Kirk A. Denton's book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on memory politics and museology in East Asia. It is, as far as I know, the very first English-language monograph that systematically examines public museums in post-martial law Taiwan. The book is a spin-off from Denton's earlier monograph on museum politics in the postsocialist People's Republic of China. This contributes to perceptive comparisons of exhibitionary cultures between Taiwan and China throughout the book. However, Denton also stresses that he is “not trying to weave together the historical experiences of China and Taiwan into some Sinocentric narrative” (6). In fact, the central theme of the book is how Taiwan's emergence as a multiparty, multicultural democracy and the rise of Taiwanese identity independent from China configure and reconfigure its museums. As such, Denton focuses on “the political and ideological uses of the past” (2). His research underscores the role played...

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