Mobile Museum
Cultural icons step out of glass cases to be part of commuters’ daily lives
The Beijing Subway carriage looked different. It was newly painted in ivory, red and yellow, and had striking images painted on the ceiling, walls, seats and floor. There were images of ancient Chinese bronze artifacts, like the famous ritual vessel more than 3,000 years old displaying the head of a goat with long, curled horns on each of its four sides, and the famous Terracotta Warriors from Xi’an in northwest China.
Every image had an inscription. For instance, next to a celadon candle holder shaped like a sheep was written: “Shedding light on your future.”
The original candle holder, unearthed in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province in east China, in 1958, was used during the Kingdom of Wu, one of the three major kingdoms during the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280). Next to the image of a C-shaped jade dragon on a seat was written, “If you sit here, you are the center.” The jade dragon is a symbol of the Hongshan Culture that originated around 5,000 years ago in the Liaohe River Basin in northeast China.
The train project is the latest innovative effort of the National Museum of China (NMC) to promote Chinese history and culture.
National treasures
All six carriages of the train showcase some of the national treasures housed in the NMC in Beijing. It started operation on Line 1, which runs east to west, on November 11. Running eight times every day for three months, the train is a tribute to Chinese art, culture and history and will add festive cheer to the New Year and Spring Festival.
The first five carriages showcase over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization with iconic artifacts such as the Si Yang Fang Zun, the square wine vessel with four goats used for rituals during
the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.), and a tricolored glazed camel carrying four musicians playing musical instruments and a dancer. The camel relic is from the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
In addition to ancient objects, more recent items such as the torch used for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Summer Games are also featured on the train. The torch draws inspiration from ancient Chinese paper scrolls for its shape and its upper part depicts clouds, both typical Chinese cultural symbols.
The sixth carriage reflects two exhibitions that pay tribute to the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). One is the ongoing exhibition on Chinese cultural relics that have been returned from overseas since 1949 and the other features some of the museum’s painting and statue collections.
The first national flag of the PRC, the saluting gun used at the ceremony marking the founding of the PRC, and the microphone Chairman Mao Zedong used at the ceremony take riders back to that heady moment.
The exhibition on the returned cultural relics looks back on how Chinese cultural relics have been returned to China that were stolen, thanks to the government’s strenuous efforts. They include images of items such as the bronze heads of a rabbit and a rat. These were part of an elaborate fountain clock that spewed water through the mouths of 12 Chinese zodiac animal heads every two hours. The 12 zodiac animal heads, which belonged to Yuanmingyuan, the royal summer resort in Beijing during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), were looted in 1860 during an invasion by the Anglo-french Alliance and taken overseas. As of now, seven of the animal heads have been returned to China.
Liu Jun, Deputy Director of the news department of the NMC, told the media that the Nmc-themed train is a microcosm of the museum, showcasing premium collections from both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Artifacts from permanent exhibitions such as Ancient China comprehensively demonstrate the politics, economy, culture and international exchanges during different historical periods, highlighting the development of Chinese civilization and the process of different ethnic groups working together to build a multi-ethnic country. The Road of Rejuvenation, another permanent exhibition, shows Chinese people’s struggle for national rejuvenation after China endured a semicolonial and semi-feudal society since 1840.
Artifacts from themed exhibitions such as Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture have also found a berth on the museum train.
The images are interactive and also display China’s progress in technology. Passengers can scan the accompanying QR codes to get more information, including exhibitions in the museum, the museum’s opening hours and the cultural and creative products it has developed.
Three relics displayed in three carriages, including a phoenix-shaped coronet worn by Empress Xiaoduan from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), appear when scanned with the augmented reality scan function of Alipay, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s payment platform, enabling passengers to learn about history on the train.
Culture on shelves
“Hopefully, the new form will take cultural artifacts out of warehouses and exhibition halls to become part of people’s daily lives and inspire interest in Chinese cultural relics and history to spread the Chinese civilization,” Liu added.
The NMC has been developing cultural and creative artifacts based on its collections for a larger number of people to get acquainted with the history, culture, aesthetics and technology embedded in ancient relics.
With a history of 107 years, the NMC is one of the museums with the richest collections in China. Its variety and wealth of cultural artifacts provide it with important resources to develop creative and cultural products. So far, the NMC has developed over 3,000 cultural and creative products in accessories, cloth bags and mobile phone cases.
In 2016, it opened a flagship store on Tmall, Alibaba’s leading business-to-consumer site, to sell souvenirs online. In addition to developing cultural and creative products itself, the NMC has also signed agreements with a number of famous brands, authorizing them to develop and sell products based on NMC collections.
An example of collaboration is in the limited edition of baby formula cartons launched by dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group, where images of artifacts in the museum are printed on the cartons and by scanning the pictures, buyers can learn more about them.