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The Museum in Asia

Yunci Cai editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Publishing:4th Feb '25

£35.99

This title is due to be published on 4th February, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Museum in Asia cover

The Museum in Asia advances understanding of the flourishing museum landscape in the region by offering a variety of conceptual tools and frameworks through which museum development can be analysed and understood.

Informed by the key theoretical tenets of critical museology and heritage studies, this volume seeks to deconstruct the idea of museology and the museum phenomenon in East, South and Southeast Asia to identify common themes and trends unique to Asia. Drawing on case studies from ten different countries in Asia, including China and India, it proffers a set of analytical tools to think though how we can understand and conceptualise the study of museums and museology in Asia. Contributions to this edited volume are drawn from both Asian and Western academic contexts, thus offering both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ perspectives on the museum phenomenon in Asia.

The Museum in Asia is the first academic book to explore the museum phenomenon in Asia from theoretical perspectives informed by museum and critical heritage studies, making it an essential text for the teaching of courses relating to museum studies, cultural heritage studies or Asian studies. Academics, students and professionals who are interested in learning more about the theory behind the museum phenomenon in Asia will find this book to be a useful resource.

"At last, a comprehensive account of current museum developments in Asia, the new frontier of museology. Cai is an expert guide – inclusive, critical, balanced - while attending to politics, practice and, importantly, local perspectives."
Professor Conal McCarthy, Professor of Museum and Heritage Studies, Victoria University of Wellington

"The Museum in Asia is an exciting collection of essays, providing an important corrective to museological debates that are all too often determined by European and North American contexts. As Yunci Cai argues in her introductory manifesto, Asian museums must be understood within their own socio-historical, cultural and political contexts and needs. This is precisely what the critical perspectives presented in this book offer."

Professor Paul Basu, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum and Professor of Anthropology in the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford.

ISBN: 9780367415648

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

336 pages