The power of museums has been greatly boosted in Chongqing in recent years, with the development of the creative industry and based on educational activities, digitalization, and other innovating means. "The power of museums" makes traditional culture popular and was thus selected as the theme of the "International Museum Day on May 18" in 2022.
Visitors "bring the museum home"
The creative product supermarket in China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing always attracts a lot of people on holidays.
The China Three Gorges Museum is full of cultural and creative products. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
"Visitors are willing to walk into the creative products (gift shops) area as the last stop in the museum. What's special about it is that you can bring home your favorite 'collections'. Cultural relics and collections are the core resources of a museum, whose utilization is brought to full play with the creative products," said Chi Lin, director of the Creative Product and Cooperation Department of China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing.
A cultural symbol of Chongqing, the museum serves an average of over 3 million visitors a year. With the increasing popularity of Chongqing in the tourist market in recent years, the museum is quickening its pace in developing creative products. Data show that the museum developed 51 kinds of creative products under 25 categories in 2016 and 461 kinds under 377 categories in 2020. The annual sales of products have increased from about 800,000 yuan in the early days to about 8 million yuan. In Chi Lin's view, the results all benefit from continuous innovation.
According to Gao Bichun, director of the Chongqing Natural History Museum, the creative products of a museum should spread culture to attract the public's attention to the museum and exerts its influence. This museum has launched over ten kinds of creative products in recent years. The crystal products with zodiac-pattern interior carvings launched in 2021 and the dinosaur masks and others in 2022 have been highly acclaimed.
Tourists are visiting Chongqing Natural History Museum. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
"Revive" cultural relics resources
"The educational activities of the museum, irregular, fragmented, and children-oriented previously, have now become systematic, regular, and interesting, and applied to audiences of all ages," said Qiu Xiaoling, deputy director of the Department of Public Education and Services, China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing.
In May 2021, the China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing launched "Historical Relics Presented with Hands" as the first among others across China by providing 35 videos on cultural relics in sign language for disabled people. On the Double Ninth Festival in 2021, the museum worked with nursing homes to hold an event for the elderly. In 2022, the museum launched a training course on calligraphy and painting for adults based on its rich resources and collections of Chinese paintings. It is also one of the regular services of the museum to hold exhibitions and carry out cultural and educational activities in the communities and rural areas.
"Historical Relics Presented with Hands" launched by China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing. (Photo provided to iChongqing)
The museum exerts its functions on social education and cultural dissemination. It promotes the equalization of public cultural services between urban and rural areas to a certain extent through research and education, thereby contributing to the cultural revitalization in rural areas.
Digitization diverts attention to cultural relics resources
The museum has preserved the cultural memory of human beings but can only play its role based on widespread dissemination. Digital technology, as it advances at a quick pace today, has reshaped the museums and the audience.
The video clips produced by Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute have gone viral recently, a typical case of how digitalization helps garner public attention to cultural resources. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of its founding this year, Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute has renewed its interpretation of Dazu Rock Carvings in digital form with new perspectives and ideas.
Poster of the video clips produced by Dazu Rock Carvings Research Institute. (iChongqing/ Shihan Yang)
The digital innovation of cultural relics resources is also seen in the Underwater Museum of White Crane Ridge. In July 2021, the China Three Gorges Museum of Chongqing and the Underwater Museum of White Crane Ridge worked with the "King of Glory" team to initiate the project for the digital revival of cultural relics. Wider attention has been paid to White Crane Ridge as the inscription-inspiring "Goddess of White Crane Ridge" is created digitally as a game figure.