China should set up more museums and improve their management to meet people's needs, scholars told a seminar on museums.

In the West, every 100,000 to 200,000 population have a museum, but in China 600,000 people have a museum on average, said Professor Liu Yi with Nankai University based in north China's Tianjin.

Currently, there are about 2,300 museums of various kinds in China, far from enough to meet the demand of society, he said.

Many museums do not have their own features or fully explore their advantages, making them unattractive to people.

"There is no fixed development style for museums. It is of vital importance for museums to show attractiveness with their own collections," Liu said.

Moreover, museum operators should not only have professional knowledge, but also know how to manage it to meet people's various interests, he added.

Zhang Bai, deputy head of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said recently that a star-ranking system would be introduced to assess the management of museums next year.

Experts also called for more financial support from society in upgrading and reforming museums.

Two thirds of museums are on the edge of survival due to shortage of funds. Most of those threatened are small and medium-sized ones in central and western China, according to Zhang Wenbin, director of the Chinese Museum Institute.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)