ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the curatorial arrangements and display methods of the 1935 Shanghai Preliminary Exhibition of Chinese Art, exploring how the concept of Chinese art was materialised, visualised, and exhibited. It examines how the first generation of museum professionals adopted newly introduced museum practices from Europe and America to create a visual narrative of Chinese civilisation and a new relationship between viewer and object mediated through the format of exhibition. It argues that despite the fact that the imported methods of display were altered to fit the needs of Chinese art objects, those methods also distorted the original viewing context of the objects. This argument needs to be acknowledged today as we search for modes of display and experience of relevance to the context of China.
