● This summer, museums across the country welcomed a peak.
In order to better visit the museum and have a deep understanding of the historical stories behind the cultural relics, many tourists choose to spend money to buy explanation services.
Due to the limited resources of official explanation services provided by the museum, a large number of explanation services outside the museum emerge, and the quality is uneven
● In order to attract visitors, many non-museum lecturers often confuse archaeology and tomb robbing in the process of explanation, interspersed with a large number of untextual secrets and wild history, bringing bad guidance and social influence; and “sun treasure” explanation, blindly emphasizing the price of cultural relics, completely ignoring the historical, artistic and cultural values of cultural relics
● A large number of non-standard non-museum explanations will also disturb the normal order of museum visits and affect the experience of most of the visitors.
Because non-museum interpretation groups often bring their own loudspeakers to explain or guide tourists loudly from time to time, they will occupy important exhibition channels for a long time, which will easily lead to congestion in the exhibition hall
● Relevant departments should pay attention to the introduction of remediation measures.
The museum should take the initiative to protect their legitimate rights and interests, report the non-museum authorities involved in false publicity, and require the third-party platform to remove the relevant explanation service goods or videos
“Spend money online to find a narrator, told very unlogical, but also are wild history story” “in the provincial museum in a group of primary school students, the teacher explained the moire copper ban unearthed time are introduced wrong, the scene is quite embarrassing” “did not speak clearly I asked, the results of the narrator let me on the Internet to check”……
This summer, museums across the country have a tourist peak, and some popular museums are crowded, and even hard to get a ticket.
In order to better visit the museum and have an in-depth understanding of the historical stories behind the cultural relics, many tourists choose to spend money to buy explanation services, among which non-museum explanations attract ridicule.
《 Legal Daily reporter recently found that the museum explanation service has many problems: the professional level of the non-museum explanation staff is uneven; the narrator volume is disturbing, also often occupy the best viewing position before the exhibits, affecting the order of the exhibition; there are some so-called “wild guide”, not only the content of the loopholes, but also the wild history as the official history, mixed with success study, vulgar yellow jokes, fool, pollute the audience.
According to insiders, museums basically provide official explanation service, which is usually more standard and professional.
However, some institutions or individuals for profit, in the museum to carry out the interpretation of the unofficial certification or organization studies education activities, and has shown the scale development momentum, which seriously affected the normal and orderly operation of the museum, even the risk of spreading wrong cultural knowledge and ideology, to be effectively contained.
Limited formal explanation resources lead to the emergence of non-library services
“I used to take my baby to a museum and I thought I could book a ticket.So, now that I find out, I have to explain it first. “
Halfway through the summer vacation, Mr. Chen, a citizen of Beijing, has taken his children to many places to travel. Wherever he goes, the local museum is their primary destination. Mr. Chen said: “Museums all over the world have well-known collections. Taking children to visit can not only increase their knowledge, but also make them fall in love with learning through cultural edification. However, my wife and I are not professionals after all. If we simply lead the tour, it is just a cursory tour, and it is difficult to touch in-depth cultural knowledge, so we usually choose to buy museum explanation services. “
During the tour, Mr. Chen found that most museums distribute exhibition halls or exhibits explanation manuals for free, and if manual or voice explanation services are needed, they have to “grab”. It is difficult to make an appointment for the summer museum, and it is hard to make an appointment. When you arrive at the scene, you often find that the official lecturers provided by the museum have already been booked up and the lecturers have been rented out.
“Sometimes there will be people who look like tour guides at the entrance of the museum, selling private explanation services. We have also encountered the kind of private explanation group in the exhibition hall, because we have seen disputes between tourists and such interpreters, and I feel that it is not very reliable, so I have never tried it.” Mr. Chen said.
The reporter’s investigation found that most museums provide explanation services for tourists, including public welfare and fees. Take the charging explanation project announced by official website of the National Museum as an example. For the 2-hour basic exhibition of “Ancient China”, the charging standard for the boutique explanation group is 100 yuan per person per hour, and the audience of each group is limited to 15 people.
In addition to the official explanation service provided by museums, in the past two years, a large number of folk culture communication organizations have emerged, various explanation groups have shuttled through major museums, and many individual commentators have appeared as “tour guides”.
The reporter used “museum explanation service” as the key word, and found a large number of such goods on an e-commerce platform, covering major museums across the country. Take the Palace Museum as an example. For the 2-hour to 3-hour explanation service, the charge for each visitor ranges from 158 yuan to 500 yuan, and each group has about 25 tourists. Take the National Museum as an example. The fee for each visitor is 188 yuan to 388 yuan, and the lecture lasts for three hours. Each group has about 5 to 7 children, while adults are required to “follow far away, not’ stick too close'”.
In some provincial museums, the cost of package tour explanation of unofficial institutions is between 300 yuan and 900 yuan, and the explanation time is 2 to 3 hours, and the holiday price is higher, and the package tour cost is related to the number of people in the group; Each tourist will be in 80 yuan, and the number of people in each group will be between 6 and 10. Most merchants said that if they need to visit provincial museums, they can provide booking services.
In addition to shops in the e-commerce platform providing museum explanation services, reporters.It is found that some individuals who are not affiliated with any organization and are named as “tour guides” will also “hang the group to take orders” on social platforms. The fee for individual lecturers is from 80 yuan to 130 yuan per person, and the explanation time is usually 2 to 3 hours. These individual lecturers have a “procedural” process for taking orders: private messages on social platforms, adding personal contact information, paying for registration, and providing on-site explanation services.
False propaganda attracts tourists, noisy occupation affects order.
Wu Bing (a pseudonym), who has been working in the national first-class museum for many years, told reporters that there are three main ways to make an appointment, publicize and pay for non-museum explanations: First, direct exhibition hall soliciting customers. Non-museum lecturers directly inquire about and solicit business in the exhibition hall, attracting tourists in the form of free trial lectures for 5 to 10 minutes, and charging fees by on-site transfer; Second, relying on the platform. Travel agencies and research institutions rely on internet travel or service platforms to publish photos, videos and audience feedback explained in previous exhibition halls, so as to attract tourists and collect fees through online service platforms; Third, establish WeChat official account or chat groups. By publishing research courses in WeChat official account or chat groups, research institutions attract parents by giving lectures by famous teachers and excellent courses, and collect money online in the form of group work.
Wu Bing said that in order to gain business opportunities, some non-museum-side explanation or research institutions also use false content to promote their momentum, misleading parents, students and other visitors, such as using the official logo of the museum as publicity materials without authorization. “The specific method may be to steal the photos of the museum’s lecturers, or to put a sign of the museum’s explanation on the introduction without the permission of the museum to mislead the audience. I have met several times. The audience went to the exhibition hall and told us that they had made an appointment to explain, but they actually made an appointment from a third-party platform. “
In addition, the interviewed insiders believe that a large number of non-standard non-museum explanations will also disrupt the normal museum visit order and affect the exhibition experience of most visitors. Because non-museum-side explanation groups often bring their own loudspeakers, they will explain or guide tourists loudly from time to time, and they will also occupy important exhibition channels for a long time, which will easily lead to congestion in the exhibition hall.
In this regard, many tourists have a deep understanding. “I wanted to see the cultural relics quietly, but as a result, the sound of explanations in the museum never stopped, and the environment was too noisy.” As a museum enthusiast, Li Xia from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, complained that “the museum is getting noisy”. “There are some non-museum commentators shouting at their voices all the time. Especially in large-scale high-quality exhibition halls, there are always people who hold the hanging microphone and talk endlessly, or directly shout at the crowd at the top of their voices, while squeezing through the crowd and occupying the best place to visit the exhibits, with exaggerated expressions and dancing. For important public education places like museums, these practices are undoubtedly very inappropriate. “
“Some non-museum..The lecturers also colluded with the’ scalpers’, causing some visitors to fail to make reservations for museum tickets, thus creating a vicious circle of bad business. Only by booking their lectures can they quickly get the original free tickets for the museum. “Wu Bing said.
Explain the uneven quality and a lot of secrets of unofficial history.
In Wu Bing’s view, explanation is an important way to connect exhibits with the public. Attracting the audience to get close to history and feel the culture through fascinating explanations fully embodies the important role of the museum as a social, cultural and educational institution in addition to its collection and display functions. “The amount of knowledge behind each exhibition is very large. The narrator refines these contents, transforms the exhibition words into colloquial language, and guides the audience to understand the contents behind the exhibition and the exhibits.”
So, can you do this without the museum’s explanation?
The reporter’s investigation found that almost all non-museum-side explanation service providers will repeatedly guarantee the quality of service, and even claim that “it is more detailed than the official” and “it is useless to not listen to the explanation”. However, in fact, due to the lack of access standards in the industry, the lecturers are mixed and the level of explanation is uneven.
“The content of non-museum explanations is not standardized and there are ideological risks. In order to attract tourists, many non-museum lecturers often confuse archaeology with tomb raiding, and a lot of unverified secrets, unofficial history and other contents are interspersed, which brings bad guidance and social influence. Some research activities also have similar problems, such as not knowing the questions raised by students and reflecting the value of cultural relics with prices. ” Wu Bing said.
Earlier, it was reported by the media that there were many folk lecturers in major museums, who served for study groups and tour groups, and their explanations were full of loopholes: the leader of a study group in the Capital Museum read “the wrong Jinbo Svensolk (lì) furnace” as “the furnace”. Some live broadcasts in the Palace Museum deliberately tell jokes from the media for the sake of traffic, and talk about secrets and unofficial history.
For similar problems, many people in the industry who are engaged in explaining in national first-class museums said that they often see: there are instructors outside the museum who steal the concepts of archaeology and grave robbery, and even bluntly say that “archaeology and grave robbery are the same”; There is also a “treasure-drying” explanation, which blindly emphasizes “how much is this cultural relic” and “how much was sold at the same auction”, and puts a price tag on priceless historical relics, completely ignoring the historical, artistic and cultural values of cultural relics.
There are also some outside-the-museum commentators who record their lectures in the museum in real time and upload them to their personal short video platform accounts. In their profiles, these anchors usually advertise themselves as “professional commentators”. In order to attract traffic, some bloggers talk about secrets, legends and unofficial history in the museum, many of which have not been verified.
For example, the reporter saw on a short video platform that a blogger named “Philharmonic Tour ××” explained the Ming Dynasty during the live broadcast of the Palace Museum..History, calling Wan Zhener “the queen of a generation of demons”, spreads unfounded historical stories. Since the media “Big Coffee Say ××××” explained the bronze tree of Sanxingdui civilization, it was accompanied by suspense music, and connected the cultural relics with the fairy tale of Shan Hai Jing and the tomb-robbing novel “Tomb-robbing Notes”, deliberately guiding the audience to combine Sanxingdui cultural relics with sci-fi stories.
“The unearthed location of the bronze Fang Ding with the pattern of animal’s breast nail is wrong.” “The’ crown’ of the crown ornament should not be pronounced four times, but should be pronounced four times as a verb.” “You said that the inscription on Su Zhong in the Jin Dynasty was carved with iron. What evidence is there? Just because iron is harder than bronze “… Looking through the comment area of these short video accounts, netizens'” historical correction “can be seen everywhere.
Wu Bing said that the induction service of the lecturers and volunteers in the museum requires strict training and assessment. The explanation group should first write an explanation according to the outline proposed by the curator, and then submit it for approval after being reviewed by professionals such as the curator. After that, it needs to be integrated many times, and then the details are revised by the commentator. Before the launch, the narrator will also conduct an assessment of the content of the speech, and only after passing the examination can he be on duty to explain. However, there are no standards for non-museum-side explanation institutions and individual interpreters in terms of explanation content and personnel quality, so it is difficult to guarantee their service quality.
Perfecting the official explanation service and building a multi-disciplinary team
On July 9, the National Museum issued a notice on regulating the order of explanation in the museum. Since July 16, no unit or individual may carry out explanation activities in the museum without the permission of the museum. Units that really need to carry out explanation activities in the museum due to work must apply 5 days in advance and report the explanation content, explanation personnel, activity process, safety responsibility and other materials.
As early as before the National Museum, provincial museums in Henan, Liaoning, Guangdong and other places had clear management measures for tour guides and social education institutions to explain in the museum. In principle, people are not allowed to organize explanation activities in the exhibition hall of the museum.
The museum forbids the behavior of non-museum explanations, which makes many tourists “anxious”. Recently, the reporter came to the National Museum and met many tourists who came from other places to visit Beijing. During the interview, a large number of tourists said that they really wanted to hear the official explanation of Guobo, but because of some factors, they would miss the explanation time, so they would choose the non-museum commentator as the second best. “Now we are not allowed to use the non-museum side to explain, and the official explanation can’t be made. We can only take a cursory look and have a bad experience.”
To “deeply read” a museum, an excellent commentator has become the best “guide” in the hearts of many tourists.
“How the museum can better meet everyone’s exhibition needs is a proposition worth thinking about.” Li Xia told reporters that although there are many problems in the non-museum explanation, there are also many experts. Can we let them participate in the explanation in a standardized way? After all, the museum and the public can achieve “two-way travel” in order to maximize the development..The educational function of the museum.
There have been some useful explorations on the balance between maintaining the order of museum visits and opening lectures.
In August last year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics issued guidance on standardizing the museum’s interpretation work, and set rules for the museum’s interpretation service. The opinions are clear. Social organizations and individuals must undergo examination and training to carry out the explanation service in the museum. The museum will build a “white list” to standardize the management of those who pass the examination. In the case of insufficient ability to explain in the museum, the museum can allow social groups and individuals to carry out explanation services in the museum, formulate relevant management measures, review and check the lecturers and explanations through pre-training, filing and post-event supervision, standardize the explanation order, and ensure the dissemination of scientific, accurate and correct content and values to the audience.
Intelligent means are also helping the museum exhibit resources to spread and promote better. Now, the first digital narrator of the National Museum, Ai Wenwen, has been able to explain millions of cultural relics and treasures backwards. According to the introduction of Guobo News Communication Office, in the second half of this year, the phased achievements of the pilot project of Chinese Civilization Cloud Exhibition will meet the audience in the cloud, and then “Ai Wenwen” will guide the audience in the digital twin cloud exhibition space.
The reporter noticed that in view of the chaos of external social organizations using exhibition halls for private lectures and private research, and the ineffectiveness of previous management measures, some museums have changed their thinking, selected social organizations, and tried to adjust the supply-side structure, enriching the explanation services and enriching the types of explanations by means of external forces, thus meeting the needs of the audience who want to listen to explanations.
On July 28th, Liu Yang, director of the Department of National Cultural Heritage Administration Museum and Social Cultural Relics, introduced at the press conference of “Strengthening the Protection of Cultural Relics and Inheriting Chinese Civilization” that many museums have introduced special management measures to standardize social explanations, prohibit commercial photography and other activities in museums, and optimize the visiting experience. In the next step, National Cultural Heritage Administration will strengthen the social explanation qualification certification, maintain the visiting order and optimize the visiting experience.
Some interviewed lawyers suggested that museums should take the initiative to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, explain services to non-museums involved in false propaganda and other violations, report to relevant departments, and require third-party platforms to remove relevant explanation services or videos. If the platform ignores it, after collecting evidence, please ask the relevant departments to investigate and punish the violations of the platform, which will have a deterrent effect on the illegal travel agencies and research institutions.
As professional museum lecturers, Wu Bing and others also suggested expanding the team and building a multi-explanation service team. Improving the explanation service includes two aspects: “quantity” and “quality”: “quantity” means that the museum should arrange the explanation times scientifically and reasonably, especially during the peak period; “Quality” refers to the strict training and assessment of the personnel who explain the posts.
“in order to ensure.The quantity and quality of service, it is suggested to further expand the volunteer team and strengthen training, alleviate the current situation of insufficient explanation power, and realize the radical elimination through more, better and more professional explanation services. Wu Bing said that the practitioners of museum explanation and education need to have relevant professional background and strict examination, rather than people who just know some relevant knowledge can take up their posts directly. In order to deal with the chaos caused by non-museum explanations and academic institutions’ explanations, the relevant departments should not only pay attention to it and introduce rectification measures, but also let the audience know and pay attention to it, so as to realize two-way governance and jointly create a good environment for museum visits and learning.