Royal charm

"Every minute 'working' in the palace is pleasant," Zhou says at a promotional event for the variety show at the museum. "Creative design is rooted in the cultural relics. When I approach these legends, they are no more detached from our daily lives."

He continues: "Performing in the palace is very different from in a studio, which needs more imagination. Here, many lines just pop out of my head because I am touched by the atmosphere, which connects me with history."

Other actors and actresses from the mainland and Hong Kong, such as Deng Lun, Wang Likun, Ning Jing and Ada Choi, will join Zhou on the show.

According to Liu Bing, a producer of the program, the celebrities will also be allowed to visit some areas inside the museum that are still off-limits for general visitors. They'll lead TV audiences to relish some behind-the-scenes stories.

"Audiences will feel an emotional connection to the relics," Liu says. "Tradition and creativity are not contradictory."

He continues: "What we need is to tell old stories in new ways.

"That is why we chose the design industry as an avenue to tell young generations more about the Forbidden City. Traditional culture can be inherited when it is relevant to daily life."

Shan Jixiang, director of the Palace Museum, says the variety show is only a "periodical achievement" for a big documentary project.

The documentary, The Forbidden City, will panoramically review highlighted collections of the museum and show many unknown stories hidden there. It is planned to be broadcast in 2020, the 600th birthday of the Forbidden City.

In 2017, a film-and-TV research center was established at the Palace Museum to explore ways to increase media exposure to promote it as among the best specimens of traditional Chinese culture.

The move follows the surprising success of a three-episode documentary titled Masters in the Forbidden City in 2016. The production on restorers of cultural relics at the museum was rated 9.3 out of 10 points on Douban, a major film-and-TV review website. After the documentary went viral, some restorers showed in it almost became celebrities, and the production was also adapted into a feature-length film later.

"We will produce more films, TV series, operas and stage dramas in the future so that history creates an association with modern life," Shan adds.