On the first day of the first lunar month, I went to visit the Shanghai History Museum and happened to meet the New Year special exhibition "Fulu Shouxi Beautiful Life - Chinese Auspicious Culture Special Exhibition".
Let's start with the point: Value! Especially recommended to visit during the Spring Festival.
We have to say auspicious words in the New Year, paint beautiful symbol decorations, but how do these auspicious cultures evolve step by step, integrate into traditional culture, and become Chinese's expectation for a better life? This exhibition is to answer this question.
Shanghai History Museum, Zhejiang Natural History Museum and Hebei Museum selected more than 300 exhibits for this exhibition, and then spent more than 3 years curating and arranging exhibitions.
One is a museum of local history, one is a museum of nature, and the other is a provincial museum, and it is hard to imagine that these three seemingly unrelated museums can do a group exhibition together! And they did it!
The predecessor of the Shanghai History Museum, during the concession period in the early 20th century, was built as a VIP lounge for the racecourse.
Therefore, its first-floor atrium is very high and narrow, and this form of space is not conducive to exhibition as a museum.
It's not that I'm black, I've seen a few special exhibitions in the atrium before, and it doesn't feel very good.
Because the height is too high, even if it is a 3-meter background board, it looks a little empty. The impression given to the audience is not to see the exhibition in the museum, but to see the exhibition at the exhibition fair.
However, this time the exhibition can feel the intention of the museum, in addition to a variety of forms of exhibition methods, but also set up 6 photo punch points for the audience.
There are also volunteer little brothers and sisters wearing Hanfu and taking photos with children in the museum. Excellent! Let the audience better integrate into the traditional festive atmosphere.
After its birth, auspicious culture has undergone a long period of evolution and development, and in the Ming and Qing dynasties, it has reached the systematic culture of "the map must be intentional, and the meaning must be auspicious".
How to explain the evolution of culture from figurative to abstract and then from abstract to figurative through exhibits? That is the purpose of this exhibition.
The museum has selected the collection of animals, plants, cultural relics and figures that symbolize the "Fulu Jubilee" and condensed the auspicious (Rui) theme. "Auspicious" is a blessing and a good deed, and "auspicious" is a sign of joy.
Bats have also arrived, deer have come, pine cranes wish for high life, Mandarin ducks celebrate happiness, and all living things have a different mood in people's eyes. Even the stars in the sky have turned into lucky stars, lu stars and birthday stars, and have entered thousands of households.
Through harmonics, symbols and analogies, generations of working people have gathered these images with beautiful visions into scrolls or utensils.
Swimming fish playing in the lotus room (for more than a year in a row), birds pulling up ribbons (heavenly immortals wish for life), monkeys climbing on horseback (immediately sealing) and so on, refining the beautiful blessings that cannot be said in a thousand words into interesting, positive energy, and story symbols, and then helping people to build confidence and inspire progress from the psychological level and life level, and create a happy and beautiful life with diligent hands.
During the visit, you can easily identify which of the three museums these artifacts came from without looking at the nameplate.
If it is an animal specimen, mineral rough, animal and plant picture book, it must be an exhibit of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History.
If it is a folk cultural relic from the Ming and Qing dynasties, it is mostly from the Hebei Provincial Museum.
If it is an exhibit with modern industrial characteristics from the Republic of China period, it must be from the Shanghai History Museum.
The collections of the three major museums have their own characteristics, bringing them together to show the changes in auspicious culture from multiple angles.
For example, we often say "Hong Fu Qi Tian", this idiom is not only a good blessing, but also integrated into cultural relics works.
This porcelain plate depicts auspicious clouds and red bats, there are no red bats in the natural ecological environment, but for the sake of beautiful meaning, red bats, bats are added in many works, which means "Hong Fu Qi Tian".
So what do bats look like in nature? The exhibition also features specimens of different bats.
In addition, there are tigers and tigers
Sanyang Kaitai
Fulu Shou three-star
At the end of the exhibition hall is a group of furniture from the Republic of China period
Finally, to remind you, due to the architectural features of the Shanghai History Museum, the exhibition hall is divided into two parts, and it is necessary to pass through the middle atrium to reach the second exhibition hall.
Don't go after seeing one, there are many Chinese exhibits in the second exhibition hall, which is very Republican style.