The Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography of the Xaverian Missionaries of Parma began in 1901, expressly desired by the founder Guido M. Conforti. At the conclusion of the grandiose Universal Exposition of Turin, organized in 1898, Senator Fedele Lampertico donated some valuable pieces to Msgr. Guido M. Conforti, bishop of Parma and founder of the Xaverians. The museum represents an artistic and documentary container of exceptional importance, the result of a long and tortuous journey. For some decades the Xaverians operated exclusively on Chinese territory and it was precisely to the missionaries present in China that Conforti turned, asking them to periodically send significant objects of local art and life to Parma. The last direct entry from China via missionaries was in 1947; with the seizure of power by communism he put an end to the Xaverian mission in China. Since the 1960s, ethnographic material that came from other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America meant that the museum was enriched with cultural aspects, testimony to the life of three continents.

With the inauguration on 1 December 2012, the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography underwent a radical and ambitious renovation, an investment in the field of culture which has as its privileged target visitors and schools of all kinds and levels.

The Museum preserves the commitment of the Xaverian Institute for culture and the valorization of the great religious and cultural traditions in favor of Mother Earth and globality. A museum with a strong international identity due to the value of its materials and the modernity of its architectural and exhibition solutions.