Reaching out

“Last September, the Palace Museum held an exhibition [of works from] Shiqu Baoji (a precious archive of paintings and works of calligraphy housed in the Forbidden City). There was a long queue of people waiting outside, and some of them even waited until midnight,” said Shan Jixiang, Director of the Palace Museum at a conference announcing the partnership with Tencent. “I found that 70 percent of those in the queue were young people from all over the world. We hope to make it easier for the young to know about the Forbidden City through new technologies.”

The 600-year-old palace, eager to share its cultural heritage in new and creative ways, particularly with younger generations, has been known to engage in new Internet trends.

In 2008, the palace’s Taobao online store began to operate under a deal with Alibaba, Jack Ma’s e-commerce giant, selling goods and souvenirs with designs based on the museum’s cultural relics.

The palace also has its own social media team, a group of people born in the 1980s and 1990s, who combine current hot topics with traditional culture in an attempt to attract a younger audience.

In 2014, the Palace Museum developed an interactive application for the ipad named “A Day in the Life of a Chinese Emperor,” which simulates the work and leisure activities of a monarch through a cartoon avatar.

Tencent’s latest competition is by no means the first time it has joined hands with the Palace Museum. Since early 2014, the palace’s ticket booking service has been available through Tencent’s Wechat. Meanwhile, the museum has registered a public Wechat account to publicize information related to