Abstract: The concept and establishment of modern museums were introducedinto China during the late nineteenth century when China was anxious to absorb the Western civilization. Museums are thereflections of specific cultures and they usually display social publicity on the one hand and equally symbolize rational attitude on the other hand. However, both of these features were less or never cultivated in the traditional society of China. The modern museums appeared in China through two accesses; one was the efforts of foreign missionaries who established museums as cultural institutions to promote western culture in China or as affiliated institutions to missionary-run schools. The other was the efforts of some of the enlightened Chinese who actively advocated "reform" in view of "enlightening popular wits". In particular, the Chinese museums were deeply influenced by the fairs and expositions which had been held in China and abroad during the late years of the old monarchy and the early years of the new Republic.

Tianjin is one of the Chinese cities which initially introduced the western-style museums into China, and by the 1930's Tianjin had already established a complete museum system in modern sense. The museums in Tianjin basically followed the two models mentioned above, that is, one were missionary-managed and the others were Chinese run. Especially, during the early twentieth century, the rapid growth of the infrastructures in Tianjin greatly served to promote the dvelopment of modern museums in the city, which in turn promoted the qualities of the civilians and eventually played the key role in transforming their "irrational" attitudes and traditional concepts into modern ones. In this way, we can say that the modern museums have symbolized the public culture of a metropolitan city.

Key Words: Museum and rationality