Forbidden No Longer: The Museumification of the Forbidden City

Forbidden No Longer is the first attempt in any language to tell the story of how Beijing’s Forbidden City—home of China’s emperors since the beginning of the 1400s—became today’s world-class museum and symbol of Chinese civilization. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, the Forbidden City houses a vast imperial art collection and is the world’s most-visited museum with around fifteen million visitors every year. But the story of how this complex of palaces and halls became a museum in the first place is fraught with conflict and struggle. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperors lived behind walls and moats in the Inner Court with only their immediate kin, palace women, and eunuchs allowed in. Access to the Outer Court was also largely “forbidden,” with high civil and military officials admitted for specific imperial rituals and work.

This book explores how Chinese and foreign observers have viewed the Forbidden City since the early twentieth century. Long a symbol of extraordinary artistic achievement, it was also an oppressive reminder of centuries of feudal rule. When it was taken from the last imperial family and transformed into a public museum, it became a powerful emblem of republican ideals. The story begins with the 1900 invasion and occupation of Beijing by Western and Japanese forces, which drove the imperial family into temporary exile. After the Revolution of 1911, the Outer Court was opened and an art museum established from the imperial collections. Yet the diminished court remained in the Inner Court until its expulsion in 1925, when the Palace Museum formally opened and the Forbidden City ceased to be forbidden. Even then, its meaning remained contested as republicans, warlords, Nationalists, and Communists struggled to define it. Its fate was uncertain into the 1970s, before stabilizing under Communist rule. Today, despite its status as a highly professional museum, the Forbidden City continues to provoke reflection on Chinese identity, politics, and society.

• Peter Zarrow, Author

  Peter Zarrow teaches in the History Department at the University of Connecticut.