Jianchuan Museum Cluster


The Jianchuan Museum Cluster is located in Anren Town, Dayi County, Sichuan province, China, about one hour's drive from the provincial capital Chengdu. It consists of 26 museums which showcase China's largest private collection of artifacts amassed during the last 60–70 years.

Founding

The museum was founded by, and named after, Fan Jianchuan, a local real estate billionaire native to Yibin, and a collector of Cultural Revolution Era memorabilia. Before starting his investments in real estate, Fan was the deputy major of Yibin. In 2003, he started investing his real estate earnings in the museums. Fan bought millions of historical items and bought 33 hectares of land in Anren, Dayi County.
The first five museums within the cluster opened to the public in 2005. As of 2015, Fan had invested RMB 2 billion in the museums. The museum cluster began operating at a break-even point in 2010.

Exhibits

The complex features more than two million historical and cultural artefacts, mainly from the founder's personal collection, and has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as an example of "the increasing openness about the way recent history is viewed in China." With a total area of, the museum cluster is made up of 26 museums, as of 2015. It has a repository of over 8 million artifacts, with 121 of them classified as Class-One National Treasures. It is the largest museum cluster in China. Several hundred artifacts have also been donated to other museums.
The museums are organized by four major themes: Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the 'Red era', the 2008 [Sichuan earthquake|Wenchuan earthquake], and Chinese folk culture.
In addition to museums, the cluster includes tourist facilities such as the Red Guard Inn, a People's Commune Restaurant, a revolutionary model opera-themed teahouse, and souvenir shops.

Museums

Exhibits are not arranged chronologically, but instead by material culture and function. For example, the first four Red Era museums exhibit porcelain, daily necessities, Mao badges, clocks, and seals, and mirrors, respectively.

Red Era theme

  • Red Era Ceramics Exhibition Hall
  • Red Era Living Necessities Hall
  • Zhiqing Life Hall
  • AVIC Museum
  • Li Zhensheng Photography Museum
  • Red Chronicles Exhibition Hall
  • Red Era Mirrors Museum

Second Sino-Japanese War theme

Wenchuan Earthquake theme

  • Memorial Hall of the 5.12 Earthquake Rescue
  • Wenchuan Earthquake Museum, exhibiting object left damaged by the earthquake
  • Earthquake Art Gallery
  • Hu Huishan Memorial Hall, in memory of Hu Huishan, a female student of Dujiangyan High School, who died of the earthquake

Chinese folk culture theme

Other