China has spent the past 15 years playing catch-up with the developed world by building skyscrapers and demolishing its old hutongs and alleyways.
It has been accused by cultural organisations of taking the view that, in order to justify its existence everything must have an economic means and end. As a result, the cultural sector - in one of the world's most extraordinary repositories of art - has been left out in the cold.
In the past two years, however, this policy has been put in reverse and the country's lonely, neglected museums have been given a reassuring arm around the shoulder. Why?
Well the reason has nothing to do with culture and a lot to do with sport: China's museums and cultural attractions will be hugely popular during the 2008 Beijing summer Olympic Games and will provide a showcase for the country.
The phrase 'cultural revolution' has too many painful and resonant connotations when applied to China, but there is no doubt that China's authorities have suddenly decided to nurture their cultural history - which should be good news for its beleaguered museums.
Doubtless there will be skeptics, but the test period for just how seriously China is tackling this task is right now. We are in the middle of the Cultural Olympiad - the period of four years between each Olympic games - which traditionally places an emphasis on the arts in the country that hosts the next games.
Beijing is no different, and the cranes that dot its skyline are now helping to reconstruct museums as well as erect 21st-century office blocks.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese state-controlled media agency, China's capital has 118 museums and by 2008 that figure is expected to have increased to 150. There appears to be no official figure for the total number of museums in China but according to the website, www.chinamuseums.com, there are more than 2,000.
In a declaration that recalls the over-optimistic targets of the five-year plans, the central Chinese government has said it wants to build 1,000 new museums across the country by 2015.
Informal comment from within China is difficult to obtain, and most information regarding the Cultural Olympiad is issued though Xinhua. In one such statement, Mei Ninghua, the head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, said that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was providing the impetus behind the construction, and that US$854m is expected to be spent on the building and renovation of museums prior to the Olympic Games.
The fruits of this programme are already visible: in December 2005, the new Capital Museum, the largest cultural building constructed in the city since 1949, was re-opened - albeit almost one year late. Meanwhile, ancient buildings in former imperial gardens, residences of the nobility and a number of imperial tombs are being restored, including Yuanmingyuan, a former imperial garden in north-west Beijing.
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.
Of all the projects, the largest is the National Museum of China. Located in Tiananmen Square, the price tag has been put at US$217m and the project will expand the museum's floor space from 85,000 sq metres to 150,000 sq metres.
Exhibition halls will occupy 35,700 sq metres and will include 15 themed permanent collection halls, four non-regular exhibition halls, five halls for international exchange displays and four halls for donated articles. It is scheduled to reopen in December 2007.
The showcase restoration will be the Forbidden City, home of Imperial Palace emperors for nearly 600 years and the Chinese capital's major tourist attraction. Its facelift will cost £1bn. The renovation is intended to enable the Forbidden City authorities to open up more than 80 per cent of the palace to visitors. At present, only around 30 per cent of it is accessible to the public.
Shanghai is also supporting a museum boom. According to Xinhua, the city authorities aim to open 100 new museums over the next four years before the 2010 World Expo. New buildings include a US$100m Shanghai Art Museum, a new museum of antiquities, and a US$200m science museum.
Yet while funding for such headline attractions as the Forbidden City is usually straightforward - state funding and international donations are expected to meet the costs - the subject is more complex where less iconic buildings and cultural attractions are concerned.
By 2008 the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage will have received a total of 600 million yuan (US$72m) from the municipal government to maintain and renovate places of historic interest across the city. This represents just a small fraction of the funding required.
As a result, other sources, including private funding, are being sought. This shortfall goes to the heart of the challenge facing the country's museums and galleries: in communist China, many institutions remain state owned and require vast investment.
The first private museum only appeared in China in 1996 - the Guan Fu Classical Art Museum, in Beijing. According to the China & the World Cultural Exchange website, since then more than 100 private museums have been set up all over China, of which ten are in Beijing.
Yet many obstacles remain, according to Gao Xiaolong, the deputy director of the Museum Department of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics Heritage.
In an interview for the China Cultural Exchange website, he said that owners of private museums were not professionally trained in museum management, as they tended to be collectors or entrepreneurs, and lacked management expertise and experience.
There are other cultural hurdles too: perhaps surprisingly, the average Chinese person does not know much about museums and there is no culture of a leisurely Sunday afternoon at a museum. More pertinently, according to Gao, China still lags behind in policy-making and law enforcement for museums.
A number of steps have been taken recently to address at least some of these issues. In 2005, the Beijing municipal government issued the Beijing Museum Regulation, under which museums must have an agreed number of collections of 'fairly good quality'; a designated space that can be opened to the public all year; a steady source of funding; and a team of professional employees.
A further challenge for China's cultural arm is that the restoration of museums needs to be accompanied by a change in the thinking and approach of museum staff: most working professionals in China's museums train themselves and never receive any formal training - let alone international training - in curating. At the end of 2003 there were 34,891 staff employed in museums around the country, according to government statistics.
Outside help could have a modest impact. Bruce Altshuler, the director of the Museum Studies Programme at New York University, is working on a project to bring together young museum professionals from Asia, Europe and the US in New York for training over a three-week period at a summer institute, starting this year.
According to Altshuler, the main areas where China's museum staff need help are: professionalism; fundraising and marketing; educational programming; collections and exhibitions. The training programme will include presentations, working in teams to solve problems and visits to museums.
Other institutions are taking similar measures. Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts has in the past two years established exchange programmes with a range of overseas partners, including Columbia University Teachers College in New York, the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
After Beijing, of course, it is London's turn to host the Olympics. The British museum sector is keeping a close eye on how China manages its Cultural Olympiad and is collaborating in some events. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) are preparing to stage a series of loan exhibitions in China between 2008 and 2012.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum said that while links with China have grown in recent years, the new events were specifically inspired by the cultural Olympiad and that the exchanges will include exhibitions, curatorial exchanges - helping to address the shortfalls in training - skills sharing and joint projects.
The initial emphasis will be on loan exhibitions on world cultures not represented in museums in China, alongside the National Museum of China's own collections.
The exchanges work both ways: in 2008, to coincide with the Beijing Olympics, the V&A will host a major exhibition, China Design Now, showing the best of contemporary Chinese design.
According to the British Museum: 'These alliances will complement the cultural and artistic spotlight that will be focused on Beijing and London, as both host Olympic cities over the coming years.'
Mark Rowe is a freelance journalist
It has been accused by cultural organisations of taking the view that, in order to justify its existence everything must have an economic means and end. As a result, the cultural sector - in one of the world's most extraordinary repositories of art - has been left out in the cold.
In the past two years, however, this policy has been put in reverse and the country's lonely, neglected museums have been given a reassuring arm around the shoulder. Why?
Well the reason has nothing to do with culture and a lot to do with sport: China's museums and cultural attractions will be hugely popular during the 2008 Beijing summer Olympic Games and will provide a showcase for the country.
The phrase 'cultural revolution' has too many painful and resonant connotations when applied to China, but there is no doubt that China's authorities have suddenly decided to nurture their cultural history - which should be good news for its beleaguered museums.
Doubtless there will be skeptics, but the test period for just how seriously China is tackling this task is right now. We are in the middle of the Cultural Olympiad - the period of four years between each Olympic games - which traditionally places an emphasis on the arts in the country that hosts the next games.
Beijing is no different, and the cranes that dot its skyline are now helping to reconstruct museums as well as erect 21st-century office blocks.
According to Xinhua, the Chinese state-controlled media agency, China's capital has 118 museums and by 2008 that figure is expected to have increased to 150. There appears to be no official figure for the total number of museums in China but according to the website, www.chinamuseums.com, there are more than 2,000.
In a declaration that recalls the over-optimistic targets of the five-year plans, the central Chinese government has said it wants to build 1,000 new museums across the country by 2015.
Informal comment from within China is difficult to obtain, and most information regarding the Cultural Olympiad is issued though Xinhua. In one such statement, Mei Ninghua, the head of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, said that the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games was providing the impetus behind the construction, and that US$854m is expected to be spent on the building and renovation of museums prior to the Olympic Games.
The fruits of this programme are already visible: in December 2005, the new Capital Museum, the largest cultural building constructed in the city since 1949, was re-opened - albeit almost one year late. Meanwhile, ancient buildings in former imperial gardens, residences of the nobility and a number of imperial tombs are being restored, including Yuanmingyuan, a former imperial garden in north-west Beijing.
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.
Of all the projects, the largest is the National Museum of China. Located in Tiananmen Square, the price tag has been put at US$217m and the project will expand the museum's floor space from 85,000 sq metres to 150,000 sq metres.
Exhibition halls will occupy 35,700 sq metres and will include 15 themed permanent collection halls, four non-regular exhibition halls, five halls for international exchange displays and four halls for donated articles. It is scheduled to reopen in December 2007.
The showcase restoration will be the Forbidden City, home of Imperial Palace emperors for nearly 600 years and the Chinese capital's major tourist attraction. Its facelift will cost £1bn. The renovation is intended to enable the Forbidden City authorities to open up more than 80 per cent of the palace to visitors. At present, only around 30 per cent of it is accessible to the public.
Shanghai is also supporting a museum boom. According to Xinhua, the city authorities aim to open 100 new museums over the next four years before the 2010 World Expo. New buildings include a US$100m Shanghai Art Museum, a new museum of antiquities, and a US$200m science museum.
Yet while funding for such headline attractions as the Forbidden City is usually straightforward - state funding and international donations are expected to meet the costs - the subject is more complex where less iconic buildings and cultural attractions are concerned.
By 2008 the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage will have received a total of 600 million yuan (US$72m) from the municipal government to maintain and renovate places of historic interest across the city. This represents just a small fraction of the funding required.
As a result, other sources, including private funding, are being sought. This shortfall goes to the heart of the challenge facing the country's museums and galleries: in communist China, many institutions remain state owned and require vast investment.
The first private museum only appeared in China in 1996 - the Guan Fu Classical Art Museum, in Beijing. According to the China & the World Cultural Exchange website, since then more than 100 private museums have been set up all over China, of which ten are in Beijing.
Yet many obstacles remain, according to Gao Xiaolong, the deputy director of the Museum Department of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Relics Heritage.
In an interview for the China Cultural Exchange website, he said that owners of private museums were not professionally trained in museum management, as they tended to be collectors or entrepreneurs, and lacked management expertise and experience.
There are other cultural hurdles too: perhaps surprisingly, the average Chinese person does not know much about museums and there is no culture of a leisurely Sunday afternoon at a museum. More pertinently, according to Gao, China still lags behind in policy-making and law enforcement for museums.
A number of steps have been taken recently to address at least some of these issues. In 2005, the Beijing municipal government issued the Beijing Museum Regulation, under which museums must have an agreed number of collections of 'fairly good quality'; a designated space that can be opened to the public all year; a steady source of funding; and a team of professional employees.
A further challenge for China's cultural arm is that the restoration of museums needs to be accompanied by a change in the thinking and approach of museum staff: most working professionals in China's museums train themselves and never receive any formal training - let alone international training - in curating. At the end of 2003 there were 34,891 staff employed in museums around the country, according to government statistics.
Outside help could have a modest impact. Bruce Altshuler, the director of the Museum Studies Programme at New York University, is working on a project to bring together young museum professionals from Asia, Europe and the US in New York for training over a three-week period at a summer institute, starting this year.
According to Altshuler, the main areas where China's museum staff need help are: professionalism; fundraising and marketing; educational programming; collections and exhibitions. The training programme will include presentations, working in teams to solve problems and visits to museums.
Other institutions are taking similar measures. Beijing's Central Academy of Fine Arts has in the past two years established exchange programmes with a range of overseas partners, including Columbia University Teachers College in New York, the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music.
After Beijing, of course, it is London's turn to host the Olympics. The British museum sector is keeping a close eye on how China manages its Cultural Olympiad and is collaborating in some events. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) are preparing to stage a series of loan exhibitions in China between 2008 and 2012.
A spokeswoman for the British Museum said that while links with China have grown in recent years, the new events were specifically inspired by the cultural Olympiad and that the exchanges will include exhibitions, curatorial exchanges - helping to address the shortfalls in training - skills sharing and joint projects.
The initial emphasis will be on loan exhibitions on world cultures not represented in museums in China, alongside the National Museum of China's own collections.
The exchanges work both ways: in 2008, to coincide with the Beijing Olympics, the V&A will host a major exhibition, China Design Now, showing the best of contemporary Chinese design.
According to the British Museum: 'These alliances will complement the cultural and artistic spotlight that will be focused on Beijing and London, as both host Olympic cities over the coming years.'
Mark Rowe is a freelance journalist
