In the academic field, the unequal relationship between the center and the periphery is a product of history rather than a natural formation, and this kind of relationship is not one which is forever fixed and unchangeable. This article takes the case of the French Jesuit Emile Licent as its focus, and analyses the ways in which Licent built the Musée Hoang Ho Pai Ho (a museum of Natural History in Tianjin), the tension pervading his scientific cooperation with the French National Museum of Natural History in Paris, as well as his struggle for recognition and respect for his museum in China.