Institutional policing of western heritage: the case of Shanghai Symphony Museum

Abstract

ABSTRACT Previous studies have examined how popular music is preserved and curated. However, little is known when it comes to the more ‘high-brow' and institutionalized western classical music, especially in a non-western context. In this article, we look at Shanghai Symphony Museum, built and renewed from western urban heritage owned first by an upper-class elite, and then the government, co-managed by a property company in the metropolitan city, Shanghai. Through its spatial and curating strategies, we discuss how the elites curate and ‘police' the critical moments of the music culture in history, describe, and include it into the ‘Haipai Culture' context, and identify themselves with this spontaneously formed culture in contrast to policy-oriented culture from the broader Chinese context. We also include the visitors' feedbacks for gaining a fuller picture. It is argued that renewing and reusing western heritage can become a successful institutional negotiation by policy-makers, designers, organisers, and the visitors. To some extent, this success is derived from both the museum’s nature of being an elite space and institution and its approved motivation of developing cultural voice and commercial value.