Museums in China keep up with younger generation with fresh experience

Interaction

A professional museum narrator for over 10 years, Bai Xuesong at Xi'an Beilin Museum, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, observed that more visitors are expecting specialized introductions to the ins and outs behind the cultural relics.

"Beilin," which means forest of stone steles in Chinese, is a must-visit for calligraphy and history lovers. In China, many calligraphy masterpieces of great calligraphists were carved on stone steles.

"More and more visitors began asking questions, and sometimes we couldn't give an answer," Bai said, adding that this indicates a change in the relationship between narrators and visitors -- from "teaching" to interactive communication and mutual learning.

New technologies including AI and VR also enabled museums in China to make a shift from purely displaying artifacts to actively engaging with visitors.

Liu Tingting, a young museum-goer, was thrilled to experience how technologies took her back to the glorious Tang Dynasty at the Daming Palace Heritage Museum.

"I saw the pottery roof decorations for the Tang Dynasty palace, and also learned how they were installed by watching digital projections. I saw female attendant figurines, and tried on their makeup on the screen as well," said Liu after visiting the museum in Xi'an. "It feels like traveling back to the Tang Dynasty. Now I feel closer to history."

Tailoring multiple interactive and educational activities for the kids, the Beijing Auto Museum also became a must-visit destination for young museum lovers. Over 50,000 visits were made to the museum from Jan 21 to Feb 5, the Lantern Festival.