Work Type
Poster
Date
Fall 9-30-2018
Language
English
Abstract
Museums of the modern world act to preserve and promote cultural heritage, science, and art. Within the continent of Asia, museums have been crucial foci for various nations’ cultural ministries. By analyzing the missions of specific museums with a critical lens, the objective of national identity and narrative building becomes exposed in the decisions of museums’ exhibits and curations. With having used ethnographic methods and scholarly research concerning national museums in the countries of Mongolia, Japan, China, Thailand, and India, I argue that museums serve as mediums of communication for higher political and cultural institutions to foster, construct, and manipulate national narratives consumed by the general public in order to homogenize ideal identities on the local and global scale. The extent to which museums execute these tasks vary greatly depending on the variables of targeted audiences, sources of funding, and the presentation and interpretation of historical events and archaeological artifacts.
Repository
University of Puget Sound
Geographic Coverage
Tacoma, Washington, United States; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, China; Fuzhou, China; Shanghai, China; Nanjing, China; Chiang Mai, Thailand; Delhi, India; Mumbai, India
Rights
This content was provided by the Collins Memorial Library of the University of Puget Sound. Terms of use can be found here on the Sound Ideas : http://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/copyright.html.
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Lee, "Curating a Nation: The Role of Asia’s Twenty-First Century Museums in Constructing National Narratives" (2018). Pac Rim Posters. 4.
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/pacrim_posters/4
Included in
Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Museum Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Tourism Commons