On October 22, 2018, the School of Arts held the 5th Mei’an Workshopsuccessfully. The seminar was hosted by the Associate Professor Yue Xiaoying. Wang Xiage, the doctoral candidate of the School of Media & Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was invited to give the lecture.
Wang Xiage gavethe lecture titled “Competition or Complementarity? The Study and Prospect on Thematic Museum”. Competition and complementarity are cited from the economics to analyze the relationship between the substitutions or complementary of two products. The traditional museology and new museology both have studied the characteristics of thematic museums, but no consensus has been reached. The report starts from the concept evolution of thematic museums, and takes the two aspects of “competition” and “complementarity” as the starting point to explore the development history and characteristics of thematic museums and compare them with comprehensive museums. The study found that the emergence of thematic museums, whether conceptual or practical, is not a simple duality relation of either competition or complementary for comprehensive museums. It exists competition and complementarity in social functions, comparative advantages, market positioning and management operations between thematic museums and comprehensive museums. They should learn from each other and bring out their comparative strengths to realize differentiated competition strategies.