Heritage Protection

People’s Daily March 19

The Palace Museum in Beijing will work with universities to build China’s first artifact “medical school” to train cultural relic restorers, according to Song Jirong, Deputy Director of the museum and a member of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

With the museum’s popularity rocketing, people have started paying attention to how artifacts are unearthed, repaired and put on display. Recently, H5, an interactive platform on Wechat, floated a game where artifacts unearthed from the Sanxingdui archaelogical site in southwest China’s Sichuan Province are repaired. Users can “repair” the items by simply tapping their mobile phone.

The convergence of traditional media with new media has created more diversified ways to present cultural treasures. For instance, during the 2017 World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, east China’s Zhejiang Province, a terracotta warrior from the tomb of China’s first emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 B.C.) in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province was replicated using 3D printing.

It has become increasingly common for museums to use new technologies such as animation, virtual reality and augmented reality to present cultural relics in a lively way. These exhibitions have sparked people’s interest in traditional culture and brought history and tradition closer to them.

Museums are also using new media platforms such as their official websites, mobile phone applications and public accounts on social media to showcase their collections and spread knowledge of history and culture.