This book explores the role of museums in Shanghai as cultural instruments for shaping urban identity, emotional attachment, and spatial rootedness. It draws upon original fieldwork conducted in over fifty museums, alongside critical analysis of exhibition design, policy discourse, and a wide body of literature from museology, cultural anthropology, urban sociology, architectural studies, and memory research. The methodology integrates qualitative observations, spatial analysis, and theoretical engagement with the idea of place-making. In addition to exhibition content and captions, the study analyses museums’ histories, location within the urban fabric and their positioning within the city scale.

Dr. Katarzyna Jarosz is a researcher and lecturer specializing in the history of science, memory studies, and museum studies. Dr. Jarosz has undertaken research fellowships at institutions such as the Center for the History of Global Development at Shanghai University, and she has published extensively on topics related to memory politics and the construction of national identity, primarily in Central Asia and post-Soviet countries.