On the morning of May 18, the opening ceremony of China’s main venue of the 2021 “International Museum Day”, sponsored by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Beijing Municipal People’s Government, organized by the China Museum Association and the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage, and co organized by the Beijing Museum Society, the Capital Museum and relevant museums in Beijing, was held in the Capital Museum. At the opening ceremony, the award-winning list of the top ten exhibition boutique promotion activities of the 18th National Museum (2020) was announced. The award-winning projects have played an exemplary role in carrying forward the patriotic tradition, inheriting the excellent Chinese culture, telling stories about cultural relics, improving the exhibition concept and strengthening the scientific and technological content.
The year 2020 marks the 70th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Volunteers’ War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The exhibition of “Remembering the Great Victory and Safeguarding Peace and Justice” in the Military Museum of the Chinese People’s Revolution and the exhibition of “Resisting US Aggression and Aid Korea and Safeguarding the Country” in the Memorial Hall of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea vividly displayed the war epic written by the Chinese People’s Volunteers with precious war relics, dusty memories of war images and digital technology scenes, In the current international environment, it is of great practical significance. At the same time, the “Jiangxi Revolutionary History Exhibition” in the basic display of Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the “Five Stars Out of the East for China” exhibition in the Museum of Hotan, Xinjiang, are also important exhibitions to promote patriotism and show the history of a unified multi-ethnic country, which deserve attention.
Inheriting excellent Chinese culture and improving cultural confidence are the biggest highlights of this selection. The exhibition of “The Great Dress” in the Shandong Museum and the Confucius Museum focuses on the costumes handed down from the Confucius Mansion to the Ming Dynasty, and displays the traditional costumes with oriental charm in elegant colors. It is full of natural wonders and unique beauty, which makes people linger and forget to return, and is highly praised. The exhibition of “Danchen Yonggu” in the Palace Museum is a masterpiece of ancient Chinese architecture and art exhibition, taking the six hundred year history of the Forbidden City as its context. The halls are solemn, with both pictures and texts. The exhibition of “Long Mountains and Rivers” in Liaoning Provincial Museum is the first boutique cultural relics exhibition with the theme of eight famous artists in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Gu Kaizhi’s “Luo Shen Fu” (a copy of the Song Dynasty collected in Liao Bo), the authentic work of Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, rare treasures such as Dongting Spring Fu and Qiu Ying’s “Red Cliff Painting Volume” jointly appeared on the stage, which can be regarded as a visual feast of national treasure cultural relics. From this, the audience can feel the artistic feelings and spiritual temperament of scholars in the Tang and Song Dynasties. The “All Expectations Return” exhibition in the China Silk Museum is an in-depth interpretation of the history of silk art; The “Basic Exhibition of Wuzhong Museum”, in the style of “Wind, Elegance and Songs”, vividly portrays the “Jiangnan Elegance”. These two are also wonderful works that inherit the core cultural tradition and show the aesthetic taste of “Great China”.
The use of archaeological relics to tell the history of China is the highlight of this selection. Relying on several achievements of the “Top Ten Archaeological New Discoveries in China”, the exhibition of “Huazhang Reincarnation” in Hubei Provincial Museum, with unearthed bronzes as the carrier, tells a story of an ancient country that has been forgotten by history, which proves that the “Zeng” country revealed by archaeology is also the “Sui” country in the handed down literature, which can be regarded as a wonderful hand of archaeologists and museum experts to write articles. At the “Auspicious Golden Glory” exhibition in Shanxi Museum (Shanxi Bronze Museum), the audience can also appreciate the ancient style of the Three Jin Dynasty (Jin Dynasty) when they feel the ringing of bells and the music of the Spring and Autumn Period. They can even slowly taste the historical charm of “the good of Qin and Jin” and “the cold of lips and teeth”.
Encouraging the academic team to carefully plan and prepare the exhibition with international advanced ideas is also a focus of this selection. Under the planning of Zhao Feng and other scholars, the “All Expectations Return Together” exhibition of the China Silk Museum was carefully incubated, learned from all the strengths, gave full play to the role of the curators and academic teams as the brains, and created a classic series of exhibitions of the Silk Road culture, taking the academic history of the Silk Road as the starting point. The exhibition of “Dresses” planned by Yang Bo’s team in Shandong Museum describes the Confucian etiquette and sacrificial tradition with Confucian cultural relics, and displays the “Chinese style” with handed down costumes. The exhibition room deliberately exaggerates the time and space artistic conception of the Ming Dynasty, and is meticulous and meticulous. Even the influence of the arrangement of exhibits on fragile and weak cultural relics, and even the control of the audience’s aesthetic mentality, are in place. The beauty of clothing and the elegance of artistic conception are legendary. The exhibition “Mosuo MOSO: Family, Marriage and Dialogue” in the Yunnan Provincial Museum, which the author likes, interprets the history of family and marriage in the process of human civilization from an anthropological perspective. The curator uses the first person narrative method to tell the story, moving and penetrating. Chengdu Museum invited researchers at home and abroad and excellent curators to participate in the “Shadow Dance Vientiane · Puppet Troupe” exhibition, which reproduces the charm of shadow puppet and puppet art in the form of physical cultural relics combined with intangible cultural heritage. The audience is like a cloud, the praise is like a tide, and it is impressive.
The exhibition projects selected this time are generally eye-catching in digital technology, interactive experience, online exhibition and public education, fully reflecting the functional orientation, display level and science popularization orientation of contemporary museums. Immersive experience, 4D cinema, VR and 3D animation, network interaction and online lectures have almost become the standard configuration of the shortlisted projects. It is worth mentioning that the use of local natural light in Wuzhong District Museum, the “Hui” shaped multi petal exhibition layout in Shaanxi History Museum, the intangible cultural heritage performance in Chengdu Museum, the “Han costume” interactive experience in Shandong Museum, and the construction of the Tang and Song literati art home in Liaoning Museum have all left a very deep impression.
The museum is the palace of history, art and science. Looking at the finalists and winners, most of them are in the “history” corner, while the “art” and “science” exhibitions are relatively weak. From this perspective, the “Ancient World” exhibition (“science”) of Inner Mongolia Museum, the “Rembrandt to Monet” oil painting exhibition (“art”) of Guangdong Museum, etc It is a pity that the exhibition “painted pottery · China” (“archaeology+art”) of Shaanxi History Museum was not selected. The basic exhibition of Henan Museum, strolling through the Central Plains and crisscrossing the ancient and modern times, is a long scroll of epic to interpret Chinese civilization; From the perspective of topic selection, the Shenzhen Special Zone Exhibition of Shenzhen Museum is of unparalleled significance in the history of China and even the world, and has witnessed the historical process of the Chinese nation’s reform and opening up and reform; The exhibition “1420: From Nanjing to Beijing” in the Capital Museum describes the scenery and customs of the ancient capital at a critical time, which is a new experience. All these are wonderful exhibitions worthy of our attention.
Looking back on the tortuous course of development of China’s museum industry and the current situation of vigorous development of domestic museum construction, people can not help but be filled with emotion. On the occasion of the celebration of the May 18 International Museum Day, I would like to pay tribute to the front-line cultural and museum people. Accompanied by the ancient Buddha and in the dusty ruins, they lit up the brilliant starry sky with a humble attitude and hard work, making the Chinese civilization continuous and colorful. (Jiang Bo)