The Louis Vuitton show "Voyages" at the National Museum of China

To celebrate 20 years in China, Louis Vuitton opened a show called "Voyages" last week at the National Museum of China, the new mega-museum on Tiananmen Square whose opening this spring was met with both acclaim and skepticism. The show, which is up until August 30, has inspired some impassioned reactions in a country that combines respect for classical tradition and the embrace of modern consumerism, and some in China have taken issue with the exhibition's commercial nature.

The show of the brand's historical luggage and handbags is poised to capitalize on China's growing interest in travel, according to the Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, managing director of China Market Research Group, Shaun Rein, told AFP, "Louis Vuitton customers are very interested in buying a brand with long-term heritage. I think that's why Louis Vuitton is very smart to partner with the museum." Huang Chen, a visitor to the museum, liked the exhibition, telling AFP that "young people will understand why it became a major brand."

But others have seen the show as the unwelcome intrusion of a luxury brand into a cultural institution.Beijing University professor Xia Xueluan told the Global Times that "hosting such an exhibition is harmful to a state-level public museum that should in fact only be dedicating itself to non-profit cultural promotion." However, Liu Zheng, a member of the China Cultural Relics Association, told the paper that "proper commercial campaigns could do a lot of good for cultural publicity in our museums and are permitted... as long as the profits are spent on preservation work for cultural relics."

Louis Vuitton was one of the first luxury brands to gamble on China's economic boom, and now has 27 stores in 22 Chinese cities, according to the Communist newspaper People's Daily, which also reportsthat Chinese tourists are the biggest foreign spenders in France. Many Chinese celebrities are fans of the brand, with the actress Gong Li attending the opening of "Voyages."

Louis Vuitton, founded as a luggage shop in 1854 and now part of the luxury goods conglomerateLVMH, knows a thing or two about museums itself, having showcased contemporary art for almost ten years through the Louis Vuitton Foundation on the top floor of its flagship store. The foundation is now planning a new Frank Gehry-designed building in the Bois de Boulogne on the edge of Paris, to house the contemporary art collection of LVMHbillionaire Bernard Arnault, which has encountered some opposition from local residents. The Vuitton show is not the only artistic-and-fashion collaboration to have come to Beijing recently. "Journey of a Dress," a show of designs by Diane von Furstenberg and portraits of the designer by Western and Chinese artists, opened at Pace Beijingthis spring.