Funding body: Art and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
Period: 1 June 2023 to 31 January 2025
Research team
- Professor Cangbai Wang (Principal Investigator, University of Westminster)
- Dr. Yow Cheun Hoe (Co-Investigator, Nanyang Technological University)
- Dr. Huimei Zhang (Project Coordinator, Nanyang Technological University)
Project overview
The past two decades have witnessed an upsurge in the building of museums on Chinese diaspora both in the PRC and among the diasporic Chinese communities. Museums in different places often adopt different approaches to represent diasporic Chinese communities and histories. So far, there has been little interaction, let alone cooperation, between museums on Chinese diaspora set up in China and in diasporic Chinese communities; museums established by the diasporic Chinese have also developed largely in isolation.
The aim of this research project is to develop a global network of diasporic Chinese museums as a platform that initiates and stimulates intellectual dialogues and professional collaborations between museums in this field across geographic and national boundaries. It brings together museum curators, scholars, policy makers, and other stakeholders in this emerging cultural sphere to exchange experiences and share insights into collecting, curating and exhibition practice and public engagement, and to generate impact on public policymaking and interdisciplinary research of migration and museum in the Chinese context and beyond.
Project activities
1. A bilingual (English and Chinese) online public talk series on diasporic Chinese museums around the world running from 22 August 2023 to 26 November 2024. It consists of 12 talks in total, given by museum cuatros/directors of diasporic Chinese museum based in 10 different countries.
2. AHRC 'Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative Workshop' (Singapore), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 26 July 2024.
An in-person event to bring together museum directors and curators from seven different Asian countries and Australia as well as more than 30 local museum and heritage professionals of Singapore to discuss shared experiences and explore collaborations across borders.
3. AHRC 'Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative Workshop' (London), University of Westminster, London, 4 and 5 October 2024.
This second in-person event of the project brought together museum directors and curators from Australia, Canada, US, France and Singapore as well as more than 40 museum and heritage practitioners, scholars and doctoral researchers in the UK.
4. AHRC international symposium ‘Bridging the Gap in Migration and Museum Studies in Chinese Diasporas and Beyond’, 9 and 10 January 2025, University of Westminster.
This concluding event of the project brought together academics, museum professionals, and members of diasporic Chinese communities from a range of countries to discuss the intersection and interaction of the movement of people and things in a global context through the prism of the museum.
Visit the project website ‘Global Diasporic Chinese Museums Network Initiative’ to view the posters, programmes and reports of the above activities.
Project output
Cangbai Wang, Yow Chuen Hoe and Huimei Zhang eds., (forthcoming) Chinese Diasporas in Museums: Local Experiences, Global Issues and Comparative Perspectives, Routledge 2026.