本文採用 Tony Bennett的「文化治理」之分析概念，在文化與治理之間變動關係的歷史脈絡下，討論當代中國博物館的歷史發展與變化。本文指出：相較於 Bennett筆下在自由民主政治理性之中誕生的西歐博物館，中國的博物館的誕生與發展，糾纏在社會主義國家肇造的過程。毛時期的中國，黨／國家意識型態壓抑了博物館專業主義，博物館視為愛國主義教育的治理技術，在馬列毛思想指導下的博物館工作，負有文化宣傳的任務。其文化治理的目標，是形塑共產黨領導下的群眾與人民的心智與情感。而在改革開放時期，專業主義浮現於博物館實作中，使得博物館展示陳列、與解說導覽，都呈現與毛時期不同的樣貌。此外，在中國的旅遊經濟發展中，博物館成為旅遊吸引物，預期的造訪對象是「訪客」而非「群眾」或「人民」。雖然如此，在特定的時刻或特定的地點，黨／國家仍試圖操作博物館實作，以確認中國共產黨統治的正當性。以此，本文歷史性地討論了這些不同的價值架構在博物館此一論述空間中的起伏消長，並分析作為文化治理技術的博物館實作涉及的政治理性。

Using Tony Bennett’s analytical concept of “cultural governance”, this article discusses the historical development of museums in contemporary China in the context of the changing relations of culture and government. It argues that, different from its counterparts in Western Europe emerging in the political reasons of liberal democracy regimes, the birth and development of museums in contemporary China was intertwined with the process of socialist state formation. In Mao’s China, Marxism-Leninism-Mao-Zedong-Thought and nationalism dominated museum practices, which were officially considered as government technology of patriotic pedagogy to shape the mind and emotion of “the mass” and “the people.” In the Reforms era, professionalism emerges in the museum practices so that the modes of exhibition, display, and narrations of the docents significantly differ from what they were in the museums under the reign of Mao. In addition, museums have become tourist attractions in the development of tourism in China so that museums now are open to “general visitors.” Yet, the state and the Party in China still tend to use museums as a technique to legitimize its rule in specific cases or occasions. This paper considers the dynamics between the professionalism and state ideologies in museum practices in contemporary China as the dissonance between different modes of cultural governance.