IMAGINING THE MODERN NATION-STATE VIA ZHANG JIAN’S MUSEUM

My object in this thesis is the possibilities and limitations of the museum both as an educational and communicative space and as a significant process in the project of constructing a modern nation-state. Through a study of Zhang Jian’s ideals and practices in the museum—the classification and organization of the collections, the style and layout of its architectural complexes, as well as his management and educational endeavors—this paper demonstrates the manifold ways in which Zhang’s museum can be read as the reconstruction of a China which excludes the Manchu and thereby refashions this China as an equal agent