Includes bibliographical references and index.

A manifesto for museums in Asia / Yunci Cai -- Numinous objects and their (re)contextualisation in local museologies / Christina F. Kreps -- Religion on display : a comparative study of the Museum of World Religions and exhibition spaces in temples in Taiwan / Valentina Gamberi and Shu-Li Wang -- Tracing the lineage of linear exhibition narratives in Chinese museology / David Francis -- Defining, designating and ruling the other in the spaces of the Raffles Museum, Singapore, 1823-1960 / Chin Siew Elselt/Ang -- 'Unity in diversity' : museums and representation in Myanmar / Sandra H. Dudley -- Swapping time between contemporary Ainu and Kaitaku settler colonial history / Roslynn Ang -- Transforming Chemde Museum : monastic curating and co-curating in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Ladakh / Louise Tythacott -- Community-based museums in Thailand and their indigenous curatorial practices / Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool -- Curating the dead : a case study of localising strategies in a private museum in Vietnam / Graeme Were -- Vaacha : preservation and erasure in an indigenous museum / Alice Tilche -- The impact of India's partition on museums of the Punjab / Himanshu Prahba Ray -- Exhibition diplomacy : the Chinese experience / Da Kong -- Jianchuan Museum Complex : ethics and politics in China's private museum practice / Zhang Lisheng -- Rethinking heritage diplomacy on the maritime Silk Road / Yunci Cai -- Museums as sites of indigenous revitalisation : dialogues between national museums, indigenous artisans, and indigenous communities in Taiwan / Marzia Varutti and Geoffrey Gowlland -- Intersections between private lives, public housing, and national narratives : community museums in Hong Kong and Singapore / Ian Y.H. Tan -- A systematic view on digital museum practices with activity theory : exploring the contradictions that museum practitioners experience in the Republic of Korea / Juhee Park -- From digitisation to digital repatriation : a case study of International Dunhuang Project / Zheng Zhang -- Post-disaster practices in Japanese museums after the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami / Marina Masuda.

"The Museum in Asia advances understanding of the flourishing museum landscape in the region by offering a variety of conceptual tools and frameworks through which museum development can be analysed and understood. Informed by the key theoretical tenets of critical museology and heritage studies, this volume seeks to deconstruct the idea of museology and the museum phenomenon in East, South and Southeast Asia to identify common themes and trends unique to Asia. Drawing on case studies from ten different countries in Asia, including China and India, it proffers a set of analytical tools to think though how we can understand and conceptualise the study of museums and museology in Asia. Contributions to this edited volume are drawn from both Asian and Western academic contexts, thus offering both 'inside' and 'outside' perspectives on the museum phenomenon in Asia. The Museum in Asia is the first academic book to explore the museum phenomenon in Asia from theoretical perspectives informed by museum and critical heritage studies, making it an essential text for the teaching of courses relating to museum studies, cultural heritage studies or Asian studies. Academics, students and professionals who are interested in learning more about the theory behind the museum phenomenon in Asia will find this book to be a useful resource"--