China Daily Global Edition (USA)
MUSEUMS GIVING THE PAST A FUTURE
Gifts and packaging play a crucial role in providing an income and educating visitors
After enjoying a museum or art gallery, Milly Zi usually visits the souvenir shop to buy a keepsake to remember the visit.
A management consultant in Beijing, Zi recalls that postcards and refrigerator magnets were the main souvenirs.
About a decade ago, during a study trip to Taipei, Zi was intrigued and impressed by a roll of sticky tape from the Palace Museum in Taipei. The tape, designed in red, yellow and white, had four Chinese characters making a phrase — zhen zhi dao le — a comment of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty (16441911), meaning “I am aware”.
“These products have history, significance and culture in them,” Zi said. “And they have aroused my interest to learn more about the history behind them. The process of exploring the history and meaning behind the design of these products is interesting and fruitful.”
The latest digital technology is also helping museums to be more creative. In October 2021, the Hubei Provincial Museum issued 10,000 digital copies of the sword of Gou Jian, king of the state of Yue during the Warring States period (475-221 BC), a renowned cultural relic on display at the museum.
Its popularity can be gauged by how quickly it sold out.
“All the copies were sold in just three seconds,” said Wang Xianfu, deputy head of the museum.
Digital collections transcend the restrictions of time and space, making museums more open, interesting and modern, Wang said.
“It’s a new experience, a combination of civilization and modern high-tech,” Wang said.
The popularity of digital cultural relics with the public has resulted in more museums exploring the concept. A bird-shaped wine container from the Shang Dynasty (c.16th century-11th century BC) named fu hao xiao zun, one of the most famous treasures exhibited in the Henan Provincial Museum, was digitized and sold online in December.
Digitized cultural relics are a new form of cultural creative products, said Ma Xiaolin, head of the museum in Henan. “It uses block chain technology to generate a unique certificate through which the product can be sold, purchased, collected and used.’’
Together with Alipay, the museum launched the applet “Let’s do archaeology together”. It attracted more than 30 million visits during the seven-day National Day holiday in 2021.
“I think museums have two functions — to remember and to spread Chinese culture,” said Yu Lin, manager of the development department at Ant Group.
“I hope new technologies will promote Chinese culture in a way the younger generation is happy to receive it.”
IP-based development
“I know many friends are fond of experiential cultural creative products, such as archaeology blind boxes, to sample the process of digging and repairing,” said Milly Zi, the museum patron.
Currently, the products offered for sale are diverse, from food and drinks to cosmetics, clothing and accessories.
Founded in 1926, the Shenyang Palace Museum in Liaoning province, was home to the imperial family during the early phase of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Zhuangfei, a coffee brand and shop, was created by the museum in 2021.
Zhuangfei was a historical figure, the grandmother of Emperor Kangxi, and had lived in the palace.
“Last June, we opened another milk tea shop besides the coffee shop, because Zhuangfei liked drinking milk tea as it was a traditional drink among Manchu,” said Su Yang, deputy head of the museum in Shenyang. The tea is topped with beef jerky and sachima and has a salty flavor.
Besides drinks, ice cream shaped like ancient architecture and famous tourist sites was a smash with visitors during the summer of 2021. A melon flavored ice cream in the shape of a green running horse was a particular favorite. The horse design was based on a famous bronze figure excavated in Gansu province and renowned for its exquisite casting. It is categorized as a national treasure by the National Cultural Heritage Administration in 1996.
Meanwhile, the rock caves and the red nine-floor tower of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu, two iconic tourist sites, also inspired local museums to produce similarly shaped ice cream.
“Sometimes we buy the cosmetics and food produced by museums not because they are of better quality compared with others or they taste really special but because we treasure the culture behind them,” Zi said. “When we buy them, it is also our way to adore the beauty of tradition and show respect to our traditional culture.”
For museums with fewer wellknown treasures, history, intangible cultural heritage and architecture can also be sources of inspiration.
The first to start an online store on Taobao, the biggest online shopping platform in China, the Suzhou Museum has developed thousands of cultural products since 2011.
“The collections we have in the museum are limited compared with other big museums. However, the city of Suzhou has a profound history and young consumers. We want our creative products to be modern, young, fun and artistic,” said Jiang Han, manager of the cultural creative products department of the museum.
Jiang believes ideas, design and reverence are three standards for measuring whether a product is good or not.
A popular product at the Suzhou Museum is its tea gift packages. Cooperating with tea brands, the museum has embedded elements of the city’s history and architecture into the design of its products. For instance, the four gifted literati from Suzhou during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) — Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhengming and Xu Zhenqing — are depicted in cartoon form and presented with a story line on the tea packages.
Customer response to the museum’s products has been positive. In 2018, sales volume topped 20 million yuan ($3.15 million), and reached 30 million yuan in 2019. According to a report by T-mall in 2018, sales at the Suzhou Museum ranked third that year, after the palace and national museums.
Beyond culture providers
In May, when volunteering at a primary school in Fuyingzi county in Chengde, Hebei province, Zi brought several of the archaeology blind boxes from the Henan Provincial Museum to the students, mostly left-behind children.
“When I was in the school and giving a lesson about cultural relics, the children were very interested. It made me realize that their demand for cultural services and knowledge is strong,” she said.
Through creative products, museums can provide cultural services to more people.
“It makes me think about the cultural needs of left-behind children, and the role of public museums in providing education to the grassroots,” Zi said.
The expansion of the sector also assists poverty alleviation and employment. In Henan, the production of archaeology blind boxes in Luoyang’s Yiyang county, has generated 26 jobs in one village, according to Ma Xiaolin, head of the Henan museum.
Looking ahead
“To sustain the high quality development of cultural creative products, museums should utilize the resources dynamically,” said Sun Jiashan, researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts. “And recreation should respect history and add new ideas and emotions into the process.”
Talking about the future of cultural creative products, Zi has two hopes:
“I am happy to see museums in China are working wholeheartedly. I hope in the future, through their efforts, public museums can better play the role of culture-provider and culture-inheritor.”
Meanwhile, with the export of such products to overseas Chinese, Chinese culture can be better promoted and appreciated in other parts of the world, Zi said.