This study examines the birth and use of the first Chinese-sponsored museum, in Nantong county, Jiangsu province, in the context of local elites' effort to make the county an example of modern progress. It reflects on the changing notion of progress among Chinese elites since the self-strengthening movement of the 1860s, and also illustrates an often neglected dimension of modernity – exhibitory modernity, or presentation. The Nantong elites proved to be masters at manipulating exhibitory modernity to reconstruct their community. Understanding exhibitory modernity in the early 20th century sheds light on China's current modernization effort. One of the distinct marks of the new era has been the tremendous energy and resources invested in exhibitory institutions and activities, as demonstrated in the national zeal for China to host the 2008 Olympics and the 2010 World Expo. These sorts of activities are in part aimed at showing the rising status of China. By bringing the world – globally recognized symbols for power, strength, respect, modernity and cosmopolitanism such as the World Expo – to China, it wishes to remake its national image as part of that advanced world on the one hand, and boost nationalism at home on the other. This and the Nantong experience illustrate both the artificiality of national and community identity and the enduring force of modernity.