Editor's note
In the new era, how can young people take on a new cultural mission? Today is International Museum Day, in order to fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Xi Jinping Cultural Thought, and make the museum closer to the audience, more thoughtful service, more exquisite curation, and more interesting cultural and creative activities, we interviewed 10 people of the first "Young Figures of the Year of the Chinese Museums Association", who shared their stories with the museum. They come from different types of museums and different business fields, they have feelings, understand professionalism, and can innovate, they are explorers of museum innovation and development, and they are a new force in cultural relics protection, academic research, exhibitions, education and communication, etc.
I was a "colleague" with Zhuge Liang in the museum
Yin Heng is the director of the exhibition department of the Wuhou Temple Museum in Chengdu
As a curator of the Wuhou Temple Museum in Chengdu, Zhuge Liang and I have been "colleagues" for 12 years.
In the past 12 years, the public has explored Liu Bei's "Liuliang Code" in Wuhou Temple, and at the same time, their understanding of the museum has been renewed, which has also made this thousand-year-old site museum obtain the "traffic password" of the new era.
In 2012, when I first started working, the theme of that year's Museum Day was "Museums in a Changing World: New Challenges, New Revelations". This is a prediction that hits the pulse of the times, and every day after that, changes are happening: magnificent museums are rising from the ground, "top-rated" museums are full in one second, and "hot" hot museums are hard to find, and China's museum industry has ushered in a golden age of rapid development.
According to authoritative data, in recent years, the annual number of visitors to museums has exceeded 1 billion, and the number of exhibitions held in museums across the country has stabilized at more than 20,000.
For me, museums are places I've had since I was a child.
When I was in elementary school, I met Mr. Fan Jinshi for the first time on TV, she said: "From the unfamous lake to the Mogao Grottoes, choose one thing, and for the rest of my life, my heart will return to Dunhuang." "Some people pass by to awaken their dreams. Looking back now, Mr. Fan's words planted a small seed in my heart and taught me that the original intention is like a rock, and only by practicing can I go far.
In those years, there was an endless stream of discussions about the excavation of the Qin Tombs at home and abroad, but Wu Yongqi, an expert in the protection of cultural relics who has guarded the Qin Tombs for more than 30 years, said: "We should have a sense of reverence for heaven and earth and nature." "More than 10 years ago, the land of Guanzhong was full of wind and sand, and in Lintong, in the Qinling Terracotta Warriors, flowers and trees coexist with the museum, and the protection of heritage and the use of display and utilization are developed in harmony. There are thousands of avenues, and only by working for a long time can we always do it.
It was then that I was introduced to exhibitions under the guidance of my predecessors in the exhibition department. There are so many stars in the sky, and I was lucky to find my own one at the age of 17, and I was determined to become a curator ever since.
Curating is not only a resistance to forgetting, but also a kind of "governance history" full of contemporary consciousness. As a curator, I want to do more than simply display cultural relics, but also use ingenuity to connect the exhibits with society, and let history and modernity have a dialogue. Especially when interpreting and displaying historical heroes, we should respect the concept of social history, not deliberately exalt or fabricate images, and show credible, lovable and respectable heroic images of Chinese themselves.
Happily, there are frequent conversations that travel through the past and the present. On the long table in front of the statue of Zhuge Liang, there are many letters and gifts from young people, and even hot baked cakes, from Mr. Zhuge 's hometown of Linyi, Shandong. Between the lines of the letters, the hope for study, the confusion about work, and the yearning for life gushed out, turning Zhuge Liang from the depths of history to the present, and transforming into a confidant and friend who can tell his heart.
The magical chemistry between the audience and historical figures needs to be lit up by the curators with daily accumulation. Those poignant inspirations often come from the windows of shopping malls, the interaction between children in the park, the trend culture on the streets, and the bits and pieces of life. It is the modern interpretation that can reach people's hearts and the creative expression that dares to cross borders that enables our generation of museum people to better respond to social needs, link the public, and serve the public.
Especially for the Chengdu Wuhou Temple Museum, to catch the train of the times, the breakthrough is all-round, not only to complete the transformation from "scenic spots" to "museums", but also to "stand out" among many museums, at the same time, as a cultural institution, but also need to "fight" the audience from the cinema and playground. After all, today's museums are no longer a besieged city, they are inclusive enough to carry a golden age of industry "rolling" up.
If the previous generation of museum people was very resilient, then our generation of museum people is very hardworking. As contemporary Chinese museum people, this is not only our luck, but also our destiny, our predecessors have achieved today's prosperity in their original intention and perseverance, and also influenced a generation. At present, we also hope to be able to write our own chapter of the times.
Let ancient music "rejuvenate"
Huo Kun is the head of the Chinese Ancient Orchestra of Henan Museum
I am a person who "sings" in museums.
I graduated with a music major, and I was often asked, "You're a singer, how do you work in a museum?" ”
In fact, the form of modern museums is undergoing profound changes. In addition to the crowds queuing in front of the museum and the landmark buildings, the "we" who work in the museum also have different professions and professions.
Of course, my job is not only singing, our Henan Museum Chinese Ancient Orchestra was established in 2000, mainly engaged in the research, restoration and performance of ancient music, inheritance and dissemination.
Even if you graduate from the Conservatory of Music, you can be regarded as a "little white" after entering the Chinese Ancient Orchestra, and you may have to "get started in 3 years, go on the road in 5 years, and make some achievements in 10 years". Because the performance of ancient music requires not only skills, but also an understanding of the meaning of music, and a heart of concern for history and people.
The simplest, we sing "Yangguan Three Stacks", "persuade the gentleman to have a glass of wine", to bring emotions in, and show the scene of the ancients in the poems. How can this kind of parting feeling be distinguished from the beauty of "Guan Guan Ju Dove" and "My Fair Lady", I am afraid that it is really not just done by sound.
I've also been through a long period of fumbling. Sometimes after singing, the director will tell you that the taste needs to be pondered again. But no one can say how to improve it, they can only think and feel for themselves.
In the 4th year of work, Mr. Wu Yanze, a famous national vocal singer, and some senior artists came to see our performance. After reading it, he grabbed my hand and said, "Son, you sing really well." It's been almost 20 years, and I remember this scene very clearly, that day I sang Chen Ziang's "Farewell to Friends on a Spring Night", and his affirmation gave me a lot of confidence.
We are known as the "lonely bell ringers in museums". When you enter the ancient orchestra, no matter what you do, you have to learn to ring the bell first. There is a requirement in our group called "one specialization and multiple abilities", like the singer I studied vocal music with, he also had to know several musical instruments. When I went to Hong Kong to perform in April, I rang the bell during a performance of one of the productions because of the limited cast and crew.
One of our jobs is to restore the scene of the ancient music performance. But everyone knows that we can't hear any voice in history. What to do? We have a teacher who used the unearthed original to play the Yimeng Mountain minor. These instruments, which have traveled through thousands of years, can still be heard today. It is these instruments that we are most likely to come close to the sound of antiquity right now.
With these instruments, what are we going to play? There is no recording, do you know how the Tang Dynasty people sang, do you know how the pre-Qin Dynasty played? Fortunately, we can find musical scores in ancient poems and ancient books, and there are still scenes of performances in the murals of Dunhuang. Of course, these are rhythmless and require reasonable artistic creation.
The trinity of musical instruments, music, and costumes allows ancient music to be reproduced on the stage. Over the past 20 years, we have completed the research and development of more than 1,000 pieces of music relics in nearly 100 categories, the compilation and creation of more than 100 ancient music pieces and the development of more than 1,500 sets of costumes in more than 30 categories.
I have a video saved in my phone. A group of 16 chimes unearthed in Xinyang, Henan Province, are placed in the display case of our Henan Museum. We went to do a comprehensive sound measurement of the chimes, and we were pleasantly surprised that this set of chimes not only did not oxidize and rust, but also retained the original gold color, and the timbre was not distorted.
The teacher decided to try out a piece. I am honored to have this opportunity given to me, and in my 20 years in the industry, I have had no more than 3 such opportunities in total. I sat in the museum's cramped display case and played "Yangguan Three Stacks". The door of the display case is like a "portal", an object from 2,300 years ago, through a dark tunnel, to meet us.
I remember one time we were performing on the West Coast of the United States. After the performance, behind our bus, there were Chinese friends who followed us all the way in several cars, and wanted to see our performance again. I saw tears in their eyes, perhaps because in a foreign country, I heard this voice from the depths of history, from our blood heritage, which is a kind of cultural consciousness and self-confidence.
At that moment, I felt that I had a mission, so even though there were some difficulties, some confusions, or imperfections, I persevered.
Of course, our orchestra should not only be able to sing and perform, but also extend from the research foundation and exhibition to the restoration and reconstruction from multidisciplinary integration and intersection, including the use of digital communication means to "cater" to the aesthetic needs of young audiences.
We are also trying to meet you in a way that is more acceptable and acceptable to everyone, just like making a nice "cover" for a slightly orthodox historical music book. For example, we participated in the performance of "Tang Palace Night Banquet", and let the audience get in touch with such culture through some interesting performance forms; On International Museum Day 2022, we played a pop song with 9 instruments; The "Music in the Cave Temple" was also launched, and the Spring Festival overture was played with these ancient instruments.
There is an ancient Chinese poem, "Who tunes the new sound of the pipe". At present, the museum is revitalizing and revitalizing the excellent traditional culture, including the ancient musical and cultural heritage.
My team and I will always pursue the sound of China, inherit the civilization of ritual music, and play the endless voice of the soul of the Chinese nation for everyone in the museum.
It is necessary to protect the ability of young people to "toss".
Zheng Jing is the director of the China Grand Canal Museum in Yangzhou
When we talk about museums, we may think of the weight of history and the magnificence of culture, however, with the progress of the times and the development of science and technology, museums are no longer the fixed face in our memory.
In a traditional sense, as a new museum with zero collections, Yangzhou China Grand Canal Museum (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongyun Expo") "has innate genes that are not excellent", but the immersive exhibitions created by using new technologies have made this young museum quickly become the "favorite" of young people.
Someone asked me, what "traffic password" does Zhongyunbo have? Frankly speaking, as a museum person who has worked for more than 20 years, from a comprehensive museum with an extremely rich collection to a blank sheet of paper, the challenge I faced is obvious, in addition to the lack of precious cultural relics, there is also a lack of systematic academic inheritance, when a very young team stood in front of me, I once felt that the team was not mature enough to be "to be improved".
But as a young museum director, the "blank paper" happens to be a space for development, allowing everyone to try new methods and practice new ideas. As a result, "escape rooms" have entered our museums, and new technologies such as 5G and VR have been injected into the ancient canals. When the past and present of the Millennium Canal were vividly revealed, I realized that this young team was the biggest treasure behind the infinite creativity of Zhongyunbo.
When I work with young people, I see myself as a coach who is relaxed and relaxed. They are not very experienced, but they are full of enthusiasm and creative desire, and I am willing to give young people the opportunity to try and make mistakes in some projects, after all, they can think outside the traditional museum people and show everyone the surprise of imagination. Of course, frightens are also common, and those wild ideas must be stopped in time after they have been overturned by reality again and again. In my opinion, trial and error are not terrible, what is terrible is that you are wrong and do not summarize, that cannot be forgiven. But usually, I will not easily erase their creativity and fantasy, even if it is enough to "toss", I must protect their ability to "toss" as much as possible, and I am most afraid that young people will not "toss" and do not want to "toss".
As a result, in addition to using cultural relics to "speak", we also emphasized more experiential in the middle of the exhibition, so we also gained a lot of new audiences who were willing to interact and participate in the co-creation of the museum, and they may have the opportunity to become future museum people.
The emergence of such a special museum sample as Zhongyunbo is inseparable from the rapid development of China's museum industry. Museums with a variety of themes and genres are emerging, showing a trend of differentiation, diversification, and individualization, and constantly meeting the expectations of new audiences. It can be said that with the development of society, today's museums no longer play the role of "palaces", but to transform into cultural and leisure places, we have to actively listen to the voices of the audience and understand what the audience needs, rather than "holding the style".
Although we aspire to attract young people, museums should be a place for all-age education and lifelong learning, so museums should launch more refined or niche products to attract audiences of different ages, different identities and different needs to come in and gain something. After all, although a museum is a place to collect the past, it is more oriented to the future, and the future can include the hope of young people, as well as the re-departure of those who have experienced it.
Who said that the "security guards" of the research institute cannot take the doctoral examination?
Zhang Shuai is the deputy director of the security department of the Dunhuang Academy
In 1993, Duan Wenjie, then president of the Dunhuang Academy, inscribed the four words "Grotto Guard" in the security office, which was a spur and encouragement to the security department of the Dunhuang Academy, and it was also a responsibility and responsibility. But when I first became a "grotto guard" after graduating from university, I never thought that I would stay in Dunhuang for so many years.
I majored in electronic information engineering as an undergraduate, and I knew very little about the cultural and museum industry, even though my home was in Xi'an, the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties, and I had never even been to the Shaanxi History Museum at that time. In 2007, I carried a bag and sat in a hard seat for 24 hours to Dunhuang, and on the day I arrived, I happened to scrape sand and dust, and the yellow sand was all over the way, and I wanted to turn around and buy a ticket back to Xi'an.
At the beginning I worked in the technical prevention section of the security department, in 2008 Mogao Grottoes protection and utilization of the important sub-project - security engineering began to implement, the institute arranged for me to participate in the whole process of on-site survey and program design work, every day with the design institute, security manufacturers, industry security experts to communicate, learn, because and their own professional has a combination point, busy, there is no time homesick. Looking back now, it is precisely because the hospital attaches great importance to the cultivation of young people and gives me the opportunity to deeply participate in these work, which has allowed me to lay a solid foundation of security knowledge and develop the habit of active learning, which has benefited me a lot. Only occasionally on business trips to developed cities in the south will give me the urge to quit, because in contrast, Dunhuang has a dry climate and windy sand, and it really has nothing to do with "livability".
The natural environment of Mogao Grottoes is relatively harsh, often facing the invasion of natural disasters such as sandstorms and floods, and with the rising number of tourists, the risk from "people" also brings more complex challenges to the security work of Dunhuang, cultural relics safety, tourist safety, ecological safety, fire safety, risk management and control, emergency response and other work always test the professionalism of me and the department, we are deeply aware that the safety management of cultural relics has become a scientific and systematic project, How to better integrate technology with the safety management of cultural relics is a new problem.
"It is necessary to be a technical manager who understands business in the field of cultural relics security, and build a relatively professional safety management team." I gradually became clear about my work ideas, positioning and goals, and I also had a sense of the reality of bones - Dunhuang is located in a remote area, and security talents are very scarce. What to do? At that time, I only had one thought, there was no talent, I would become a talent myself.
Due to the particularity of cultural relics protection and tourism opening, Dunhuang's security work can not copy and copy the solutions of other industries, and needs to be combined with its own scene and management characteristics to adapt measures to local conditions. Therefore, we have gradually established our own professional safety management team, has completed the Mogao Grottoes and other 6 grottoes, 11 cultural relics safety protection project implementation, through a large number of learning, we try to apply the risk management theory to the grotto temple cultural relics safety management work, advocate the combination of preventive protection and security, protection level and risk adaptation and other concepts, and gradually sort out a set of scientific grotto temple cultural relics safety protection system construction methods and processes, and have been promoted. These experiences allowed me to be selected into the Gansu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Technology Consulting Expert Database, and I can better play my strengths.
On a platform that allows young people to grow, "leveling up and fighting monsters" has gradually become my daily routine. While working, I am pursuing a master's degree in engineering at Xi'an Jiaotong University, and recently a Ph.D. at Lanzhou University. I remember that before the interview began, one of the teachers muttered, "Why do all security guards in the graduate school have to take the Ph.D.?" "It can be seen that the outside world's understanding of cultural relics security work is very limited, and we have a long way to go.
In the past, we used to joke: "Dunhuang blows the wind twice a year, and once it blows for half a year." "Looking back now, the gust of wind that left me in Dunhuang has been blowing for 17 years, and I understand the outstanding value of the Dunhuang Grottoes in Chinese civilization and even world civilization, and finally understand why Chang Shuhong, Duan Wenjie, Fan Jinshi, the older generation of Mogao Grottoes people will give up the superior conditions and choose to stay in Dunhuang for a lifetime. Now I want to be a qualified "grotto guard" in the new era, use advanced technology and safety management concepts to protect the safety of the grottoes, and become a practitioner, promoter and innovator who effectively integrates the safety of cultural relics into the cause of cultural relics, and be a "night watchman" who understands both the safety management of cultural relics and the application of safety technology.
Building a "home" for cultural relics
Xu Wuhong, Chairman of Hongrui Wenbo Group Co., Ltd
For me, it was a chance that I entered the field of cultural museums. In 2006, I worked in Ningxia, mainly as an agent for bank vaults. At that time, the new museum of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was under construction, and I thought that precious cultural relics needed to be protected, so I slowly developed some museums into my customers.
At that time, I searched the Internet and found that many museums in various regions were building new museums one after another, such as the Ordos Museum, the Hebei Museum, the Anhui Museum, and the Guangdong Provincial Museum. I was thinking that these newly built museums will have storehouses for cultural relics, and they all need storeroom doors, storage cabinets and some protective facilities and equipment.
The industry is very niche and may not attract the attention of large enterprises, and there are few products tailored specifically for them. For example, the door of the cultural relics warehouse is used for the bank vault door or an ordinary security door, and the cultural relics storage cabinet is used for the filing cabinet. Therefore, after accumulating a certain amount of experience, I decided to set up Hongrui Wenbo, a company that specializes in building a "home" for cultural relics.
We started from scratch to make products that were not originally available in this industry. Usually we first find a conventional product from the industry as a reference, and then design and develop and iterate the product according to the needs of the museum. Just like our antiquities warehouse door, the first target was the door of the bank vault, we first used this product in the museum, and then improved it.
The cultural relics warehouse door is our first product to enter the cultural and museum industry. When the new Guangdong Provincial Museum was being built, we approached the past to promote our products. But they say the vault door is not for them.
A common vault door has a main door on the outside and a fence door like an anti-theft window on the inside. Usually, when the staff enters the inventory to pick up banknotes, they will close the fence gate as a simple protection.
According to the staff of the museum, sometimes the staff enters the storeroom, and it may take half a day to be inside. If the main gate is always open, it is only protected by a fence gate, and the safety of the artifact may be greatly compromised. They asked, is it possible to make the door inside a little more solid and more resistant to theft?
As soon as this requirement was raised, our R&D staff began to work on it. I don't think it's a solution to make the second door into a physical security door, and finally we invented a kind of "internal and external interlocking" warehouse door - the museum staff can lock the entire main door when they enter the warehouse, and if there is a custodian who wants to enter, he can enter by opening the corresponding lock device. This is also the first invention patent we have applied for.
Other museums said that staff sometimes carried artifacts in and out of the warehouse, and in order to avoid bumping into the artifacts, they wanted the door to be fixed at a certain angle when opened. We also developed it according to their needs.
There is a concept in management called "small but beautiful", and the track and content of our entrepreneurship may be the same. Perhaps making these things does not mean that there must be a lot of high technology, but it is necessary to be very focused and attentive, focus on the needs of the storage and protection of these cultural relics, and then develop and improve them.
One of the principles or missions we adhere to is to give cultural relics a safe and comfortable home. All our R&D, innovation, put safety first, and must use safe materials. At the same time, the cultural relics are protected for prevention.
I often share with my team that we should not just see cultural relics as just an object, they are left behind by our ancestors, they are our cultural treasures, and we should take care of them like babies. We are engaged in the protection of cultural relics, and not only do we fail to protect them well, but we will cause damage to the culture, which is to create evil.
Let the museum enter the children's childhood
Zhong Ling, Vice President of Sichuan Museum
Frankly speaking, for a long time, my understanding of museum education stayed at explaining and guided. With museums in our country open for free and more people entering them, we also have some educational activities, but not so much yet.
What really inspired me was the two experiences.
In 2008, I was selected to serve as Vice Consul for Culture in the Cultural Section of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Los Angeles. In addition to participating in the international dissemination of Chinese culture, it has also carried out a lot of exchanges and cooperation with American museums. In the process, I gained a new understanding of the educational function of museums. These observations and thoughts have also changed the trajectory of my career to a certain extent.
Before the Beijing Olympics, a special exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang was held at the Bower Museum in the United States. At the scene, some artists will do the modeling of terracotta warriors and horses, and there are also some activities of writing small seals and bamboo slips. Audiences of all colors, ethnicities, and ages had a great time in the museum.
When I saw that museums provide rich learning resources and training services for students, teachers, and even the elderly, I realized that museums are not only places to exhibit cultural relics, but also places where everyone can learn for life. This strengthened my determination to study museum education in depth after returning to China.
In 2011, after returning to China from my foreign affairs work, I began to work on museum education and research. China has such a rich cultural heritage, we can have our own museum education system and products, and we also hope that children from 3 years old or younger, to adults and even the elderly, can walk into museums and find learning activities that interest them.
The second experience that touched me the most was in 2015, when I went to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis as a visiting scholar with a grant from the National Arts Fund. There, I did see a much richer museum education program.
This museum also has an exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, and they will do some simulated archaeological experience activities, as well as "Terracotta Warriors and Horses Restoration", such as the armor worn by the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, how each piece is connected, and how to draw and supplement some fragments. In the exhibition hall, there is also a special area for children aged 0-5 years old, with pools, climbing, painting, and music, starting from the characteristics of children's cognition and learning styles at this age, to construct their activities.
Children all over the world are the same – with limited time outside of school, the options are limitless. If the museum doesn't do well, we won't be able to "snatch" time from them.
This visit made me start to review and think about ways to carry out museum education. Museum education, in addition to the disciplines involved in museums themselves, is also related to pedagogy and psychology, and may require museum personnel to do corresponding research across borders.
In the same year, my team and I, with the support of the education department, jointly established the Sichuan Provincial Museum Education Research Institute. We are committed to innovative educational methods, believing and practicing the concept that "a museum is a big school".
In 2017, the Sichuan Museum became the first museum in China to connect the museum's digital resources to the smart education platform for primary and secondary schools. In the following year, we established 68 cultural and museum education alliance schools in 21 cities and prefectures in the province; In 2021, we established the "Sichuan Provincial Cultural Museum Research Alliance"; In 2023, the country's first "home-school-museum" collaborative education alliance will be built, opening up a new path for the sharing and dissemination of educational resources.
Every child grows up only once, and I hope that as they grow up, they will establish a close relationship with the museum and fall in love with the museum.
So, I often have a feeling that time is running out. We want to provide as many good exhibitions as possible and rich learning and appreciation activities to attract them.
One of the courses we have offered the most is "Looking at the Universe". We will connect the Chinese's exploration of the universe with the mainland's exploration and achievements in aerospace at this stage.
For example, we chose the dragon and thunder chariot in the portrait brick, which is a carriage erected on a nebula, as if soaring into the sky, which reflects the Han Dynasty's very strong and heroic expectations for life after death. We will also show some of China's achievements in the field of aerospace through some modern methods. We hope to convey to children the idea that Chinese have been exploring the universe and exploring the whole natural change since ancient times, and then applying it to our lives. We need to not only understand the past, but more importantly, explore the future.
It's reassuring to know that our input is being recognized. Many of our courses have achieved a high reopening rate, and the course "Looking at the Universe" has been held 68 times in 4 years. After 8 years of uninterrupted exploration, the Institute has developed nearly 200 research courses, serving more than 44,000 students.
I hope that our work can attract more people to become fans of museums, perceive the continuity and longevity of China's excellent traditional culture, experience the exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations in the world, and feel the charm of Chinese museum culture.
Helping Chinese museums go global
Jiang Qianqian, head of the education and training group of the Publicity and Education Department of the Palace Museum
Eleven years ago, I graduated from Chinese University with a master's degree in English language and literature and joined the Forbidden City.
The office of our department is located in the southwest corner of the Forbidden City, which used to be called "Nanda Warehouse", and as you can tell from this name, it was originally a warehouse for storing lanterns and so on. Although the current building is a later construction, it is still very "old". For example, in addition to air conditioners, computers, and printers in our office, there are no other electrical appliances, and we all carry a kettle to the water room to pick up the water. Fire prevention is too important for the Forbidden City.
When I first started working, the most common question asked by my classmates and friends was, "What kind of work do you do in the Forbidden City, English docent?" It can be seen that there was a lack of awareness of museums at that time. But now, people around me are asking what exhibitions and books the Forbidden City has published recently, and whether there are any courses to participate in. This change also reflects the vigorous development of Chinese museums in recent years.
My ability to "enter the palace" is, to a large extent, related to an institution.
In 2013, the International Museum Association, the China Museum Association and the Palace Museum are jointly preparing to build the International Museum Association Training Center, which is operated and managed by the Palace Museum, and the office is located in the Ministry of Mission. I also joined the Forbidden City in the same year, and I can say that I grew up with the training center.
The international training has given me a useful place to study English. The training center holds two regular training courses a year on topics such as museum management, education, collections, exhibitions, and current topics in museums.
Last month, when we had just finished this year's spring course, a foreign expert asked me why China wanted to build a training center for the International Association of Exposés and provide continuous resources and financial support for 10 years.
I say because we value this project very much. Where's the value?
It can be difficult to summarize the answer in a sentence or two. But I remembered two things.
First of all, in the last two trainings, the trainees have returned as teaching experts. After 10 years of accumulation, the former students have grown into the director of a museum or a university professor, and use what they have learned to feed the training program. Of course, this is not all due to the training center, but it does create a platform for international museum-building and training future managers. In a multicultural context, students can discuss common concerns, share doubts and difficulties, and explore possible solutions, while also being able to understand each other, broaden their minds and broaden their horizons.
The second thing is that just a few days ago, a fellow museum asked if he could help contact a museum in South Korea and they wanted to visit it. I have received a lot of inquiries about this, and most of them are in the hope of establishing contacts and seeking cooperation with foreign museums through the training center. They came to me because, after 10 years of development, the training center has built a network of more than 500 international museum experts and professionals from 85 countries. This network not only brings them closer together because of their common training experience, but also reserves talents for the museum to carry out international exchanges and cooperation. The International Museum Association, the China Museum Association and the Palace Museum also hope that this network can promote international exchanges and cooperation between museums.
The process of participating in the work of the training center is also a process of continuous growth of my personal ability.
In the process of organizing the training, my ability to communicate internationally, coordinate and deal with problems has been trained. I had the honor to speak on behalf of the Training Center at the International Conference of the Association for Museums, and to showcase the strength and activities of Chinese museums to my colleagues from museums around the world.
As a museum educator, the training course is also very helpful for me to do a good job in museum education. During the training, I was exposed to advanced information, concepts and cases from museums at home and abroad. Over the years, I have been engaged in educational curriculum development, book publishing, and short video operation, and many of my ideas and ideas have been inspired by training courses.
In 2017, I brought my self-developed course "Kangxi and Western Studies" to teach children in English at the Chinese Cultural Center in Sydney. I want to tell the children of Sydney that China and the West have had cultural exchanges a long time ago, and we continue to do so today, and it is this kind of exchange that allows us to understand each other and build trust.
I also shared my experience and thoughts on organizing training in the form of papers, hoping to provide reference for you to organize and apply for international training projects.
In the future, I will continue to improve my professional accumulation, improve my ability to participate in international affairs, absorb international nutrition, promote Chinese museums to the world, and make China's voice louder.
My path to museum academic research
Yang Lisheng is the director of the Academic Research Center of Hubei Provincial Museum
My research directions are pre-Qin literature, Chu history and culture, and the Stone Age, which are basically matched with the main content of Jingchu culture and the collection system of Hubei Provincial Museum.
My work involves both academic and educational aspects of museums. To put it simply, when we do academic research, we use our academic ability to "translate" obscure archaeological reports and research materials.
This is the basis of our collections, the basis of our exhibitions, the basis of our social education, and of course, the basis of our interaction with the audience.
After the "translation" is produced, it is also necessary to "explain" - to show the "translated" academic views to the audience, including the display of information technology, or the provision of educational activities.
I am a major in Chinese and like ancient literature, especially pre-Qin literature. Especially "Chu Ci" and "Book of Songs", until now, I occasionally recite a paragraph at home, and my daughter can recite "Lisao" when she is very young.
But like these literary works, if you don't know the history of the Chu State, you still think it's a bit empty. After graduating from the undergraduate school, I did not take my teaching certificate to become a teacher, but chose to study for a graduate degree in history, and slowly completed the transformation from literature to history.
In my opinion, archaeology itself is a very personal profession. Because every year it has a lot of new discoveries, new materials, and surprises people constantly. And doing archaeological excavations is like "opening a blind box", you never know what can be excavated in this grave.
Entering the museum to work is also a serendipitous opportunity. Of course, behind every accident is a series of inevitability.
In 2010, when I graduated from graduate school, the Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology was looking for a librarian. My tutor told me that there are more archaeological excavation reports in the archaeological institute reference room than in the school reference room, and I can read to my heart's content there. Then I went happily. However, after I registered, the unit may feel that it might be a bit of a waste for a graduate student to become a librarian, so I was transferred to another position three times.
I spent 5 years in the museum's office, mainly responsible for new media and publicity, and was responsible for writing some important manuscripts for the museum. This period is also the beginning of my thinking and practice of how scholarship should be expressed in popular terms, and at the same time, it is also the beginning of my thinking and practice of how museum practitioners should mingle with our audience.
During my 8 years at the Information Center, I presided over the construction of the Smart Museum of the Hubei Provincial Museum. Although I am not a computer science major, from an industry perspective, our professional background gives us strong support. What this information-based product looks like is just a form, and the understanding and extension of the content need professional support.
In the information center, I have the opportunity to explore how to connect our cultural relics and our exhibitions through information technology in addition to exhibitions, and then express them in popular terms.
In 2012, I served as the cultural and historical coordinator of CCTV's large-scale historical and cultural feature film "Eight Hundred Years of the Chu State". In 2018, I published my first monograph, "Refinement and Investigation of the Symbol System of Chu Culture".
When we were doing informatization work, I was thinking about a question, why our exhibition can only be bigger in scale, how to connect these cultural relics into an exhibition system, and tell a complete story to the audience?
I hope that after the audience comes to visit the Hubei Provincial Museum, they will not only remember the star cultural relics such as Zeng Houyi's bell and Yue Wang Goujianjian's sword, but through the efforts of the museum, the collection resources of the Hubei Provincial Museum will be regarded as a whole, and the Jingchu culture will be told to the audience as a whole. On the other hand, what we need to do in academic research is to try to present to the audience the birth, aging, sickness and death of a certain regional culture, the joys, sorrows and sorrows behind the cultural relics, and then "taste" some poetry.
Mr. Zhang Jian said: "People born in heaven are no different from plants and trees." If one or two useful undertakings are left behind, they will live with the plants and trees, that is, they will not rot with the plants and trees. Therefore, those who are enthusiastic about the public service, do a point is a point, and do an inch is an inch. "On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Hubei Provincial Museum, at the critical juncture of the Hubei Provincial Museum's release of the Three-Year Development Plan for Hubei Provincial Museums (2023-2025), I would like to make persistent efforts to contribute to the high-quality development of China's museum industry and the creation of a world-class museum with Chinese characteristics for Hubei Provincial Museum.
Let the "red heart" become the "Chinese tide"
Ruan Jun is the deputy director of the First Memorial Hall of the Communist Party of China
On the evening of July 23, 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Shanghai, and the venue was No. 106 Wangzhi Road (now No. 76 Xingye Road) in the French Concession. Now, more than 100 years have passed, and tens of thousands of spectators have walked into the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China every day and walked into the 18-square-meter room.
What is the outline of the visitor who walks in? We conducted portrait statistics, and the data shows that the two age groups of under 24 years old and 36~40 years old have the highest proportion of audiences, and the proportion of men and women is almost the same, and there are more senior intellectuals.
According to their evaluation, the problems of revolutionary memorial halls are also highlighted: the phenomenon of obsolescence, singleness, and homogeneity is serious, which seems to be incompatible with the new vision and new expression of the moment. But challenges are also opportunities, we need to think, how to make good use of our own red resources, tell red stories, and create red cultural symbols that can be taken away?
Since 2021, we have formed a team of red cultural and creative teams to try to deconstruct the proposition of this era. We hope that every audience who walks into the First National Memorial Hall of the Communist Party of China can leave a touch and take away memories at the same time. The path was hard, but we found some way.
For example, let the numbers work, a box of toffee has a serving of 21 capsules of 100 grams, corresponding to the iconic time, which can convey sweetness and pass on a responsibility; To make the experience more vivid, use white rice dumplings with brown sugar "ink" to immediately present the interesting story of Chen Wangdao's translation of the "Communist Manifesto", "The taste of truth is a little sweet"; Let a cruise ship go to the two sides of the Pujiang River and travel through a hundred years; Let a car carry an exhibition and travel all over the country, into schools, communities, and fields......
On the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the party, the "one big cultural and creative" brand has achieved a "small goal" from scratch, with a total revenue of more than 100 million yuan by the end of last year. The idea of buying cultural and creative participation activities to vote for us also proves that these red cultural symbols can reach the hearts of the people.
In 2023, the First National Memorial Hall of the Communist Party of China will receive a total of 2.93 million visitors throughout the year, of which the proportion of individual visitors will exceed 60%, and for the first time in history, there will be fewer group guests than individual visitors, and the proportion of visitors under the age of 45 will exceed 70%. Although many people watched "The Awakening Age" and wanted to understand how the revolutionary martyrs fought and lived, it was such a simple reason that gave them the opportunity to get close to history and listen to a young man from the past "tell" his own story with connotation, warmth and resonance.
But we also have a clear understanding of ourselves, after all, with nearly 3 million visitors, the memorial has very limited space to accommodate the public. Therefore, we realize that the empowerment of red culture is not only in products, but also in the concept of "cultural and creative +" can stimulate possibilities in many fields such as culture, education, cultural tourism, industrialization exploration, and public welfare project development.
In the dissemination of red culture, "simplicity" and "sincerity" are precious and effective, including promoting "Chuxin Red" to become a "Chinese trend", and we cannot fall into the obscure and difficult "museum thinking" that is only satisfied with self-expression. Putting down your body and conveying what the public wants is the key to sparking resonance.
The First Memorial Hall of the Communist Party of China, which stands in the city's trendy landmarks, is sacred and young, and I hope it will always greet everyone with a healthy image, although it has been a hundred years and is in its prime.
The next 20 years will be a golden age for museums
Jiang Han is the director of the cultural and creative department of Suzhou Museum
In 2013, I started to be in charge of cultural and creative work, when there were only 3 people in the team, and we wanted to build Suzhou Museum into a "literary and artistic youth in the museum". In the past 11 years, the team has more than 60 people, and this "literary and artistic youth" with more than 1,500 products no longer "entertains himself" behind closed doors, it wanders in the online world, appears in offline shopping malls and bookstores, and leaves a "1 square meter" figure everywhere.
The "1 square meter museum" is more like a miniature exhibition, which can easily reach people trapped in the reinforced concrete forest. Since working in museums, I have come to feel more and more that museums are by no means "temples" framed by architecture, and that we need cultural creativity as a window to link the public and museums, to place budding interests and uneasiness from the unknown, so as to shorten the distance between each other, and even continue to explore the boundaries of museums through cross-border cooperation.
But why didn't the previous museums "roll" cultural creativity? This is related to the process of public awareness awakening in museums. In 2008, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Culture and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Notice on the Free Opening of National Museums and Memorial Halls", and a large number of museums and memorial halls were opened free of charge in various places. In 2023, after the prevention and control of the new crown epidemic is lifted, going to museums to "check in" has become a trend again, and a variety of demands have been derived, and cultural and creative work has new tricks.
In the exhibition hall, I often listened to what the audience was talking about without wearing a badge, and I found that there were more and more senior and professional visitors who could say something about the exhibits, and even put forward solid opinions by comparing different museums. Therefore, when the public literacy has improved, we also need to put forward higher requirements for ourselves and dig out more interesting things. But at the same time, many things are very popular and disappear very quickly, and we are also very vigilant about the trend of "pan-entertainment" of museums, especially when crossing borders, we still have to carefully choose partners "to consume me or nourish me"?
In order to make the output of the museum last longer, in addition to cultivating professional audiences, it is also necessary to continue to innovate and add fresh blood. Compared with when I entered the museum, the working environment of the museum has been significantly improved, and my generation of practitioners has spent more than ten years cultivating the public's interest in the museum, so joining the museum now is a good opportunity for young people to express and play.
However, it is worth noting that the current museum has been given high expectations by everyone, and how young people can improve their own literacy and adjust their mentality to match this expectation still needs to be carefully considered when choosing. At all times, humility and awe are the way to survive in museums, and only by guarding against arrogance and rashness can we truly display our talents on this platform, and I think that the next 20 years will be the golden age of museums.
(This edition of the text is organized by reporter Liang Xuan Ma Yuping)
Source: China Youth Daily