Almost 100-year-old Chinese museum taps Alipay, ‘blind boxes’ and live-streams to ride out Covid-19
- We have sped up our digitisation projects because of the pandemic, says the director of Henan Museum’s culture and creative office
- The advancement of digital development at public cultural institutions such as museums is mentioned in China’s 14th five-year plan adopted in March
Henan Museum, one of China’s oldest museums, has turned to digitisation in an attempt to attract visitors.
Founded in 1927, the museum has of late been using interactive online experiences, “blind boxes” and live-streams as part of its digitisation efforts.
“Due to the effects of the pandemic, we have sped up the progress and the exploration of our digitisation projects,” said Song Hua, the director of Henan Museum’s culture and creative office. The museum has been looking for new ways to interact with visitors in person and virtually.
In recent years, especially since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand to go digital among museums has been growing
China had 5,788 registered museums as of the end of last year, according to its National Cultural Heritage Administration, and the advancement of digital development and free admission to public cultural institutions such as museums have found mention in the country’s 14th five-year plan, which was officially adopted in March.
Chinese museums have made digitisation efforts before as well. For instance, the Palace Museum in Beijing offers virtual tours of past and current exhibitions on its website.
Henan Museum has introduced digitisation in previous exhibitions to better interact with guests as well, but the coronavirus pandemic had given it the opportunity to further embrace these new practices, Song said. “We are still in the early exploration stage and so far we have done quite well,” she added.
In September, the museum partnered with mobile payments platform Alipay to launch an interactive online archaeology experience. For instance, within the Alipay application would-be archaeologists dig out digital versions of relics displayed at Henan Museum using virtual shovels and brushes.
