Historical museums in China: the origins and key trends in the development in the 20th and early 21st centuries
The basic research problems, connected with the development of historical museums in China are little studied in world`s museological literature. This topic is now becoming more and more demanded, because Chinese historical museums occupied the priority position in the country throughout the entire 20th century. The first historical museums in China appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. The reason for creation of these museums was social need. After the military upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s, China's museum network was in a step away from destruction: many museums were closed and their collections were spread around the world. In the second half of XX century new historical profile museum groups appeared in China. Revolutionary, archaeological, local history museums were among these groups. Modern China provides an active museum policy, develops international cooperation. Based on a wide range of ICOM documents, materials from official museum websites, and literature in Russian and English, the authors reconstruct the origins and key trends in the development of historical museums in China in the 20th and early 21st centuries.