Giving New Life to Antiquities
China’s Palace Museum makes its treasures available as popular merchandise to keep relevant
Awhopping 87,674 registered users and 120,000 copies sold in 38 days, with a revenue of 20.2 million yuan ($2.93 million). These are some of the figures that illustrate the runaway success of the book Migong, Palace of Puzzles, on Modian, a crowdfunding platform of the cultural and creative industry in China. The book has not only set a new record among publishing projects for crowdfunding in China, but also broke records for similar products on international platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
As the first interactive game book published by Palace Museum Press, Migong, Palace of Puzzles includes more than 30 puzzles to test readers’ knowledge related to the history and culture of the Forbidden City and its vast collection. By successfully solving puzzles using their mobile phone app, users can discover some of the many “treasures” hidden in the book. Readers can also continue their treasure-hunt adventure on the spot in the Palace Museum, using their mobile phones.
According to Palace Museum Press, this innovative book that combines both online and offline experience is to be available for sale in China in January 2019. But already, demand has exceeded their wildest expectations: More than 120,000 copies have already been ordered during the crowdfunding period.
Migong, Palace of Puzzles is but one of the many cultural and creative products related to the Palace Museum that has been put out on the market in recent years. Indeed, many new products useful for daily life, such as calendars, bags, scarves and umbrellas, all decorated with the images of some of the treasures of the Palace Museum, have helped this museum regain its due place in modern society.
The key is usefulness
The Palace Museum is an institution that aims not only to protect ancient buildings dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911), but also to conserve, exhibit and study China’s ancient cultural treasures. At the moment, its collections include more than 1.8 million pieces.