The National Museum of China – A Very Odd Place

I’ve visited the new and vast (though don’t confuse volume with value here please) National Museum of China several times – each trip is more bizarre than the last. An exhibition of awful socialist realist Mao portraits followed by an even more awful exhibition dedicated to how much the Chinese police love the Chinese people (a love that may not be all that returned!) featuring kitschy paintings of cops helping old ladies across roads and cradling children in their laps. Then there’s the special exhibitions – the first time I went it was a Louis Vuitton exhibition, then a Bulgari show…..

Anyway, Matthew Niederhauser has been taking some photos and making some comments about the weirdness of the place here in Selling Out History: China’s National Museum of Luxury.