of Ma Weidu’s establishment of the museum, there were many stray cats living here. After Ma Weidu built the museum, he did not drive away the stray cats here, but adopted them. With the increasing number of cats, because of their good-looking appearance, they have become a cultural symbol of Guanfu Museum. He wrote books for them and registered Weibo accounts for them. They already have nearly 300,000 fans. These Guanfu cats have gained a lot from it. A large number of fans also bring income to the museum.

This is the book describing Guanfu cats.

Cultural and creative

Guanfu Museum is also very successful in cultural and creative works. Guanfu Museum has its own online store, selling some cultural toys and some handicrafts. Its online revenue has always occupied the top three in China and the top five in the world. The Palace Museum and the National Museum of China are government-run museums. Private Only the Guanfu Museum is on the list.This also illustrates the success of Guanfu Museum’s cultural policy.

Museum Online Revenue Ranking

Government policy support

In order to promote the development of museums, the national government is also actively formulating policies related to the reform and development of museums, improving cultural output, cultural policies, and deepening cultural influence.

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