Cultural charm

For 9-year-old Liu Zhiyang, wandering through Everlasting Like the Heavens, a 99-day exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum, was one of the most exciting experiences she has had with her parents.

The exhibition features cultural relics from the Zhou (c. 11th century-256 BC), Qin (221-206 BC), Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, and celebrates the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China. Around two-thirds of showcased items reflect the spirit that flourished in those ages when many of China's traditions were developed and shaped.

"This exhibition aims to introduce China's vigorous and everlasting culture," curator Tan Shengguang says.

"Fine Chinese traditions have been passed down generation after generation. We hope the exhibition can help visitors find their roots and inspire their confidence."

Liu's father says: "Bringing my daughter to museums has been a frequent activity for my family. We want to let her better know our country's fine traditional culture and understand where she comes from."

The number of visitors to museums across China increased by 16 percent year-on-year to reach 1.13 billion in 2018, according to Liu Yuzhu, chief of the National Cultural Heritage Administration.

In 2018, museums across China held about 26,000 exhibitions and 260,000 cultural events, Liu says.

"With their numbers growing and their services improving, museums have become a new destination for people to spend festivals and holidays."

Liu Yuzhu says Chinese museums should market themselves as new spaces for get-togethers with family and friends so that going to a museum might become part of a "fashionable lifestyle".

This year, more Chinese people have found museums bridge their lives and traditional culture.

Getting trendy

Boasting over 17 million visitors in 2018, the Palace Museum, also known as the Forbidden City, has been particularly popular this year. Tickets to the museum were hard to get during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, as the museum only allows 80,000 visitors a day. From Jan 5 to April 7, the museum hosted an exhibition featuring Lunar New Year traditions. The entire Forbidden City was adorned with lanterns, paintings and couplets to create an immersive experience.

"The museum has tried to stay relevant to contemporary visitors in every detail," says Ren Wanping, deputy director of the museum.

The museum has also seamlessly associated itself with "being trendy".

Lantern Festival in the Forbidden City, held for two consecutive nights, invited thousands of people from all walks of life, including model workers, couriers and sanitation workers to enjoy the magnificent views of the lit-up palace. It was the first time the museum had opened to the public for free at night in its 94-year history.

The Palace Museum is time-honored for its rich history and representation of traditions, says Liu Yican.

"It is also 'young' in my view because it serves and passes fine traditional culture to today's youth," the 26-year-old says.

Themed train

The National Museum of China has gone beyond showcasing and studying its collections to work with schools in Beijing, organizing tailored courses and tours for students. Beijing No 4 High School became the first high school to make a cooperation agreement with the museum in 2016. On this basis, the school has set up an optional course, integrating history, philosophy and the arts.

"We simulated the casting process of hufu, a tiger-shaped tally issued to generals for troop deployment, with wax," says student Zheng Hanyun, as she recalls a class on ancient bronze-casting techniques.

Zheng says her immense interest was ignited by a trip to the national museum in junior high school.

The course aims to lead students to dig deeper and to shape their values with the help of traditional culture, according to Xu Yan, a history teacher from the high school, who initiated the cooperation.

The national museum has also extended its showrooms to the Beijing subway. A train decorated with patterns inspired by cultural relics runs on the tracks of Beijing Subway Line 1. Inside the six-car train are decorations showcasing representative relics and exhibitions of the museum.

The train began running on Nov 11 to offer people a window into the Chinese civilization. It is estimated that nearly 5 million passengers will get a closer glimpse of Chinese culture during the train's three-month operation.

"We hope the cultural relics can come out of the storehouses and showrooms, and enter people's lives in a new way that may arouse stronger interest in cultural relics and history," says Liu Jun, an official with the museum.

Tang relics

The large-scale exhibition, Meeting the Tang Dynasty Again, kicked off in the Liaoning Provincial Museum in Shenyang on Oct 7. It will last through Jan 5. Calligraphy and paintings from the Tang era are rare and seldom exhibited. The exhibition has a total of 100 displays, including 38 national first-class cultural relics. Many of the items have been deemed national treasures for centuries. The quality and scale of the exhibits are unprecedented.

A special part of the exhibition is a detailed introduction on display boards for almost each item, describing such elements as historical background, scripts of connoisseurship seals, an introduction to dressing styles and comments by authentication experts. The exhibition has attracted numerous visitors not only from Liaoning but also across China, who wait in long lines to check out items from the legendary dynasty.

"Our aim is for visitors, even those who do not know cultural relics well, to gain an understanding of the culture and life in the Tang Dynasty," Dong Baohou, the museum's director of academic research and exhibition curator, says.

"I frequently check the messages that visitors leave us."

Li Na, a young nurse, says: "Behind the museum's fashion is our ever-growing recognition of, and desires to, explore traditional culture.

"This is the charm of China."