[中国新闻] 中国的新文化革命

日月光

上海博物馆是中国改造公共画廊的先锋。它的上层全面展示中国少数民族的服装。电动扶梯引导你到下一层的国际临时展览会，可能是莫奈或毕加索的作品。在底层，低照明效果，覆盖地毯的地板很柔软，置身其中你可以流连灯箱中各朝代的文物。7 s5 r% d- s8 r. W2 D2 [# W% P
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    这座耗资1亿美元的博物馆通常被认为是中国第一座在展览和保存标准方面达世界级的博物馆，如今它更被认为是变革的旗手。“文化革命”一词不能轻松地用于中国，但无疑该国的博物馆部分正经历剧变，当中的受惠者包括外国游客。+ T: W- ?2 J$ M

& }7 d) _7 ?& h0 ?! A    尽管中国在文化方面的丰盛无与伦比，但大多数游客仍然只参观过北京的紫禁城和西安的兵马俑。这部分是由于这是多数旅游团的程序，但越来越多思想独立的游客对中国博物馆的不引人注目形象苦苦挣扎。
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    中国传统上很少强调博物馆：其他领域更需要资金；成员缺乏培训，而且没有真正的、在周日下午漫步博物馆的文化传统。随着中国中产阶级的出现，这种情况慢慢改变。
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    改变中国博物馆命运的动力是人文奥运。2008年北京奥运将至，而且任何奥运城市都会把这四年一度的盛事视为展示文化的途径。中国似乎已经以拥抱资本主义和高楼大厦的同样热情拥抱这项任务，在博物馆和画廊洒大把的钱。这并不亚于一场大跃进：在奥运之前，将有100座新的博物馆在中国开张，而且当局宣布到2015年将有1000座新博物馆开张，到其时中国的每一个重要城市都将拥有一座现代化的博物馆，此举让人回想起毛主席的五年计划。北京已经拥有118座博物馆，并计划在奥运时开张和建造多30座；上海计划在未来四年开张100座新的博物馆。
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& }5 D* `5 V- V( qChina's New Cultural Revolution
" p4 _) H6 }2 e3 NMuseums and galleries are opening in China at an astonishing rate - with world-class exhibits. Mark Rowe reports on the changes brought about by the Cultural Olympiad, a spin-off from the 2008 Games www.csuchen.de( g  b3 M: B$ b, B  H
Published: 18 February 2007
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, O. n2 D  O4 X& L$ Q; ]The Shanghai Museum is at the vanguard of an extraordinary transformation of China's approach to its public galleries. Its upper floor hosts a comprehensive display of the costumes of the minority tribes of China. Escalators glide you down to the next level, and an international temporary exhibition, perhaps on Monet or Picasso. On the ground floor, among low lighting and soft, carpeted floors, you can wander through hushed galleries where backlit cabinets show artefacts from a range of dynasties. You could be in the Great Hall of the British Museum or of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. www.csuchen.de) Y& e$ E# Q, D2 @% m+ i

3 a8 I$ e* a6 m" g( wwww.csuchen.deThe $100m (£50m) museum is generally recognised as China's first world-class museum in terms of standards of display and preservation, and it is now regarded as something of a standard bearer for change. The phrase "Cultural Revolution" cannot be used lightly in regard to China but there is no doubt that the country's museum sector is undergoing a radical upheaval, the beneficiaries of which include the foreign tourist.www.csuchen.de& M+ C7 Z' \- S6 o) `
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Despite China's unsurpassed cultural richness, the vast majority of visitors still only ever visit the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Terracotta Army in Xian. This is partly because that's how most tour groups are processed, but until recently more independent-minded visitors have struggled with the low profile given to China's museums.
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5 k9 ~8 V' v, \) U9 iChina has traditionally placed little emphasis on museums: other areas have had priority for funding; staff are poorly trained and, curiously, there is no real cultural tradition of strolling around a museum on a Sunday afternoon, though this is slowly changing with the emergence of a Chinese middle class.
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The impetus for the change in the fortunes of China's museum sector is the Cultural Olympiad. The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games is in sight, and the Olympiad is a four-year cycle of events that each Olympic City is required to embrace ahead of the Games as a way of showcasing its culture. (Accordingly, London's own Cultural Olympiad begins in 2008.) China appears to have embraced this mission with the same enthusiasm it has for capitalism and high-rise shiny buildings, and is throwing huge amounts of money at its museums and galleries. It is nothing less than a great leap forward: 100 new museums will open in China before the Olympics, and, in a move that recalls Chairman Mao's five-year plans, the authorities have announced that an incredible 1,000 new museums will be opened by 2015, by which time every significant city in China is expected to have a modern museum. Beijing already has 118 museums and plans to open and build a further 30 in time for the Olympics; Shanghai aims to open 100 new museums over the next four years.9 ]0 R4 U) e. ]' i

, b3 }3 k& F6 U( v( oBy 2008, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics will have received $72m from the municipal government to maintain and renovate places of historic interest across the city. Last year Beijing witnessed the opening of the new Capital Museum, the largest cultural building constructed in the city since 1949. Other museums being built include a National Art Gallery and museums on a range of 20th-century phenomena, including films and cars. The Beijing Planetarium is being expanded, along with China's Agriculture Museum. Meanwhile, the China National Museum on Tiananmen Square represents the largest museum renovation work in the city. The project will almost double the museum's floor space to more than a million square feet - and carries a price tag of $217m., ~2 `( E& J; G) I" w8 V

% X! F  t( G8 X$ b- ?+ C; fwww.csuchen.deShanghai, Beijing's thrusting little brother, is seeking not just to emulate but surpass the capital. The city already has a new museum of antiquities, and a $200m science museum, while construction has begun on the largest contemporary art museum in Asia. The space, located among the Hong Kong skyline of Shanghai's Pudong district, will feature a range of modern arts, from contemporary art to experimental music, drama and film and is scheduled to open in 2009.
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0 ?3 g0 S! r* ONew museums and projects are opening right across the county. In Xian, the Terracotta Army museum is to be augmented after the Chinese government pledged $55m towards the construction of three additional museums to house the statues of acrobats, civil servants and warriors found close to the tomb of Emperor Qin, a mile away from the main museum.8 m' j  u8 B# m2 p' b$ e* s7 R7 S

' v# x# l4 a2 f  A  T! rThe city already has another world-class and thoroughly modernised museum, the Shaanxi History Museum. Located in a graceful Tang-style building and home to 373,000 cultural relics, the collection ranges from burial items from the early Shang and Zhou dynasties to unicorns from the 4th century BC and pottery honour guards from the Ming era. All are displayed with English and Chinese captions. The city is also home to China's first underground museum, the Han Yang Ling museum, featuring a world-class collection of relics from the Western Han dynasty.
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' l5 P3 n4 P$ P0 H. yYet this burst of museum building has been accompanied by a clear sense of the importance of cultural history, and the authorities do seem to know when to apply the handbrake. In Xian, the authorities are resisting pressure to excavate the tomb of Emperor Qin, who ordered the huge site to be built to accompany him to the afterlife./ X" J, v/ ?; N* U. m

' s- _/ j: j/ b5 w8 MAccording to historians, it contains a vast array of treasures, including a map of the earth with rivers made from mercury, eternal lamps and booby traps with crossbows to attack the unwary. Foreign archaeologists are itching to see what lies inside this Indiana Jones-style tomb but it will not be opened until the requisite technology is available. "If we open the tomb and the treasures are lost, they stay lost," said Jin Tai, a senior member of the Terracotta Army museum staff.