The Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography of Parma began in 1901, as the wish of the founder of the Xaverian Missionaries Guido M. Conforti.
The museum represents an artistic and documented container of exceptional importance, fruit of a long and winding journey. For a few decades, the Xaverians worked exclusively on Chinese territory.
To that first collection of objects of art and ethnography from China, other pieces were added from the 60s on, of predominantly ethnographic interest, from the other regions of the world (Asia, Africa, Americas) were the Xaverians are present: Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Africa, etc. Thus enriching the museum of cultural aspect which witness the life in those continents.
Our museum is not monothematic, and not even a sterile relic of the past; rather, we want to show the vitality, reality and life of the cultures represented in our museum. And the work of the Xaverian missionaries is still alive and more universal than ever: China is mysterious and gentle, the Kayapó are still "strong and beautiful" and Africa is still appealing and fascinating.