Animating Cultural Relics

In recent years， the ShaanxiHistory Museum has activelyintegrated with the trends ofthe times， fanning a culturalheritage fever among the public.

The “Tang Girls” series，inspired by maid figurines fromthe Tang Dynasty （618-907），features charming and lovelyimages. The “Shaanxi HistoryMuseum Calendar” even emitsa sense of historical significanceand ritual. Cookies shaped likethe ancient bronze tiger-shapedtally make culture more tasty andfood more profound. The publichas enthusiastically welcomed themuseum’s cultural and creativeproducts with distinctive forms andinnovative styles.

The Shaanxi History Museumhas cooperated with variousbusiness platforms to promote itscultural and creative products bothonline and offline. In addition tobrick-and-mortar franchise stores，it has also opened online storeson e-commerce platforms suchas Tmall， JD， and Taobao andlaunched cultural cooperation withrestaurants， such as the “DancingFlowers of the Tang Dynasty” withPizza Hut， “Silk Road Glory” atKFC， and the “Chang’an SnackBooth.” The museum’s flagshipsouvenir store， located in DatangEverbright City， a tourist landmarkin Xi’an featuring a grand street withcharacteristics of the Tang Dynasty，is perpetually crowded.

Today， the Shaanxi HistoryMuseum is working hard to buildan ecosystem featuring multipartyparticipation to continuouslyprovide impetus for the high-qualitydevelopment of the museum.

At the beginning of 2020， LiuYang joined the Shaanxi HistoryMuseum. She and her colleaguesare responsible for the developmentof nearly 200 cultural and creativeproducts every year. In her view，developing cultural and creativeproducts for museums involvesmuch more than simply copyingcultural relics. Transforming culturalrelics into creative works requiresnot only sensitivity to contemporarylifestyles and fashion trends， but alsoa profound understanding of howantique artistic aesthetics relate tomodern design. The output mustemit proper reverence for historicalrelics and traditional culture.

In recent years， Liu and hercolleagues have developed manypopular cultural and creativeproducts such as bus passesinspired by the Empress Seal， whichintegrated the product into a properenvironment and greatly enhancedpublic interest in the museum. The“Bronze Squad” mystery box seriesadopted the current trend of grabbags to inspire a rush to the cashregister. Ornaments modeled afterthe Gilded Iron-cored CopperDragon housed in the museumbenefited from a timely launchright before the Year of the Dragonand quickly won market favor.

“Our slogan is about makingcultural relics come alive，” saidLiu. “I hope that our efforts endcultural relics’ status as lifelessdecorations in an exhibition halland elevate them into exquisite giftsthat anyone can bring home.”

On November 15， 2022， HuaxiaTreasure Trove， a digital culturalmuseum platform， was officiallylaunched by Shaanxi HistoryMuseum Cultural DevelopmentCo.， Ltd. Yang Ao soon joined themuseum’s cultural and creativeproducts department and beganparticipating in the developmentof various digital cultural andcreative products including digitalcommemorative tickets， digitaltickets， and digital toys.

Yang noted that tourists are nowless than enthusiastic about digitalcultural and creative products， sothe museum adopts an approach tointegrate with offline services andphysical products when promotingdigital cultural and creativeproducts. For example， the digitalticket system jointlydeveloped by HuaxiaTreasure Troveand Baoji BronzeMuseum combinesdigital tickets withoffline tickets.Purchasinga certainnumber of“Cloud-Flower”themed digital cultural and creativeproducts gets buyers a mysterybox themed on the daily work ofTang Dynasty court ladies. The 26digital products released by HuaxiaTreasure Trove have successfullywon the hearts of the customers bypairing with tangible items.

Development of digital culturaland creative products relies oninnovation and popularizationof block-chain technology. “Asuccessful digital cultural creationis not just an independent productbut a complete product ecosystemthat integrates multiple elementssuch as cultural creativity， digitalassets， rights empowerment， andsocial interaction，” Yang stressed.“Construction of such a businessecosystem requires long-termefforts and investment.”

Helping cultural and creativeproducts break through thelimitations of time and space isthe goal of his department， saidYang.