The Birth of a Chinese University Museum: A Study on the Construction Mechanism of Museums from the Perspective of Anthropological Thick Description

Abstract

University museums play an important role in enhancing the educational capacity of universities and providing social public services. Relevant studies have investigated the functions, nature, and practical operations such as curating and public education of university museums, but they lack an examination of the process through which a university museum emerges from nothing, from the initial concept to the physical completion. Taking the China Teachers Museum as a case study, this research collects 262 related news reports and conducts a step-by-step coding analysis using NVivo software to extract the internal mechanism of the museum's preparation and construction. The study finds that the construction subjects focus on three core issues: "why to build," "what to build," and "how to build." Guided by the concept of grounding in local characteristics and integrating into national strategies, they have formed construction strategies that include initiating activities as a precursor, leveraging unique social capital, and advancing routine operations. They also emphasize using various achievements obtained during the museum construction process to further verify the necessity and distinctiveness of the museum, thereby accelerating the museum's construction process. This study deepens the theoretical understanding of the construction laws of university museums and is expected to provide a reference for the construction practice of university museums.