National Museum's new book lets artifacts 'talk'

Zhao Jingshu, one of the authors, remembers during a tour when she was introducing a Neolithic eagle-shaped pottery vessel, which is featured in the book, a little girl asked why people back then didn't craft it to look like a cat.

"It was such a cute moment that I wrote it in my part, the prehistoric age," she says.

"The book is like a guest book in which I've tried to satisfy the visitors' curiosity. Maybe people will read the book before they come to the museum next time. There are images that magnify details which are inaccessible in a crowded gallery."

Wang Xi, another writer and the book's coordinator, says what was on her mind when writing was to help readers fall in love with the artifacts and truly understand their value. She tried to incorporate imaginary content grounded on historical facts to increase readability.

The credit for 700 high-resolution images and the rich information provided in the book also goes to the museum for its work in building a digital database of its collections since 2019.

Ding Pengbo, deputy director of the National Museum of China, said at the Third UNESCO High-Level Forum for Museums in April in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, that the museum has acquired the images of some 720,000 artifacts and constructed three-dimensional models of about 7,500 objects.

The museum's creativity department has launched products such as souvenir magnets inspired by the artifacts in the book.