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Eras Tour

As Chinese museums rack up fans through entertainment and social media presence, some question whether they are losing their educational focus

By Wang Yan Updated Nov.1

Tourists visit the Grand Canal Museum of China in Yang zhou, East China’s Jiangsu Province, July 2, 2024 (Photo by VCG)

A visitor wears a VR device at Hebei Museum, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, June 30, 2024 (Photo by Zhang Dawei)

Each summer for the last three years, Dong Yang, a 9-year-old primary school student who lives in downtown Beijing, has taken part in study tours to museums across the country. He has already visited over two dozen museums in 10 provinces. This summer, he planned to join three museum study tours, one in Beijing, and two in Southeast China’s Fujian Province. “I’ll go with expert guides to the Exhibition of Sanxingdui of Ancient Shu Civilization that’s on at the Grand Canal Museum in Beijing, and I’m curious to learn the mysterious ancient Shu culture,” Dong told NewsChina in July.　

Museum tours have become a popular educational vacation activity in China, one way in which museums are promoting wider participation. Organized by museums or vacation schools, a half-day tour can cost between 300-500 yuan (US$42-72), although entrance is often free for children.　

Dong’s mother, 45-year-old Zhou Hui, is a firm supporter of museum tours. “When these tours are organized well either by the museums or training organizations cooperating with them, you can see the kids’ enthusiasm,” she said. “The organizers teach the kids through interactive and fun games.” Zhou added that the museum is also hosting an immersive VR exhibition which allows visitors to have an adventure in the Sanxingdui ruins and interact with the Bronze Age Shu people who lived in the city founded in 1,600 BCE.　

China’s museums have been energetic in shedding their outdated and dusty image. Visitors in turn are flocking to heritage sites and museums, attracted by increased interaction, use of new technologies and collaborations with content creators.

Transformations

According to newly released data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, China’s museums saw a record 1.29 billion visits in 2023, almost double the 638 million visitors in 2013. In 2023, 268 new museums opened, bringing the national total to 6,833.　

In 2008, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage (SACH) launched free admission for some museums, seen as the initial impetus for the nationwide museum boom. Within a decade, of the 5,354 museums registered up to 2020, more than 5,000 offered free admission.　

According to SACH, during the 2024 Spring Festival(February 10-17), museums nationwide received 73.58 million visits, up 98.6 percent year-on-year. Tickets for popular museums sold out before the holiday, and popular museums extended their opening hours. Shanghai Museum welcomed an average daily 20,000 visitors during the Spring Festival.　

This boom continued to the May Day vacation (May 1-5), where heritage sites such as the Sanxingdui Ruins Site in Sichuan Province received 126,652 visitors. SACH said that the country’s over 6,000 museums and 55 national archaeological parks received nearly 40 million visitors during the first three days of the May Day holiday.　

Wang Han, a 40-year-old Beijing resident, remembers that in his childhood, museums were old-fashioned and some were quite dilapidated. Now a teacher at Beijing Union University, he said that since the early 2010s, museums have really improved. Much of this is due to increased funding, which allowed museums to upgrade and offer better facilities and exhibits.　

“Nowadays, even many county-level museums impress visitors with their rich and valuable collections, as well as modern facilities and designs,” Wang told NewsChina.　

Shanxi Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province opened in 1919. Zhao Zhiming, deputy director of the museum, told NewsChina that when he started in 1988, museums played an important role in fulfilling social education, so most visits were organized by schools and government organizations. Museums were impersonal, with largely uniform design. “So you wouldn’t need to visit any museum more than once in a lifetime, as nothing much would change in terms of collections or exhibitions,” Zhao said.　

Societal development was the gamechanger. “Low incomes and inconvenient transportation prevented people from visiting museums,” Zhao said. “When travel becomes more convenient, holidays increase, and the public are better educated, people desire more cultural fulfillment, so museums shift from being dull and serious educators toward being a cultural service provider.”　

In September 2005, Shanxi Province set up the new provincial museum. It showcases collections of the latest archaeological findings from the province, and makes it easier to view the collections by categorizing them into seven periods according to dates of the dynasties, and five artistic sections. “We put a lot of effort into mapping out the exhibition system to tell a good story for visitors,” Zhao said.　

“The museum wants to be more approachable and friendly, so anyone with at least a middle school education can understand the exhibits. Zhao has noticed this allows all visitors to relax and become immersed in the exhibitions.　

Yao Xiang, who guides visitors around Shanxi Museum, said that apart from the increase in museumgoers, she finds they are much more knowledgeable now. Many already know what artifacts are, and even what they were used for.

An AI tour guide waits for visitors at Deshou Palace, which was built during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) when Hangzhou was the capital, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, July 23, 2024 (Photo by Zhang Dawei)

A visitor takes photos at the “Unveiling Sanxingdui of Ancient Shu Civilization” exhibition at the Grand Canal Museum, Beijing, August 22, 2024 (Photo by VCG)

Children play a video game about collecting taxes for goods transported by barge on the Grand Canal in ancient times, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal Museum, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, July 20, 2024 (Photo by Zhang Dawei)

Smart Museography

Realizing that modern visitors need a richer experience, Shanxi Museum undertook a three-year digital upgrade.　

Now, scanning a QR code allows people to view an object and learn its story. Display case glass is anti-reflective to attain high transparency effects. There is multimedia equipment in exhibition halls to highlight interpretations of the exhibits, as well as interactive videos and fun games.　

Schoolboy Dong Yang said he attended a day program at the Capital Museum in Beijing in May where they took part in a mock archaeological dig. “They gave us professional tools like shovels and brushes and we had to find a buried ancient coin in a field. The moment I saw and touched the coin, I was so excited, just like I was a real archaeologist making great discoveries.”　

Chen Fenxia, director of Academic Research Department of Shanxi Museum, told NewsChina that interest and feedback are important references for themed exhibitions that will attract visitors. “Museums long ago left behind the era of being in an ivory tower and ignoring visitors’ opinions. The concept and how we present an exhibition have become more diverse,” Chen said.　

In 2023, Chen’s team designed the exhibition “The Previous and Present Lives of the Bird-shaped Zun Vessel from Jinhou Marquis,” soliciting suggestions from the public by sending out questionnaires. Taking cues from the feedback, the exhibition targeted young Chinese, using a comic book style and first-person narration from the perspective of the bird Zun vessel to tell the history and culture of the State of Jin from the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BCE). The exhibition was a great success.　

Digital technologies such as high-resolution scanning and 3D modelling are now extensively used in exhibitions, conservation and guided tours.　

In the new Yinxu Museum at the Yinxu Ruins, the site of the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE), an immersive digital exhibition using AI and multimedia resources presents documents, artifacts and oracle bone inscriptions in innovative ways.　

Yan Guojun from the Tencent Sustainable Social Value Organization Digital Culture Lab told the Global Times in late February that digital renderings of 16 oracle bones were displayed on high-definition projection screens and small interactive screens to allow people to explore the inscriptions. Through adopting modern imaging technologies such as high-precision 3D oracle bone models, high-definition images and enhanced micro-trace images, the front and back images of each oracle bone are aligned.　

Xu Tao, 35, from Hubei Province, told NewsChina that at Yinxu Museum, she encountered an AI digital rendering of Fu Hao, the warrior-queen of the Shang Dynasty, whose tomb has been discovered at the site. “I can talk and ask questions to this delicately dressed ancient queen who appears the same size as me. I’m really surprised that she could talk about historical facts and modern daily life,” Xu said.　

Other museums have leaned more heavily into VR. At the Northern Qi Dynasty Mural Museum in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, where visitors cannot enter the tomb chamber, one can go on a magical trip into history via 4K VR glasses. The figures on the murals, which date from 1,500 years ago, spring to life, as musicians serenade, servants stand at the ready and guards wait for ceremonial processions. You can appreciate every corner of the tomb, even two holes dug by tomb raiders on the dome.　

Wu Jianxin, who works at the museum, said that the combination of real artifacts, exhibition panels, animated videos and digital technology create a magical experience for the audience to feel like getting involved in the paintings. In Wu’s words, the sensory experience is enriched and the lifeless cultural relics are awakened, so people can understand the distant historical era.

Creative cultural products based on an owl-shaped bronze vessel artifact in Shanxi Museum, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Souvenirs based on the owl artifact have become very popular (Photo by VCG)

Creative Products

Reinvention of collections in the form of creative cultural products has become a popular practice for most Chinese museums. In Shanxi, a provincial-level creative cultural product alliance was set up three years ago. An owl-shaped bronze vessel in the museum is particularly popular with young people, guide Yao Xiang said, with people likening it to a character from the Angry Birds game and an “adorable war god.” More than 110 types of product have been generated out of this artifact which has a considerable online following.　

The most entertaining reinventions are internet memes made by young fans based on distinctive-looking artifacts. Zhao Zhiming believes this is a positive thing that will increase interest. “Because of these recreations connecting history and culture with modern life, the public is finally taking note of previously overlooked objects,” Zhao said. “Young people should have their own love and understanding of cultural relics and history. There are a thousand [interpretations of] Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes.”　

Wang Jiang, curator of the North Qi Mural Museum, emphasized that museums are not just warehouses for relics. The rich imagination and creativity of ancient peoples thousands of years ago, when encountered with modern thought, can spark new understanding. “Reinvention helps more people access and understand cultural relics, sparking interest to learn more about ancient culture,” Wang told NewsChina.　

As short videos and livestreams become popular, museums are promoting themselves on platforms like Douyin. Zhongshanguo Museum in rural Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, which is based on the tomb of the King of Zhongshan State during the Warring States period (475-221 BCE), has over three million followers on short-video platforms. Curator Huang Zijue and his team of 80 have integrated many cultural symbols of Zhongshanguo into the design of souvenirs, including bronzeware replicas, stone seals, calligraphy books, brushes and paperweights.　

“We’ve got connections with over 100 seal cutting artists across the country, and we get about 100,000 yuan (US$13,768) in daily sales income from our short videos,” Huang told Hebei News Network in May. “We want to revive ancient Chinese cultural elements such as ancient characters, cultural relics and cultural heritage, so as to allow them to enter people’s awareness and daily lives,” Huang said, adding that his team was planning to integrate rich cultural resources and intangible cultural heritage projects in Hebei, like inkstones and porcelains, to create a broader and sustainable cultural brand.　

Since 1974, more than 19,000 bronzes, jade and other cultural relics have been unearthed from the Zhongshanguo site. Huang told NewsChina that about one-third of museum visitors are followers on their Douyin account, indicating that social media platform promotion and their branded products have forged better connections between the museum and its visitors.　

“These interactions between visitors and museums allow visitors to gain a better understanding of the ancient artifacts, which have become a trend in domestic museums,” Zhou Wenhui said.　

“Future trends are sure to see more diverse forms of interaction, such as adopting AI, digital humans, or maybe the metaverse, which would be definitely interesting for visitors to experience. However, I believe the basic principle is to focus on the exhibits themselves. And whatever new technology or interactions are involved, as long as it can better illustrate the real exhibits, it’s worthwhile,” Zhou said.

Too Much Fun?

Tang Yi and Liu Jun, a couple in their 40s, have been visiting museums for 20 years. Hailing from Xiangyang, a provincial city in Hubei Province, they found most people were not interested in visiting museums until quite recently. Now it is hard to get tickets.　

“It’s hard to reserve online now, and even if we’re lucky, the visiting experience isn’t nearly as good as before,” Liu said, adding that some museums feel like crowded markets. “We try to visit museums that have not yet become ‘net celebrities,’” Liu said.　

According to Wang Siyu, a scholar at the School of Archaeology and Museology of Peking University, the growing crowds are inevitable. “There are several different stages in the development of museums around the world. At the beginning, they focus on collections, but later they become public institutions, putting more effort into educational functions and providing public services. Since the mid-20th century, Western countries started to place more emphasis on museums as a social institution to participate in and deal with practical problems. Museums in China started relatively late and are still in the second stage.”　

Wang Siyu believes that in terms of embracing the general public, domestic museums are throwing everything into the mix as they try to cater to public demand. “For example, when the public prefers content that provides amusement, museums put this out on social media and short-video platforms.”　

Some warn that museums have already gone too far in dumbing down their cultural offerings. Chang Danjing, a scholar at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told NewsChina that museums must be cautious about how much fun they offer. “Entertainment is the means, not the purpose,” Chang said.　

KK, a museum enthusiast in her 20s, said some museums, though popular, have reduced themselves to a destination for influencers to take photos. “If the exhibition content lacks profundity, it doesn’t reflect the cultural connotation and academic value of the exhibits and museums themselves,” KK told NewsChina. KK believes that too much commercialization will in the end devalue the museum, even if it helps attract visitors in the short term.　

Chinese museums and heritage sites may be following in the footsteps of Western ones, according to Wang Siyu, who said that in the 1970s, some heritage sites in the US and UK became “Disneyfied,” offering sound-and-light displays and theme park attractions. This was particularly so at outdoor heritage sites. But since the 1990s, this development momentum was called into question, with criticism and reflection beginning to emerge.　

“At present, the focus of Chinese museums is still attracting visitors. Of course, it’s unavoidable at the moment,” Wang Siyu said. He believes that the mission of museums is to guide people forward in their understanding of cultural history.　

On this issue, Chang agrees. “If a museum’s focus is to cater to and attract visitors, it may become very popular and bustling. Then it’s easy for it to deviate from the purpose of being a museum,” Chang said.

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