Quiet! History speaking
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Fan Jianchuan walks among statues of Chinese soldiers in one of his museums dedicated to the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. He says he builds museums to advocate peace, friendship and better understanding. [Photo: China Daily] |
Fan Jianchuan plans to put together more than a hundred museums in his lifetime. He has already founded 15 in his native Sichuan, a result of spending the last 30 years of his life collecting about 8 million exhibits through private sales or public auctions.
The driving force behind his relentless collecting is his belief that history should be left to speak for itself. Throughout his Jianchuan Museum Cluster in An'ren town, an hour's drive away from Chengdu, there are signs that remind visitors: "Let's not talk loudly, history is speaking", "Shhh ... Don't drown the voice of history."
To the 53-year-old Fan, it is a public calling to document what has happened to the country in the last 100 years and he wants to do it as objectively as possible, above the cacophony of prejudices and personal perspectives.
"The last 100 years have witnessed more tremendous changes in China than that of any other period, during which the country has been industrialized, modernized and civilized," he says.
Sometimes, he travels far in search of new discoveries, but at other times, they drop right on his doorstep.
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