Private 'red' museum opens its doors in Jilin

A private memorial hall displaying a collection of "red" artifacts opened to the public on Sunday in Baishan, Jilin province.

In the 50-square-meter hall, there are more than 1,000 exhibits, including badges, busts and small figurines of Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and documents and other relics relating to the Chinese revolution.

Liu Yiming, the 61-year-old curator, spent nearly 40 years collecting the items with the help of family members.

In 1972, when Liu received his first statue of Mao from his parents, he started his collection. He now has around 500 figurines of Mao in his memorial hall.

To enrich his collection, Liu traveled to different cities — Shenyang, Tangshan, Tianjin and Jingdezhen — to look for souvenirs. Every time he got a new one, he would clean it carefully and then classify it clearly with a label.

"I hope I can continue to expand the scale of my memorial hall and enrich the types of collections in the future," he said. "Furthermore, I hope that the memorial hall will attract more young people and students to help them remember the great achievements of the older generations and understand the hard-won happiness and harmony of our lives."