The exterior of the China Modern Lierature Museum.

The statue of Bing Xin displayed in gardens of the China Modern Literature Museum.

A portrait of Ba Jin collected by the China Modern Literature Museum

The China Modern Literature Museum is located in the Chaoyang District ofBeijing. The Museum constitutes the primary resource in China for materials on Chinese modern
literature and it is also the largest building in the world dedicated solely to literature and to collections relating to literature. Resources include a library, a documents hall, a hall for research materials, and a center for academic exchange. The mission of the museum is to collect, conserve, organize, and research works of modern and contemporary authors of China, their manuscripts, translations, books and letters, diaries, recordings, videos, photographs, documents and any other materials that relate to the critique of a work such as literary journals and newspaper reviews.

The China Modern Literature Museum was established in March of 1985. Its collecting principles do not distinguish on the basis of political views, artistic school or sect or style. All new literary materials since the beginning of the 20th century can be collected, including works from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and also overseas Chinese-language works. The museum currently has more than 300,000 collected items, among them 170,000 books, 2,100 kinds and 90,000 copies of magazines, 142 kinds of newspapers, 10,970 handwritten manuscripts, 8,282 photographs, 7,887 letters, 453 taped recordings, 773 videos, and 2,959 cultural artifacts.

The garden in the China Modern Literature Museum

The Museum has set up special rooms or cases for whole collections that have been donated to the museum. It has also set up collections in the name of the person donating. Such cases include the special collections of Ba Jin (1901-), Bing Xin (1900-1999), Xia Yan (1900-1995) and some fifty more authors, including those from Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas such as Lin Haiyin (1918-2001), and Bu Shaofu (1909-2000).
The China Modern Literature Museum actively carries on all kinds of literary activities, and has collectively edited a number of works on modern authors, as well as editing a quarterly journal together with the Modern Literature Research Association. Scholars both in China and abroad have carried on extensive interaction through the work of this museum. They have organized some major exhibits such as a retrospective of the works of Lao She (1899-1966) of Ye Shengtao (1894-1988), and an one-hundred-year tribute to Mao Dun (1896-1981).
The Museum has a multi-capacity hall that is offered for use as a site for literary discussions, research, speeches, performances, and exhibitions. A television hall is set up for televised events, and there is a media production room. The Museum is in a secluded garden full of trees. Inside, certain works of art were created specifically for the new museum by famous sculptors, painters, and craftsmen. There are oil paintings on the walls, colored glass inlaid in the walls, authors' sculptures, authors' signatures on ceramic vases and so on, providing an artistic atmosphere that is comfortable and conducive to reflection.
Address: Beijing City, Chaoyang District, Shaoyao Ju, Wenxue Guan Road, #45
Telephone: 86-10-84619071, 86-10-84615522-1104 or 2139
Fax: 86-10-84619054, 86-10-84619049
Official Website: http://www.wxg.org.cn