Gao Rui

Biography

Gao Rui has been working for the Department of International Exchanges at the Palace Museum since 2016. Gao Rui is driven by a deep passion of classic art, and the history of the Forbidden City – upon which the Palace Museum was established, alongside his interest in the study of different cultures. These passions were all big motivators in starting his career at the Palace Museum. His main duties include managing international projects, and communications with international museums for devising exhibitions and loans.

Since joining the Palace Museum in 2016, Gao Rui has managed a series of international loans and collaborative exhibitions with institutions from Finland, Monaco, Russia, Singapore and the UK.

With his deepening engagement in the Palace Museum’s international cooperation projects, Gao Rui has – over the past several years – devoted particular focus and substantial effort to coordinating the Museum’s exchanges with British cultural institutions. A major part of his work has centred on reciprocal loan exhibitions between the Palace Museum and museums in the United Kingdom. 

One of the most remarkable projects was the 2024 collaborative exhibition with the Science Museum, for which the Palace Museum loaned 23 timepieces from its renowned clock collection. Held from February to June 2024, the exhibition explored the artistry, aesthetics, and imagination embodied in 18th-century clocks – those produced in Britain and brought across the seas to the Chinese court, as well as those locally made in China. The show received high praise from British audiences, and its success laid a solid foundation for future collaborations between the Palace Museum and the Science Museum, expanding into broader fields and more inspiring themes. 

In 2023, Gao Rui served as a curatorial team member for the exhibition Tea World, during which he coordinated the loan of over twenty tea-related artefacts from the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. 

In 2025, marking the centenary of the Palace Museum, Gao Rui, as project manager, co-organised the exhibition Journey of a Century: From the Forbidden City to the Palace Museum, in partnership with Durham University. Through a series of historical photographs the exhibition narrated the transformation of the Forbidden City from an imperial palace to a museum open to the public, and is emblematic of modern China. It opened successfully on September 25th 2025 at Durham University’s Oriental Museum, becoming the first overseas exhibition dedicated to the Palace Museum’s institutional history at this milestone moment. 

Beyond exhibition loans, Gao Rui continues to foster and expand partnerships between the Palace Museum and museums in Britain. He personally led the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Palace Museum and the British Museum, which was signed on October 10, 2025 – the very day marking the Palace Museum’s 100th anniversary. The event not only held symbolic significance for the two institutions, but also represented a memorable milestone in Gao Rui’s professional journey. Taking this moment as a new beginning, he remains committed to deepening exchanges between the Palace Museum and British cultural institutions, spearheading even more meaningful and inspiring collaborations in the years ahead.

Gao Rui holds an academic background in English and Literature, and has carried this passion for English literature and art well into nearly a decade of his professional career. Beyond his responsibilities in organising and coordinating various international projects, he remains deeply interested in exploring British classical literature and artistic movements – particularly the social transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution since the 18th century, and their reflections in literature and art. During this period, exchanges between China and Britain also became increasingly frequent. Tangible evidence and archival materials of these interactions are now preserved in numerous museums in both countries – especially in the United Kingdom. This subject continues to fascinate expertise and scholarly background, he hopes to collaborate with experts from British cultural institutions to explore these shared histories more deeply. 

Professionally, Gao Rui is interested in organising international exhibitions as it gives him the opportunity to experience new cultures and be in new environments. He enjoys being close to artworks and objects from other countries and likes to exchange ideas about the management and running of exhibitions with colleagues from other institutions.

At the British Museum

During Gao Rui’s time on the International Training Programme he was based in the Asia Department and his UK partner placement was spent at Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums, Newcastle.

As an ongoing project throughout the six-week programme, fellows were asked to use their existing skills and experience, and the knowledge gained throughout the annual programme, to create, develop, and propose a new interpretation for an object currently on display in the British Museum. Working in his departmental group, Gao Rui used their object, a Bencharong bowl, to explore the history of the object through cross cultural exchange.

Gao Rui’s participation on the International Training Programme was generously supported by the Sino-British Fellowship Trust.