China's largest private museum, Donghua Porcelain Museum, has moved out of the Jiali Building in the downtown district of Shanghai because of lack of funds.

Before Donghua, Er Dongqiang Folk Art Museum and Liu Dalin Sex Culture Museum, also private museums in the city, moved from their original exhibition halls for various reasons.

After some 20 rough years, many private museums are now facing serious hardships in Shanghai, the birthplace of private museums.

The "Calculator Museum," China's first individually sponsored museum, was opened by Chen Baoding in Shanghai in March of 1981. In the 1990s, the country had about 80 private museums. The figure increased to 200 by 1996.

Shanghai now has more than 60 private museums.

But behind the glorious image of private museums, balancing the sheets is becoming a common problem facing almost all private museum owners. Insiders predicted that half of the private museums in Shanghai now have such problem.

Liu Chunhua, owner of the Donghua museum, said he didn't think too much of economic problems when his museum first opened. Owning the exhibition site himself and having relatives to help with daily maintenance, Liu didn't have to pay the housing rent, nor high salaries for most of his employees.

But located in the golden downtown area in Shanghai, Liu had to pay some 100,000 yuan annually for the power and water supply and maintenance of the collections.

From the first day of opening, Liu charged no fees for visitors, which meant there was no income for the museum.

"Making a living is the most important thing for my museum now," Liu said. That's why he decided to move his museum to a workshop in Huangpi Nan Road, a less expensive area.

Besides financial reasons, scarcity of supportive policies and tolerant administrative environment also create difficulties for private museum owners. Of the 60 private museums in Shanghai, only one has passed the approval of the municipal cultural and relics administration commission.

Er Dongqiang Folk Art Museum, with 20,000 items of folk art, was moved because the original museum buildings would be demolished to make way for road construction and real estate development.

Though Shanghai is hailed as China's most open and modern metropolis, it was still a bit hard for Liu Dalin, a sexologist, to find a fine location to house his some 3,000 erotic artifacts in this business and financial hub.

After four years of strenuous efforts in Shanghai, Liu Dalin has decided to move his museum of ancient erotica to Tongli, a popular ancient town approximately 80 kilometers away from Shanghai in neighboring Suzhou city, east China's Jiangsu Province.

"Actually, the removal of the sex art museum is a loss of great significance for Shanghai, a venue renowned for its tolerance of diversified cultures," said Ren Weijun, deputy director of the Shanghai Collection Cultures Research Institute.

Sociologists also suggested the government give more support to museums, saying museums bear the responsibility of passing down cultures, especially the private ones which were born from the masses and serve the masses.

China is expected to publish a regulation on administration of museums this year. In the new regulation, the culture and relics protection department will be entitled the rights of administration of all kinds of museums, including private ones.

In Shanghai, the municipal government plans to increase investment to build 100 museums before 2010 when the World Expo opens.

"The spring for private museums is not far away," said an insider.

(eastday.com January 7, 2004)