For the first few decades, Tang Shimin was trying to collect rare animals to enhance the integrity and diversity of the collection, but he had to change his approach when the animal protection law was enacted in China in 1985.

"In the early 1980s, we were still able to hunt animals on farmland for taxidermy before the animal protection law came out," Tang Shimin says. "We also have giant panda in the museum that was made in the 1960s with a corpse donated by the Shanghai Zoo. But later, even donations of protected animals were not allowed.