Discussion keeps the worldturning.
This is RoundTable.Hello, welcome to RoundTable, where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that Sizu in China andbeyond.
I'm NiuHonglin. Welcome to our International Museum DaySpecial.
Today, we honor the Guardians of History and Culture as we dive into the vibrant world ofmuseums.
Discover the vital roles these institutions play in preserving our collective heritage and inspiring futuregenerations.
For today'sshow, I'm joined by Sizu in the studio and Josh Kotterl on theline.
Now, grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of thediscussion.
May the 18th is a unique moment for the International Museumcommunity.
Museums are not justbuildings, but gateways to vast worlds ofknowledge, art andhistory.
These are the places where learning comes alive and history speaks to us through art andartifacts.
Today, we reflect on the importance of museums in our lives and perhaps try to give you a little push from your home to the nearestmuseums.
So, let's talk about the International Museum Day of this yearfirst, shallwe?
Yeah, this year's theme of the International Museum Day is museums for education andresearch.
It underscores the important role of these cultural institutions in providing a holistic educational experience for the generalpublic.
I think it really highlights the role museums play as these dynamic educational hubs that fostercuriosity, creativity and even criticalthinking.
Andalso, when it comes toresearch, this day also underscores how museums can serve as these important platforms for exploration and also dissemination of some of the new ideas across theworld.
And inChina, the main venue of this year is going to be held at the Chin and Han Dynasty Hall of Shanxi History Museum in the city ofXi'an, the capital of Shanxi Province in northwestern part ofChina.
And from May 17th to19th, China will host a series of events across cities to commemorate this specialday.
Forexample, inBeijing, the city will hold the Beijing Museum Month that will feature a variety of exhibitions and cultural creativity and even film screenings and readingactivities.
Yes, Inoticed, actually I noticed there is this first lesson in themuseum,connectivity.
It's forstudents, actually primary students as well as secondary schoolstudents.
And I think they can join the activity andmaybe, I think for today'skids, they have already visited museums even in their primaryage.
But having a class in a museum might bedifferent.
You would have someone catering to your needs and answering yourquestions, being able to provide you with the background stories of the exhibits in a certain museum telling you all the historic origins ofit, anecdotes aboutit, could be very muchfun.
And in the meantime inBeijing, we also know that it's a quite Chinesething.
It has something to do with the beauty oflanguage.
I'm talking about the naming of the activity because the activity is called HundredMuseums, ThousandExhibitions, and Ten ThousandVisitors.
It's a Chinesething. We like numbers and we like to put these elements together to showcase the magnificence aboutit.
And the idea is that we would include a lot of differentmuseums, a lot of different exhibitions andactivities, and definitely a lot of museum goers who are enthusiastic about it to give people the opportunity to find or refine the love in their heart formuseums.
And you get to see that we talked about the major exhibition or the major activities happening in the Qing and Han Dynasty Hall of ShenXi, HistoryMuseum, and and withinthat, actually there are multiple activitieshappening, including the announcement of the Top 10 Museum Exhibitions inChina.
I'm pretty sure those exhibition or those exhibits would be on tour quite a lot after the announcement being named as the Top10.
In themeantime, I waswondering,Josh, did you notice any special activities outside of China celebrating the International MuseumDay?
Yes. So one of the activities that happens in theUK, which again is something that I experiencedmyself, was more to do with prehistoricexhibits.
Soagain, things like fossils and one of the reasons that this is a popular activity on this day is because it's very interactive and it'songoing.
One activity that students often get to do is excavating and doing sort of mini archaeologicaldigs, or maybe even just polishing or digging upstones.
And this iswonderful, Ithink, because it really puts students in touch with theexhibit.
And also they can do things like draw pictures or sketch over like imprints of the fossils and do like bingo cards and stuff where you know you have to find all of the ones and tick them off as you go around the exhibition and things likethat.
So there's a multitude of way that museums can be very interactive and sort of take individuals who participate in these activities on sort of a journey around themuseum.
Because ultimately that's what curators are trying to do a lot of the time when they create these museums is to take people on ajourney.
And I think often younger kids and stuff are more up for doing that kind ofthing, youknow, and getting creative andinteractive.
But asadults, maybe we get a bit more insecure and we don't want to doit.
But I think that it's important to get in touch with it and youknow, get your hands on some of the exhibitssometimes, even if they're not maybe the realone,right?
Maybe sometimes they might be artificial artifacts and stuff likethis.
But still I think that it engages people's brains and makes you retain more of theinformation.
Yeah, actually we talked about this already around table about the fact that a lot of young people started to feel museum-going as a major activity they'd like to enjoy in their freetime.
Alifestyle. Alifestyle,indeed.
And instead of seeing it as a bitnerdy, as a nichehobby, I'm not talking aboutyou,Josh, even though you're polishing lyrics orfossils, it's no longer considered niche ornerdy.
It's now something that people would quiteenjoy.
I believe it has something to do with the fact that we are fostering or calvating this interest in history and inculture.
The society is doing a better job and the other thing is actually museums are being quite inviting thesedays.
I remember when I was akid, when I was in primaryschool, I went to themuseum, a localmuseum.
It was a very seriousmuseum.
You can imagine the most classic kind of look of amuseum.
A hugehall. A lot of pictures andexhibits, long passage and paragraphs of description of that artifact or of thatrelic.
And it's not verybright, it's a little bitdim.
Because you want to make sure all these artifacts or all these cultural relics are protectedproperly, but it'sreally, really dark for a littlegirl.
You just feellike,huh, this is a very seriousplace.
It's too dark to the point that you don't want to speak outloud.
Because there's the echo and you do not want to disturb other people who are quietly whispering a little bit about one thing that I'm lookingat.
It was a dull place forme.
I was like not older than 10 yearsold, so it was really notfun.
But you knowwhat? The past workers dayholiday, I went backhome.
I took my kid to the samemuseum.
It was much moreinteresting.
There are a lot of interactive activities you can participatein.
There are tour guides who are bothintelligent, knowledgeable andfun.
The answer your questions instead of just reciting the passage in their mind that they were taughtabout.
And I realized maybe that's the reason young people nowadays would like to visit museumsmore.
Because museums and the knowledge and all the cultural background are getting much more interactive andfun.
Yeah,definitely. I think nowadays Chinese museums they have become moreengaging.
Like yousaid, probably in the past people feel a sense ofdistance.
They feel they are far away fromthis.
Yeah, I was quite far away from these artifacts displayed in this giantmuseum.
But nowadays definitely people they like visitingmuseums.
And we have seen a trend of more youngpeople, especially duringholidays.
Like in the past made aholiday, which from May the 1st to5th, there are some statistics from the National Cultural HeritageAdministration, which show that over 6000 museums across China they have received nearly 40 million visitors in the first three days of theholiday.
And this statistics really set a new record among many of these popular hot destinations acrossChina.
And also even before the holidaybegan, some of these tickets were fullybooked.
So it's so hard to snatch even aticket.
Especially when over90% of museums are free oftickets.
You just need to make an appointment and it can enjoy all the fun and knowledge and culture inhistory.
And in themeantime, I actually talked to the director of the Jingdeo-jin Imperial KielInstitute.
And he isMr. WangYanjun.
And hesaid, according to hisobservation, the fact that a lot of young people are viewing museums as a place to even like Jingyusaid, as a lifestyle is happening in his museum aswell.
Let's take alisten.Oh,absolutely.
We have been witnessing such a trend for almost threeyears.
Since the very first day when our new museum was open to thepublic, there's many young people come here to kill theirtime, to wanderaround, to photoaround, to smilearound, and laugharound.
So that tellsyou, it does not just come here to take aclass, to take a historyclass, but also to the fewrelaxed, to feelconnected.
And some of them can even join the happy team to follow a special guide who will be dressed up in theDr.
Sui'simage. An image we created based on the 550-year-old dark-shaped incenseburner.
So they will be able to interact with the guide by following some dark rules and to try to win some prizes as SuiNghers, the again interesting experience of touring around themuseum.
That was WangYen-Jun, director of the Jingdu-A-Jian Imperial CumeInstitute.
Actually,Jingdu-A-Jian, for those of you who are not that familiar with thecity, it is considered as the world's porcelaincapital, and the museum is positioned near some of the city's imperial cumeruins, which stayed back to the Ming Dynasty and were once used to produce porcelain for the imperialfamily, which is why the museum designated to showcase the specificity of thecity.
It is a very distinctivecume, as well asceramics, and China and porcelainculture.
It is such a funplace, and I'm very glad to see a lot of young people are visiting that museum aswell.
And I think he has got a really goodpoint.
And as you can see the duck or professorduck, well that is quite an imagery I canimagine.
And quitefriendly, probably to thesekids.
Yes, so that can even be created as a souvenir that you can take hometoo, so maybe that would be a goodidea.
Yeah, that's also one of the things that I havenoticed, especially I think over the past severalyears, most of the museums they have launched a collection of cultural and creativeproducts.
So it's not just you go into a museum and you touraround, but before you goout, you can get something and take themhome, which represents and also reminds you of your special tour in themuseum.
I think that's also a very fun way to visit museumsnowadays.
Yeah,absolutely. I think that the most important thing is to engagevisitors,right?
And sometimesmuseums, it canbe, it could be difficult to engagewith, with some of the exhibitions as interesting as their stories might be for many people asobjects, sometimes they can get a bit boring or a bitdull,right?
There's only so many ceramic plates or whatever that you can look at sometimes or fossils for manypeople, they see fossils is reallyboring, but what I can say that one of the reasons that I find them so interesting is because when I was akid, we got to go to some sort of interactive exhibitions and things likethis, like the natural history museum inLondon.
And there were lots of fake dinosaurs and people giving tour guides and it was all veryinteresting, but ultimately what they're doing is telling usstories, they're telling us the story of theartifact.
And if we all love stories and withoutstories, we often lackcontext,right?
Knowing, why is this thisshape?
Where did it comefrom? Maybe this is just onebone, but then we get to see a picture of the whole animal we get to learn about where itlived, how itmoved, if it was a predator or a herbivore or anomnivore,right?
And all of these things and through this you learn thestory, you remember stuff and it becomes of interest toyou.
And I think that this is fantastic what this museum'sdoing.
Another trend that we observe about museums is that nowadays not only are they trying really hard to improve experiences ofvisitors, they are also engaged with the community sneerby.
Instead of just becoming aplace, a enshrined place waiting for people to come by and have avisit, they started to talk to local people living around and the holding differentactivities.
And actuallyMr. Wang Yanjun set the same thing about his museum aswell.
I think what we've been trying to do here is the Bodlest Museum and the connection which had to bring to thevisitors.
So as a BodlestMuseum, we place some of our exhibited items to thecommunity, not just limited to our fancy museumbuilding.
Forexample, the virtual device of the postling dome of the Santos Palace is donation from a museum inFrance.
But we placed that device in an open space of a Kiongworkshop.
And we also invited many modern artists to have acamp.
It brings the dome camp at our place for sevendays.
They see our excavationsite, they see ourmuseum, they also see our ceramic jeanbank.
And then they came up with the ideas for their artwork to be placed in many remands and the corners of thestreets.
Those items helped a lot to bring that kind of a connection feeling to differentvisitors.
Interesting. I thinkmuseums, they have been making more efforts to sort of expand their outreach to probably nearby communities and even schools and some of the lifelong learners livingnearby.
And also apart fromthat, I think they have been increasing their accessibility as well by launching some of these online resources and virtual tours and even digital collections that can reach wider audience around China and even theworld.
Definitely with the development of technology with the widespread use of artificial intelligence and digitalization of cultural relics of also of museumsthemselves.
Actually a lot of new experiences are out there for us toexplore.
And in themeantime, actually artificial intelligence as well as digitalization of or archaeology digitalization has been helping people working in the field to further explore or further basically do their research about their specificsubject, certaindynasty, certain period of time so that they can do a betterjob.
And this is whatMr. Wang Yanjun also said about what he's been doing in thisregard.
Yeah, traditionally museum to many visitors is like a sacredplace.
It's a place ofknowledge, a place about thepast.
Well, that's goodsomehow, but the bad side is that doesn't give people the feeling ofintimacy, the feeling of a connection and digital world technology and even AI can helphere.
They give people a better understanding and more intuitive understanding about theexhibit, about the displayeditems.
And technology really helps a lot in the exploration to thepast, includingarchaeology.
So when we are doingthis, we are doing works on theseremains, the word technology likedigitalization, they can help us to record precisely all thesurroundings, all thesetup, all the remains as awhole, not just as separatepart, but as awhole.
And layer bylayer, when we do the exposure to theexcavation, they can help us trace back at that intime.
So that helps a lot for museum exhibits aswell.
So for the puzzlingrestore, even the restoredones, you do not just see the singlepiece, you can now be able to see more about what happened toit.
That sounds reallyinteresting.
I feel like technology can not only bring museums to you to your home by providing all these online exhibitions andeverything, it can also bring the real past into themuseum.
You can imagine myself wearing this artificial intelligence a-did virtual realitygoggles.
Yes, and also wearing all the devices trying to touch the ancient kiln in Teng Dynasty or even beforethat, it could be muchfun.
So Josh andEuropeanian, what other things that technologies can do to improve both the visitor experience and also archaeologyitself?
I think it can help in so many differentways, but in a quite specificway, I know that what AI is able to do now isto, forexample, look at the structure of certainindividuals, it's able to basically bring history to life for somedegree.
A very famous example which you guys might have seen actually is when they recreated the voice of certain deceased Egyptianpersons,right?
And they were able to basically look at the shape of the mummy'sbody,right?
The mummifiedbodies,throat, forexample, and it could reconstruct themuscles, and then from this is able to create a voice or what is likely to be the sort of voice texture that they'dhave.
And then they can even bring the voice tolife.
The accuracy ofthis, Iguess, is still slightly impossible totest,right?
We would need the timemachine.
So it's like this are prettyamazing, and I think they're quite important becauseagain, it humanizes some of thesethings.
I think it's quite difficult sometimes to connect to theseobjects,right?
As was justmentioned, it's important to feel this connection and not feel as though it's just like you're going to see the museum'scollection, what their purpose actually is to engage us with ourhistory,right, and our culturalheritage, or the heritage of the wholeworld,maybe, with someexhibitions,right?
Forexample, and ifAI, forexample, and other technology is able to do this by bringing it tolife, or giving us a more accurate representation of what maybe some of the first walking mammals on twolegs,basically, those look like sounded like ithelps, Ithink, toengage.
Yeah. Allright, so here is the last question that I ask almost every year when it comes to international museumday.
Do you have a museum you want to recommend to our listeners outthere?
Definitely. I have one that I haven't beento.
I would love to go theresometime.
So start a meet Xingyu in the museumactivity.
Goahead, what is the place you want tovisit?
Okay, so it's called the Senshin DuyMuseum.
I'm sure you've heard ofit.
I don't know if Josh have heard ofit.
Haveyou?Josh?No.No, probablynot.
Sorry. It'sokay. I think SenshinDuy, it has become abuzzword, like just three or four yearsago, when I think in2019, some of the new excavations were discovered in this archaeologicalsite.
Actually, some of the cultural relics can date back to the kingdom of Shu 3000 yearsago.
And this museum is located in the city of GuangHan.
So that's some 60 kilometers away from the capital city of Chengdu in southwestern part of thecountry, in Sichuanprovince.
And this archaeological site is known as one of the world's greatest archaeological findings of the 20thcentury.
So the first Senshin Duy relics were discovered by a farmer that can date back to1929.
And the excavation has continued eversince.
So what we now know as the majordiscoveries, one is from the year of1986.
And the nextis, like Isaid,2019.
And some 20,000 cultural relics wereunearthed, including some of thebronze,jade,ivory, and even gold artifacts excavated from ancienttimes.
So when you look at the images of theseartifacts, you will be so amazed by some of the bizarre looking likethe...
They're quite cutenow.
Yeah, and also cute looking these faces and also the sacredtrees.
And you will be amazed at how people in the past would be able to make some of these amazing and giantartifacts.
So I think that's one of the museums I would definitely recommend to people to visitsomeday.
So the museum that I would like to recommend is called the Museum ofBrands.
It's a quirky littlemuseum.
And it is in NottingHill.
It's on Notting HillCorner.
And this is an interesting little quirky museum that sort of takes you through about 150 years ofbrands.
And it's aboutconsumerism.
And it's actually quite deeper than itsounds.
You're able to sort of see how we as civilization became obsessed withconsumerism.
And it's also very colorful and interesting and artistic aswell.
And you can do it in about anhour.
So this is my Museum ofRecommendation, if you're inLondon.
And that sounds reallyfun.
And for ourlisteners, if you have a favoritemuseum, you want to recommend to the Roundtableteam.
