Acknowledgements Note on Romanization List of figures, tables and illustrations 1. Introduction 1.1 Rethinking museums in China 1.2 Museums as cultural circuits 1.3 Selection of art museums in the Greater Pearl River Delta region 1.4 Methods 1.5 Book structure 2. Revisiting the historical trajectories of modern art museums in China 2.1 The path towards the birth of modern public art museums in the Republic of China (1912-1949) 2.2 The development of art museums in the People's Republic of China (1949-) * Politicization of art museums under Mao (1949-1979) ** Cultural relaxation and the resumption of privatization in the post-Mao period (1979-1989) ** The nascent development of private art museums in the 1990s ** Museums in the twenty-first century 2.3 The changing museum contexts in Hong Kong (1962-current) 2.4 Concluding remarks 3. He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen 3.1 Between the state and the market: a contingent national museum framework 3.2 From nationalism to the production of knowledge: the art of He Xiangning 3.3 Cross-straits cultural diplomacy and public dialogue on contemporary art 3.4 Interpreting contemporary sculpture: possibilities and limitations 3.5 Educated youth, provincial visitors, and a diversified national public 3.6 Concluding remarks 4. Times Museum in Guangzhou 4.1 Institutional boundaries: the private market, the state, and society 4.2 Developmental perspective of cultural globalization * Critique of art commodification * Social-political critique of everyday life * Critical relationship between art and society * Institutional self-critique and reformulation of the museum 4.3 Artistic regionalization: southern imaginary vs northern hegemony 4.4 Educated youth and the consumption of 'alternative culture' 4.5 Concluding remarks 5. Hong Kong Museum of Art in Hong Kong 5.1 Museum bureaucracy and its institutional network 5.2 The historical painting collection: from the colonial legacy to aesthetic differences 5.3 International blockbusters and global cultural capital 5.4 National representation and the grandeur of dynastic art 5.5 Different notions of the local: from east-meets-west to a local-national-global nexus 5.6 Public and counter-public: museum consumption in a city-state 5.7 Concluding remarks 6. Conclusion 6.1 Museum modes of circuits 6.2 Implications of the findings * Institutional regulation: political and cultural-economic agents * Cultural production: museum intermediaries * Cultural consumption: museum publics 6.3 Contributions of the research Bibliograghies Index