The establishment of China Modern Museum began in the second half of19th century, which was closely related to the rise of modern industry, culture and education in China and the invasion of China by foreign powers after 1840 Opium War. 1868, French priest P. Ed first established the Xujiahui museum in Shanghai, which mainly collects plant specimens and is not open to the public.
Later, the British, Japanese, Americans, Russians and others successively built museums in Shanghai, Jinan, Chengdu, Lushun, Harbin and other places, with the purpose of plundering China resources or enslaving China people's ideas. The first public museum founded by China people was Nantong Museum, which was founded by Zhang Jian in 1905.
19 1 1 The social changes produced by the Revolution of 1911 promoted the activities of scientific and cultural education in China, and also promoted the government of the Republic of China to set up a number of museums in Beijing, Tianjin, Taiyuan, Nanchang, Shenyang, Kaifeng, Nanjing, Lanzhou, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. 1925 The Forbidden City, the largest palace in China, was changed to the Palace Museum.
1933, Cai Yuanpei and others proposed to establish the Central Museum (now Nanjing Museum) in order to carry forward the traditional cultural spirit of the Chinese nation, and started construction on June 6, 1936. The National Central Museum is the first and only modern comprehensive large museum in China, modeled after the first-class museums in Europe and America.
From 1920s to 1930s, China Museum experienced a remarkable development period. 1936 On the eve of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, there were 77 museums, 56 art galleries and 98 antiquities repositories in China. Japanese imperialism launched a war of aggression against China in 1937, which caused serious damage to the China Museum. Until 1945 after War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory, China Museum was still in trouble. When People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded, there were only 24 museums in China.