Built in 1959, the Museum of the National Cultural Palace was the first large-scale national museum built following the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Up to now, it has collected and preserved about 50,000 cultural relics and objects from China’s 55 ethnic minorities. With this number and variety of collections, the museum is the best example of its kind in China. It has a professional team of researchers that come from many different ethnic groups. The museum has published some monographs on the research of minority cultures, such as Clothing of China’s Miao Group, Clothing of China’s Yi Group, Masks of China’s Ethnic Minorities, and Social and Historical Materials of Tibet, China.
    The Museum of the National Cultural Palace has been dedicated to the exploration, categorizing, research, protection, and presentation of China’s culture. Since its establishment, the museum has organized over 100 exhibitions and displays of different types of Chinese culture, including some outstanding exhibitions held in the United States, Japan, the former Soviet Union, Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong, bringing the colorful and outstanding traditional culture of China’s ethnic minorities onto the world stage, and made a positive contribution to cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.
    The China Museum Academy and Beijing Museum Academy joined the Museum of the National Cultural Palace in 1981 and 1985 respectively. In 1995, it was among the frist 55 museums to be registered by Beijing municipal government.