Understanding Chifeng from Cultural Relics: Perceiving the Multicultural Khitan Charm of Ethnic Integration in Chifeng
People's Daily, Chifeng, August 23 The museum is the palace of human civilization. Yesterday and tomorrow we met here, and the essence of civilization gathered here. Recently, the Inner Mongolia Station interview team visited the Chifeng Museum in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to explore the "past and present" of the historical city outside the Great Wall during the "Pomegranate Blossoms, Seeds, and Seeds Together" online theme event.
"Museums should showcase the multiple values of cultural relics, build a platform for communication between museums and the public, and increase the audience's sense of identification and pride in Chinese culture." Zhang Xiaoming, Deputy Director of the Chifeng Museum Area, told reporters that in recent years, the Chifeng Museum has made many new breakthroughs in exhibition improvement, social education, scientific research, and cultural and creative product development, making more people love Chinese excellent traditional culture and bringing more people closer to the museum.
The picture shows the exterior of the Chifeng Museum. Photo by Jin Honghua, a journalist from People's Daily Online
According to Zhang Xiaoming, in early 2022, the Chifeng Museum upgraded and renovated its basic display. In terms of exhibition content, the basic exhibition outline has been rewritten, with themes such as "Sunrise Red Mountain," "Ancient Bronze," "Khitan Chinese Charm," and "Harmony with the Same Family," highlighting the historical facts of communication, interaction, and integration between different ethnic groups. In the third exhibition hall "Khitan Huayun", a unit structure of "integration of north and south" has been added, showcasing the historical facts of the integration of multiple ethnic groups during the Song and Liao dynasties; In the fourth exhibition hall "Harmony with the Same Family", it showcases the diverse cultures created by the joint production and life of various ethnic groups during the Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, characterized by the interweaving of agriculture and animal husbandry and ethnic integration. In terms of exhibition format, multimedia technologies such as digital screens, interactive dressing, VR glasses, etc. are used to provide audiences with a brand new visiting experience.
The picture shows the exhibition hall of "The Same Family". Provided by the organizer
Moreover, the Chifeng Museum has organized social education activities to make cultural relics and history speak, further bridging the gap between the museum and the audience. Up to now, more than 20 events have been held, including the Qing Princess Culture Series, Hongshan Culture Series, Chinese Traditional Festivals Series, Jiangnan Life Aesthetics Series, and Spreading Skills to Experience Life; At the same time, activities such as "cultural and museum viewing activities", "lectures on intangible cultural heritage knowledge", "everyone is a curator", "falling in love with museums", and stamp collection and check-in will be carried out. Building museums to facilitate communication with the public and enrich people's spiritual and cultural life.
It is understood that the Chifeng Museum currently has a collection of over 80000 cultural relics. Among them, there are 135 first level cultural relics, 381 second level cultural relics, and 876 third level cultural relics. Cultural relics such as the cloud shaped jade pendant of the Hongshan culture, stone carved portraits of the Hongshan culture, phoenix shaped pottery cups of the Zhaobaogou culture, painted pottery tripods of the Xiajiadian lower level culture, pottery models cast by Wang Mang of the Western Han Dynasty, three colored mandarin duck pots of the Liao Dynasty, gold filigree nanmu ash jars of the Qing Dynasty, and the Gan Zhu Er Jing in gold characters of the Qing Dynasty are all excellent collections of the museum and have important historical, artistic, and academic research value.
