Why do young people fall in love with museums?, "Museum fever" continues to heat up, experiencing visitors, exhibitions, history, cultural relics, young people, and museums
Currently, the museum craze among young people continues to heat up. On social media, more and more young people are sharing their experience of checking in at museums. Offline check-in exhibitions and online cloud browsing at museums have become a leisure, social, and lifestyle for young people.
According to the 2023 Museum Data Report on a certain short video platform, the proportion of people born in the 2000s who love to watch museum related videos is higher compared to other ages. According to relevant platform statistics, the total proportion of people aged 18-30 who follow museum information is nearly 50%.
In addition to closely monitoring the dynamics of museums online, visiting museums offline has also become a trend among young people. According to a data report released by the National Museum of China, in 2021, the proportion of visitors under the age of 35 at the National Museum exceeded 50%. In 2022, China Youth Daily and China Youth University Media launched a questionnaire survey on the level of attention to museums among college students nationwide, collecting a total of 992 valid questionnaires from 154 universities. The survey results show that 89.72% of respondents have visited museums, and 42.04% of respondents visit museums 1-2 times a year.
Enthusiasm in museums is recognition of traditional culture
Compared to other cultural activities such as watching performances and attending concerts, the cost of visiting museums is truly "cost-effective"; The environment of museums is usually more charming and has a strong cultural atmosphere; Not affected by weather indoors. Choosing a museum as a place to travel on weekends and holidays not only allows for knowledge acquisition, but also allows for discussions and exchanges with like-minded friends. After the event, one can also share exquisite photos of cultural relics on social media and bring back unique cultural and creative products... All these "advantages" have made many young people fall in love with the "exhibition style socializing" of visiting museums.
A museum is a big school. Many young people enter museums to explore the charm of history and culture, and to add a spiritual "nutritious meal" to themselves. Some people want to quickly understand the history of a city and explore its cultural heritage. "Museums are the window to learn about a city, and if I want to learn about a city, I will definitely visit local museums," said Li Yizhan, a junior student at Wuhan University. Some people supplement their knowledge system with physical materials. "I have talked about oracle bone inscriptions, bamboo slips, etc. in my professional courses, but I haven't seen any real objects. After visiting a museum, I realized that it's not quite what I imagined," said Yang Ziyao, a first-year graduate student at Beijing Normal University.
Many young people are moved by the historical stories behind cultural relics in museums, gaining cultural experiences and emotional resonance that transcend time and space. "In museums, time and space seem to be severely compressed, and it takes a day to complete thousands of years of history, which is shocking. Looking at the exhibits, I can't help but imagine how ancient people used them," Li Yizhan said excitedly.
Young people are enthusiastic about visiting museums, which reflects their recognition of traditional culture. They have developed a strong interest in the ancient way of life, the landscape of ancient times, and the spiritual world of the ancients, and have a strong desire to learn about where the Chinese nation came from and the origin of Chinese civilization. These all prompt them to enter museums and consciously understand the profound historical heritage of the Chinese nation.
How museums attract young people
It is an important responsibility of museums to help people, especially young people, understand and fall in love with traditional culture. Therefore, innovating communication methods to attract more and more people to "approach" museums, then "enter" museums, and ultimately "fall in love" with museums is the essence of museum work.
In October 2021, the State Council issued a notice on the "14th Five Year Plan for Cultural Relics Protection and Technological Innovation", which pointed out the need to "implement a number of smart museum construction demonstration projects, study and formulate relevant standards and specifications; promote the development of online digital experience products in museums, and provide new cultural and tourism services such as immersive experiences, virtual exhibition halls, and high-definition live broadcasts.". In May 2022, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the National Cultural Digitalization Strategy", which clearly stated the need to fully utilize cultural and educational facilities such as museums to build offline scenes for digital cultural experiences.
Developing digital IPs, creating mini programs and apps, widely using digital technology for cultural relics, conducting various online and offline interactive activities, developing various cultural and creative products to bring museum culture home, filming documentaries, and participating in cultural and museum variety shows... In recent years, innovative cultural relics and museum narrative methods have emerged, bringing cultural relics collected in museums to life, entering people's lives, and entering the "memoranda" of young people.
Recently, the National Museum launched the "ShuShuo Xi Zun" exhibition, which comprehensively utilizes various digital methods such as artificial intelligence, infrared sensing, AOA positioning, and augmented reality to showcase the museum's collection of gold and silver cloud patterned bronze Xi Zun. This type of "culture+technology" exhibition, which utilizes digital technologies such as AR and VR, is highly sought after by audiences, especially young audiences.
Online, museums actively develop mini programs and apps to break time and space limitations and achieve cloud museums that never close. For example, the "Cloud Tour Dunhuang" mini program has launched the world's first new generation of "hyper temporal participatory museums" created using gaming technology - the "Digital Scripture Cave" project, allowing young people to immerse themselves in the history of the scripture cave. The National Museum has also developed virtual digital figures "Ai Wenwen" and "Tong Gu Jin", and currently Ai Wenwen has unlocked the intelligent voice explanation function.
Some museums also use social media as a promotional display window to actively attract young people. Some official social media accounts use humorous and witty language, with strong memes. They frequently create popular "cultural relic emojis" and interact with fans. Museums with a sense of networking have brought themselves closer to Generation Z and also attracted more young people to enter offline museums.
In addition to regular exhibitions, some museums also hold interactive workshops, lectures, exhibitions, and other activities that are popular among young people. The Beijing Xuannan Cultural Museum offers a new mode of "exhibition+theatrical experience" for young people through an immersive guided tour of the play "Xuannan Travelers". During the immersive performance, audiences can immerse themselves in historical events such as the public sacrifice of Yang Jiaoshan, the official bus inscription, the Wuxu Reform, and the Xuannan Newspaper Industry. The Tianjin Museum staged an experimental drama called "Entering the Snowy and Cold Forest Realm" based on the "Snowy and Cold Forest Picture" in the museum. Some museums have also launched "script tours" in combination with the popular form of "script killing" among young people, such as the "Night of Jinsha: Looking Back at Chang'an" script tour developed by the Jinsha Site Museum, the "Search for Ancient Yunnan" real-life script killing game by the Yunnan Provincial Museum, and the immersive game "Battle of Guanyin Mountain" by the Guangzhou Museum
The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage pointed out in the publicly announced "Development Plan for the Construction of Beijing Museum City" that "encourage the inheritance and innovation of intangible cultural heritage, and carry out activities such as museum research and overnight stays in museums.". In recent years, some museums have extended their opening hours to nighttime, giving young people more options to visit museums for leisure at night. Some museums take advantage of this opportunity to carry out themed activities such as "Night Stay Museum" and "Museum Wonderful Night". For example, the "Museum Wonderful Night" historical and cultural museum night stay project held by multiple museums in Luoyang this year combines popular elements such as "immersive drama", "script killing", and "camping" among young people, attracting museum enthusiasts from all over to visit Luoyang for check-in.
Cold Reflections on Museum Enthusiasm
As more and more young people flock to museums, some experts and scholars also express concerns: are young people just trying to make do with the fun? Is it a horse watching fancy tour that leaves a fleeting impression, or is it a true learning of historical and cultural knowledge that leads to self-improvement?
To enable young people to extract the fruits of civilization from the museum, which is a treasure trove of human culture, it is necessary for museums to strengthen academic research on cultural relics, deeply explore and interpret the intrinsic value and historical and cultural background of cultural relics, rather than blindly emphasizing the "heat", "popularity", and "sensational effect" of exhibitions. Professor Shi Jixiang, Director of the Museum Development Research Center at the School of Archaeology, Jilin University, observed that some museums are exhausted in achieving the target of exhibition quantity. "Nowadays, there are more than 30000 historical and exchange exhibitions launched every year, and museums hastily hold exhibitions before delving into the study of 'objects', which is irresponsible to the public.".
Shi Jixiang emphasized that the innovative form of cultural and tourism integration in museums is worthy of recognition, but the grasp of scale is equally important. Whether it is digital means such as AR and VR, or "high aesthetics" exhibition areas for photo taking and check-in, or activities such as "script tours" and "overnight stays at museums", creative planning should serve the content of the exhibition and should not "dominate". "Some technological means only focus on stimulating the eyes, but they do not provide much help for people to understand the historical background of the exhibits, and such digital products will become mere formality." He reminded that many museums currently contract these types of projects to technology or cultural companies, but outsourcing them cannot be ignored, and the interpretation of the cultural connotations of cultural relics must be well controlled.
Ultimately, the goal of interactive experiences is to disseminate knowledge about cultural relics. "Gimmicks" may attract people to enter museums, but what truly moves people is undoubtedly the moments of perception, insight, and emotion towards history and culture. Shi Jixiang repeatedly emphasized that museums should understand and serve the audience, and more importantly, enhance their cognitive abilities, play the role of museums as cultural institutions, and have a positive guidance and enhancement for young people.
In short, solemn and sacred museums can be down-to-earth, but they should not be overly entertaining - after all, museums are not playgrounds or entertainment venues. He Yunao, Director of the Institute of History and Natural Heritage at Nanjing University, pointed out that museums should revitalize and utilize cultural relics and integrate cultural and tourism development on the basis of not deviating from professional, academic, and scientific characteristics.
"Cultural relics have dignity. Simply pleasing the audience in a popular way will weaken the status of cultural relics and the function of museums. Cultural relics themselves cannot be 'funny'." He said, "Catering may seem to win the audience, but it also loses another part of the audience."
Experts unanimously stated that museums and audiences should have a two-way interaction. In addition to balancing the characteristics of attracting young audiences and loyal museums, young audiences should also have a curious heart, such as doing some homework before the exhibition, in order to draw more insights from the exhibition and have a "heart to heart" deep dialogue with cultural relics.
