Striving to Bring Cultural Relics to Life - Ten Year Journey of Tianjin Museum Industry

Museums are places where humans collect historical memories and shape new cultures, serving as battlefields and windows for inheriting and promoting traditional Chinese culture. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Government have continuously increased their support for the museum industry, and significant achievements have been made in the cultural relics museum industry. The level of protection and utilization of cultural relics in the collection is constantly improving.

Further optimize the layout of museums

In 2018, Tianjin issued the "Opinions on Further Developing Non State owned Museums in Tianjin", outlining the construction and development pace of non-public museums in Tianjin, and striving to achieve the vision of "inheriting" Tianjin culture. Construct non-state-owned museums such as the Samaranch Memorial Hall in Jinghai District, the Tianjin Architectural Methods Exhibition Hall, and the Lianshengzhai Embroidery Art Museum, complete the maintenance and renovation of venues such as the Pingjin Campaign Memorial Hall and the Zhoudeng Memorial Hall, and reopen the Northern Xinjiang Museum to the public. By the end of 2022, 76 officially registered museums will be open to the public, including 26 cultural relics museums, 22 industrial museums and 28 non-state-owned museums, covering various fields such as history, folk customs, nature, people and the history of the CPC. They have become an important carrier for inheriting Tianjin civilization, reviewing Tianjin history, and understanding Tianjin culture.

The foundation of cultural relic management continues to strengthen

Improving the collection process, various cultural museum units in Tianjin continuously improve the collection extraction and return management system, conduct inventory of collections, organize museum collection resources, register and establish accounts, and continuously strengthen the construction of museum collection protection and management system. In 2013, Tianjin launched a national survey of movable cultural relics. As of the end of 2016, Tianjin had completed the collection and registration review of 127 collection units, with a total registered collection of 675000 pieces/set and an actual quantity of 1.784 million pieces. A basic understanding of the overall situation of state-owned movable cultural relics resources in Tianjin has significantly improved the awareness of cultural relics protection in the whole society, effectively enhancing the level of cultural relics protection and management.

Launch the 'Teacher Classroom' training program. By hiring renowned teachers and experts to provide one-on-one education and training for young talents, our goal is to cultivate a group of talents in various fields such as cultural relic protection, research, archaeology and cultural heritage protection, cultural relic art appraisal, and folk craft inheritance. We continuously introduce cultural leaders to provide talent support for museum construction. Since its launch in 2007, the project has been carried out in three stages, cultivating over 100 young talents who have become newcomers in the fields of cultural heritage protection and research, and have gained a reputation in the national cultural and museum industry.

Museums are gradually integrating into the national education system

The Ministry of Education has launched three batches of "practical classrooms for primary and secondary school students", promoting youth education cases in museums throughout the city, and jointly issuing the "Notice on Deepening Ideological and Political Education for Primary and Secondary School Students through 'Museum School Joint Construction'" to improve the mechanism for primary and secondary school students to use museums for learning. Establish the "Tianjin Museum Youth Education Alliance" to create a collaborative platform between major museums and schools in Tianjin. Through rich collections and cultural experience activities, and a two-way model of "bringing in" and "going out", the patriotism contained in traditional Chinese culture will be passed down from generation to generation and deeply rooted in people's hearts.

In addition, various cultural and museum venues in Tianjin actively organize exhibitions, school lectures, community activities, and winter and summer camps. The series of public welfare lectures such as "Tianbo Lecture Hall" and "Science Popularization Lecture Hall" have become brand columns of museums.

The level of cultural relic protection has significantly improved

Efforts should be made to improve the ability to protect cultural relics in the collection, combining cultural relic protection, preventive protection, and digital protection, and changing the environment for cultural relic protection. The Tianjin Museum has completed the third phase of its preventive protection project for cultural relics collection, improved the environmental monitoring and control system for cultural relics protection, and added a cultural relics cleaning and maintenance system. Tianjin Natural History Museum (Northern Xinjiang Museum), Tianjin Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Painting Museum and other venues have increased their preventive protection efforts for their collections of cultural relics, and multiple projects have received special funding support from the National Cultural Relics Protection Fund. In addition, with Tianjin Museum as the leading unit, the construction of preventive protection zones for cultural relics collection in Tianjin has been carried out. The main cultural and museum venues in the city have been included in the Tianjin Cultural Relics Prevention and Protection Monitoring Station, which conducts real-time monitoring of the movable cultural relics protection and display environment of each museum, achieving more scientific control of the cultural relics protection environment. Further increase the digital protection of cultural relics in the collection, such as the digital protection project of Tianjin Museum, which uses digital technologies such as 3D scanning to collect high-precision 3D models and high-definition images of 984 revolutionary cultural relics to improve the level of protection.

Building intelligent museums takes advantage of this trend

The Tianjin Cultural Museum continues to promote the construction of smart museums, continuously improving and strengthening the level of digital informatization from three aspects: smart protection, smart management, and smart services. The Tianjin Museum has launched a 5G intelligent interactive experience exhibition, utilizing digital interactive technologies such as 5G+mixed reality (AR+VR) and CG to vividly "restore" cultural relics and history. Tianjin Museum, Tanggu Dagukou Battery Site Museum in Binhai New Area, and Jinyun New Media jointly launched digital products such as "VR Tianbo" and "VR Dagukou Battery". By using 3D modeling technology to digitize museum treasures and embedding VR links in the same scene, visitors can achieve "time and space travel" between the museum and other real scenes or places. In the future, content from other cultural and museum venues in Tianjin will be added, allowing more Tianjin cultural relics to live in the cloud and utilizing digital technology for immersive exploration of museums.

The Tianjin National Marine Museum has completed the construction of a full process intelligent collection management system, which digitizes and informatizes the collection. More than 9000 natural specimens have been listed and entered into the system information, further improving the information management system such as the general ledger and classification ledger of the collection. We have collaborated with Tianjin Marine Environment Monitoring and Forecasting to establish the Tianjin Marine Biological Specimen Bank. The Nankai University Museum has completed the collection of 29 high-quality cultural relics and 165 high-definition images of porcelain through 3D scanning, significantly improving its digital management and display capabilities.

The dissemination capability of museums has significantly improved

Continuously enriching the propaganda carrier of the spiritual connotation of revolutionary cultural relics, innovating and excavating the ideological connotation and contemporary value contained in revolutionary cultural relics, presenting the "big theme" with a "small incision", cooperating with Tianjin Airport, subway, public transportation and other departments, carefully designing the "red line" subway tourism route map, revolutionary cultural relics theme boarding pass, as well as activities such as "subway mobile museum" and "walking museum". We will make full use of radio, television, the Internet and other media to enrich the forms of publicity, so that Tianjin's cultural relics resources are "live" and "dynamic" and reflect the value of the times.

Implement the "Encounter Tianjin" Creative City Art Plan. With the theme of "tangible city, unlimited creativity", relying on historical and cultural resources such as museums and art galleries, and through the cross-border, dialogue, integration, and blending of various urban arts such as performing arts and fine arts, we aim to cultivate and explore innovative development models that are supported by policies, based on creativity, social investment, and market operation, and build Tianjin into a "new art city". In the exhibition hall of Tianjin Museum, dancers dressed in modern costumes complement the collection of Yangliuqing paintings. They sang "Farewell Forever" at the Li Shutong Memorial Hall, opened a song and dance feast at the Lishunde Museum, and launched the "Drama Blind Box" at the Tianjin Art Museum, achieving the cross-border integration of cultural relics and art.

Museums promote economic and social development

In 2018, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage signed cooperation agreements on collaborative innovation and development of museums in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region with multiple units in Beijing and Hebei. Establish the "Joint Leadership Conference for Collaborative Development of Museums in the Beijing Tianjin Hebei Region" system to promote coordinated development in the region. Deepen academic and exhibition exchanges among the three regions, with a focus on promoting public education and services.

Assist in rural revitalization. The Tianjin Cultural Museum actively implements the Implementation Plan for Supporting the Development of Economically Disadvantaged Villages in Tianjin, and creates a distinctive cultural and creative agricultural product industry through the excavation of cultural relics and interpretation of traditional culture. The Tianjin Museum, combined with local willow weaving techniques in Jizhou, successfully launched cultural relics such as willow weaving shapes, and made a stunning appearance at the 2022 Zhengzhou World Expo. With the help of willow weaving, this folk craft enables the cultural and creative industry to carry more traditional memories and bring a better life to the public. In 2021, the Pingjin Campaign Memorial Hall collaborated with Mengjialou Village in Limingzhuang Town, Jizhou District to focus on the former site of the Pingjin Campaign Frontline Command Center, excavate red resources, and create projects such as the Pingjin Campaign History Exhibition Hall and the Mengjialou Red Culture Corridor, utilizing the social education function of red resources to promote rural revitalization.

Museums have created new business cards for cultural exchange

Over the past decade, Tianjin's cultural and creative system has actively promoted cultural exchanges. Multiple large-scale exhibitions from countries such as France, Spain, and Italy are on display in Tianjin, serving as a bridge to strengthen people to people exchanges and deepen cultural dialogue. At the same time, seize the historical opportunities such as the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Indonesia, and hold overseas exhibitions such as "Unity, Friendship and Cooperation Bandung Conference" to carry forward the great achievements of the older generation of leaders and deepen the traditional friendship between the two peoples.

The Tianjin Museum actively implements exhibitions such as the "Maritime Glory - Special Exhibition of China's Export National Emblem Porcelain Collection", allowing more tourists to appreciate exported porcelain and witness cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Next, the Tianjin Culture Museum system will take in-depth study, promotion and implementation of the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the CPC as the primary political task for the current and future period. Closely implement General Secretary Xi's important instructions and directives on cultural relics work, implement the policy of cultural relics work in the new era, improve the level of research, interpretation, exhibition, and dissemination of cultural relics, and make cultural relics come alive. High quality cultural supply will better meet the people's demand for a better spiritual and cultural life, and enhance their spiritual strength.