A Mogul Conjures Up the Cultural Revolution

Less than an hour's drive away from the city of Chengdu, the Jianchuan Museum Cluster embodies a wealthy property developer's surprising obsession with revolutionary China—from guards in clothing inspired by Red Army uniforms from the Long March to 100,000 Mao Zedong badges.

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A hundred thousand Mao badges (one is above), troves of mirrors showing his face and 'Red Era' porcelain and tubs.

Private museums built by wealthy individuals have been cropping up all over China. But the museums founded by 55-year-old Sichuanese developer Fan Jianchuan stand out for their sheer scale: He puts his investment so far at a minimum of 18 museum buildings, with a staff of nearly 500, spread over 82 acres of Anren township. Mr. Fan, who says he has collected eight million objects, says his expenses so far total 1.2 billion yuan, or $188 million. (Chengdu, Sichuan's capital, is a city of seven million in southwestern China.)

"It's not possible to make one museum financially viable. This is why I've created a museum cluster—it's more like a supermarket," said Mr. Fan, who made his fortune building more than 10.8 million square feet of new construction in Sichuan province, which includes Anren.

The complex opened in August 2005 with five museums about the Second Sino-Japanese War, which blended in its final years into World War II. In a sculpture plaza of 222 heroes of the Sino-Japanese War, a visitor can mingle with life-size bronzes of past leaders.

Four museums display the core of Mr. Fan's collection: Cultural Revolution artifacts bought directly from private collectors or from Chinese auction houses or state-owned relics companies who sell him large lots, like the Mao badges.

There's the 4,000-work Red Era Porcelain Museum; the Red Era Daily Objects Museum, with vintage posters, documents, notebooks and even washing tubs; the Red Era Mirror Museum, displaying thousands of mirrors, many of them printed with Chairman Mao's face; and the Red Era Museum of Badges and Clocks, home of the Mao badges. Three other museums pay tribute to the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, which killed almost 70,000 people.

With an annual operating budget of about $4.7 million, Mr. Fan has tried to find sources of revenue by selling T-shirts and duplicates of collected newspapers and badges. Admission to the complex ranges from just over $3 for one museum to nearly $16 for a three-day pass.

"I want to build a museum of farmers and workers, a museum of private enterprises and a museum of capitalism," Mr. Fan said and jokingly added: "I want to build a Museum of Uncorrupt and Honest Officials."

—Mina Choi