Who is the most senior “online celebrity” in China? In this list, the 602-year-old Forbidden City must have a place.
Despite the high temperature mode in summer, the enthusiasm of the audience in the Palace Museum seems to be even higher. There are many ways to visit the Forbidden City. Some people queue up to see the exhibition, some people wear traditional costumes to take pictures, some people linger in Wenchuang store and can’t move their legs, and some people buy annual cards to make “entering the palace” a daily routine.
In the seven years from 2012 to 2019, the Forbidden City has been constantly refreshing its visit records. In 2019, the Palace Museum received more than 19.33 million visitors, making it the largest museum in the world. Among them, 56% are young visitors under the age of 40, and most of them visit the Forbidden City after 80s, 90s and 00s.
The story of the Palace Museum is just a microcosm of the development of China’s museums in the past decade. From the world of buildings to the world, the museum with a vast collection of Chinese civilization is so profound and so youthful.
Leave the magnificent Forbidden City intact for the next 600 years.
In the previous generation of visitors’ experience, going to the Forbidden City usually entered from the meridian gate, went all the way north along the central axis, and left the Shenwumen. Except for the three main halls and the imperial garden, there were not many memory points. In 2012, the opening area of the Forbidden City was only 30%, and today this figure exceeds 80%. The audience can not only visit the “temple”, but even climb the “wall”-the Forbidden City has opened its walls, giving the audience a unique perspective.
During his tenure as the director of the Palace Museum, Zheng Xinmiao started the overhaul and cultural relics cleaning of the Forbidden City, and found out the “family property” of the Forbidden City for the first time-1,807,558 pieces (sets). How to make the cultural relics collected in the Forbidden Palace, the heritage displayed on the vast land and the characters written in ancient books come alive is what the Palace Museum has been doing for ten years.
Before the Forbidden City, no one expected that there were not only online celebrity restaurants but also cultural relics exhibitions that could make young people queue for hours. At the turn of summer and autumn in 2015, “Shiqu Baodi” was on fire. Many viewers put on running shoes in order to see the true contents of precious paintings and calligraphy such as “The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival”. As soon as the Forbidden City opened in the morning, they flew from the meridian gate to Wuying Hall. Near the closing ceremony, there are still many people waiting in line. Dan Jixiang, then president of the Palace Museum, promised the audience that “the museum will never be closed until the last person is there”.
“Give the magnificent Forbidden City to the next 600 years completely” is what Dan Jixiang said on many occasions during his tenure as the director of the Palace Museum. In 2020, the Forbidden City, completed in 1420, achieved this goal. “The Palace Museum has been in existence for nearly a hundred years, and the Forbidden City has been in existence for more than 600 years. But in terms of our 5,000-year history of civilization, they are all very young and should show youthful vitality. We also hope that they will always be young.” Dan Jixiang said.
Wenchuang products make the audience value,.Affordable, take away, use, and learn.
Less than a month before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the National Museum of China recently launched a mooncake gift box named after Su Shi’s Fu on the Red Wall. The outer packaging of the gift box is based on the cultural relic “Painted Red Wall Painted Round Lacquer Plate” collected by Guobo, and presents the story of boating and enjoying the moon in the form of China traditional lantern. The shape of moon cakes comes from the picture scroll “Hundred Flowers” collected by Guobo, and six shapes, such as orchids and lotus flowers, are extracted.
This year, the Gansu Provincial Museum also launched Wenchuang moon cakes for the first time, combining eight representative cultural relics such as the bronze galloping horse, the post map and the painted pottery bottle with a human head. However, Wenchuang, which has been popular recently in Bo, Gansu Province, is a “flying swallow” Wenchuang doll, which was put on the shelves in June and was once sold out. The “ugly and ugly” dolls have captured the hearts of young people and let them start from this to explore the history of cultural relics prototypes.
As early as 2008, the Cultural and Creative Center was established in the Forbidden City. Starting from a series of brand-new products such as “Chaozhu Headphones” launched in 2013, the style of the Forbidden City Wenchuang has changed, which not only can afford the country’s heavy weapon, but also sells it, playing with a little freshness.
The doll series of the Forbidden City is a Q version of the court figure group. The emperor, queen, elder brother, princess, minister, imperial bodyguard … the family should be neat. The pottery painted female figurines and the Hu figurines in the collection are also rich in inspiration. They have been made into umbrellas, and they have also been developed into toothpicks, wine corks and post-it notes … These “living” male figurines and female figurines for thousands of years probably never thought that they would appear on red wine bottles one day.
It is written in the book “Cultural Creation of the Forbidden City” that cultural and creative products should make the audience truly “value”, “affordable”, “take”, “need” and “learn”, so that the Forbidden City culture can go out of the Forbidden City, enter thousands of households and infect the hearts of more ordinary people. Did you really walk in? People speak with actions-in 2017, the turnover of the Forbidden City Wenchuang reached 1.5 billion yuan.
Nowadays, more and more museums are beginning to roll up, and cultural creation has become a compulsory course for museums. Pan Shouyong, a professor at Shanghai University who has been devoted to museum research for a long time, said that cultural creation is not the main business of museums, but has gradually become a major part of museum work in recent years. “Everyone emphasizes that museums should not only see with their eyes, but also experience and take them home. This is the new mission of museums.”
According to incomplete statistics, in 2020, there were more than 12 kinds of cultural and creative products developed in national museums..40,000 species, and the actual income exceeded 1.1 billion yuan.
In the past 2021, the report released by the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau showed that the income of cultural creation in Sichuan Province exceeded 100 million yuan, a record high. Among them, the sales of cultural and creative products of Sanxingdui Museum exceeded 30 million yuan; Guangdong provincial museums developed 2,305 models of cultural and creative products, and realized the income of cultural and creative products of 3,993..390,000 yuan; A total of nearly 100 museums participated in Tmall’s “double 11” activity. On the first day of sale, the sales volume of museum cultural and creative products surged by over 400%, becoming one of the “dark horses”.
“Museum fever” has become a cultural phenomenon, and “going to museums” has become a lifestyle.
According to the survey data, in 2018, Nanjing Museum brought about 16..Tourism revenue of 200 million yuan has driven more than 6,000 jobs, contributing 9.5% to Nanjing’s tourism popularity..7%, ranking first among the 24 major scenic spots in the city.
A museum is no longer just a building, it is a field. Museums have become an important space for public cultural leisure, “museum fever” has become a cultural phenomenon, and “going to museums” has become a lifestyle.
How interesting is the museum today? Not only do exhibitions, sell cultural creations, but also open cafes. The coffee in the corner building of the Forbidden City outside the Shenwu Gate of the Palace Museum, the main wallpaper in the museum is the map of a thousand miles of mountains and rivers, which once triggered a visit boom. The audience can order a cake of a thousand miles of mountains and rivers here with a cup of “heart-nourishing coffee” or “Kangxi’s favorite chocolate”.
Guobo Cafe has always been conscious of pushing the “new style”. When the “Jade Out of Hongshan-Exhibition of Hongshan Cultural Archaeological Achievements” was exhibited, Hongshan Yulong, which has the reputation of “the first Yi Long in China”, appeared on the coffee flower; When Moon Soil entered the National Museum of China in Tibet and was open to the public, the coffee with the theme of “the Goddess Chang’e flying to the moon” was also reported on time.
The cute pet economy has also appeared in the territory of museums. In 2018, Weibo, the official of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, sent a message saying that King Lele, the “Cave Overlord”, had returned from an early morning tour of the mountain, and the road conditions could be seen as a picture of a puppy soaked in mud with a series of small footprints behind him. The domineering words such as “Cave Overlord” and “Mountain Patrol” are in contrast to the aggrieved puppy. Weibo sent out more than ten thousand comments in a few hours, and Lele became the “dog of Mogao Grottoes”. Later, the Mogao Grottoes successively developed a series of “Le Le Da Wang” cultural and creative products, with Lele as the protagonist, publishing books and online animations. For the young audience, in addition to seeing murals and sculptures, going to the Mogao Grottoes is also on the agenda.
Nowadays, museums are increasingly becoming a part of people’s better life, with the number of museum visitors increasing from 5 in 2012..600 million passengers, up to 1.2 billion passengers in 2019. Despite the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, the National Museum still received 7 visitors in 2021..7.9 billion passengers. According to the statistics of china tourism academy, more than 60% tourists regard museums as their tourist destinations.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the number of museums has increased continuously, from 3,866 to 6,183, of which 5,605 museums have been opened free of charge, accounting for more than 90%. A modern museum system with rich types and diverse subjects has basically taken shape, and the development goal of having one museum for every 250,000 people on schedule has been achieved. More than ten cities, including Beijing, Xi ‘an, Nanjing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, are committed to building a “city of museums”, and the number of museums in Xi ‘an, Chengdu and Qingdao has reached more than 100.
Zhongqingbao Zhongqingwang reporter Jiang Xiaobin Source: China Youth Daily