Culture Connects With Individuals

History Blends With Modernity

 

 

Wide media coverage

 

 

To send out the news of the Exhibition of the Three Kingdoms Legend held by the Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum, CCTV, Xinhua News, People’s Daily, China Culture Daily, China Cultural Relics News, Guangming Daily and other national media companies gave it wide coverage with more than 50 press releases. It was the same with Sichuan Daily, Sichuan Pictorial, Chengdu Daily, Chengdu Business Daily and other provincial and municipal media companies. The hashtag #The Exhibition of the Three Kingdoms Legend in Chengdu# in Chinese on Weibo attracted over 70 million views.

 

 

Publicity was achieved by a great diversity of mediums, ranging from digital promotion to physical advertising. There were three specially-designed and 15-second-long stop-motion animations featuring cultural relics, three original hand-painted posters, eight posters of cultural relics in the exhibition and nine posters of a guessing game about cultural relics. The exhibition-themed pilot films, promotional films and feature films also came online.

 

Cooperation with Chengdu Metro 

 

The official Weibo and WeChat accounts of the Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum, along with TouTiao, Douyin, Kuaishou and other platforms, all served to generate publicity. During the exhibition, the Museum cooperated with T3Go (a Didi equivalent), Chengdu Metro, and People Digital to release exhibition information through moving vehicles, metro billboards and digital screens, which spawned an upsurge of interest.

 

Chinese author Ma Boyong, famous for his historical fictions, posted an article on his official WeChat account to express his understanding of, feelings about and reflections on the exhibition. Many other bloggers and history buffs also posted on social media expressing their thoughts towards the exhibition and the Three Kingdoms period. All these spontaneous reactions exerted a great effect on publicity.

 

 

Face-to-face communication: Lectures by cultural relics experts

 

 

The Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum specially invited 13 history experts to the exhibition, including professor Fang Beichen of the School of History and Culture of Sichuan University, researcher Pan Weibin of Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, professor Yuan Shengwen of the Department of Archaeology and Museology of Nankai University, and researcher Geng Jianjun of the Archaeology Department of the Xuzhou Museum, to give eight lectures on “Splendour of Han and Jin Dynasties: Three Kingdoms in Cultural Relics”, with a total of 1,280 attendees.

 

 

Series lectures

 

The lectures were about the discovery and research of Cao Cao's tomb, jade clothes in tombs and funeral rituals in Han Dynasty, and the material well-being of Han and Jin dynasties reflected by porcelains. The lecturers consisted of researchers of the exhibits’ home museum, archaeologists who have participated in excavations, and other experts in cultural relics. They provided in-depth interpretations from the perspective of historical objects and unveil the stories about those relics and archaeological work. It was them who guided us back into the heroic age of the Three Kingdoms to marvel at the splendour of Han and Jin dynasties.

 

 

Targeted services: Diversified explanations for visitors

 

 

The Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum also provided various interpretations to facilitate the needs of different visitors.

 

 

Interpretations provided by curators

 

Curator Yin Heng and co-curator Guo Difei, by sorting out the chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the design of the exhibition, afforded people a historical perspective to peer into the rich history behind the exhibition. In the meantime, they introduced the ideas behind and highlights of the exhibition, thus making visitors truly understand and experience “a reunion moment with the Three Kingdoms”. With acclaimed cultural and historical scholars explaining the cultural relics and history, visitors were exposed to related academic knowledge.

 

Interpretations provided by school kids

 

Interpretations provided by volunteers

 

The interpretations given by school kids infused the museum with laughter and applause, which was a meaningful experience for them while further animated the exhibition. Volunteer docents from all walks of life presented the varied versions of the Three Kingdoms in their hearts. Museum docents ensured that the history and stories of the Three Kingdoms were always available whenever visitors arrived. Apart from this, visitors could scan a QR code to check digital interpretations, which boosted the flexibility of the interpretation service.

 

 

Offline history education activities

 

 

Family activity: treasure hunt

 

In conjunction with the Exhibition of the Three Kingdoms Legend, the Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum held a family activity of treasure hunt. By dint of keywords and object silhouettes in a treasure book, parents and children searched for corresponding cultural relics in the exhibition hall, filled in the names, and completed the silhouettes with stickers. Winners were rewarded with creative cultural gifts and a “treasure hunter” stamp on their treasure book. The game not only helped participants understand the stories behind the relics but also offered an opportunity for family interaction.

 

Treasure hunt: The Messengers

 

The Museum, along with the Changsha Jiandu Museum, provided a special treasure-hunt activity called “The Messengers”. Under the instruction of staff from the Changsha Jiandu Museum, students made their own “Mingci” (name card), connected bamboo slips where the poem titled “Temple of the Premier of Shu” was written, and produced a “Jianfeng” (a knot seal with a specific stamp) to complete the task of a “Messenger”. This activity enabled the public to learn about the slips and the history behind them.

 

Three Kingdoms sports games on campus

 

Offline theme activities such as the Three Kingdoms sports games on campus, Three Kingdoms theater, and cultural relics H5 puzzles were also held. This series of social and educational activities helped the Chengdu Wuhou Shrine Museum play the role of “a window of the Three Kingdoms culture” and would help build up cultural confidence of the generations.

 

 

Online interaction activities

 

 

In addition to on-site activities, a series of online events were launched for visitors who could not go to the Museum. For example, interpretations given by curators and lectures delivered by scholars were made available through live streaming. The stop-motion animations and theme posters also made their debut on International Museum Day (18 May). The three-episode animation series, by combining relics with dynamic visual effects, unfolded a magnificent picture scroll of the Three Kingdoms. CBGC reporter Hua Hua, along with Qu Boyu and Liu Cong of YES!CAMP (a male group from Sichuan), explored the Museum and the exhibition.

 

The videos of “Curator’s Sharing”, “Interpretations of National Treasures”, “The Exhibition of the Three Kingdoms Legend” were released online. Moreover, Q&A about International Museum Day and a theme film featuring the celebration were provided online for.

 

 

Multi-directional cultural creativity: Souvenirs and memory

 

 

The cultural and creative team of the Museum, fully exploring the characteristics of fine cultural relics and collecting ideas extensively, designed a variety of products, such as white jade cups, sets of Yushanguanjin glass and saucer (inspired by Zhuge Liang’s black silk ribbon scarf and feather fan), feather fans and other Three Kingdoms themed products, which were promoted through on-site and online presentation. Having displayed their brilliance at the Sichuan Scenic Spot Development Conference, these works will show up at fairs like the 8th Chengdu Creativity & Design Week and the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Museum Union.

 

 

The three-dimensional Three Kingdoms materialises through a synthesis of static and dynamic presentation. Immersive presentation dominated nearly half of the Luyu Hall with six huge projection screens and wonderful sound-light devices. Based on the two key images of “gutsy figures” and “heroes” as well as the Three-Kingdoms heroes in Tencent’s e-game “In the Great Picture”, the exhibition reintroduced the significant figures and battles that changed the course of the Three Kingdoms history in a way that combined tradition and innovation. Thanks to the immersive exhibition experience, the “Eternity of the Three Kingdoms” became a vivid expression.

 

Therefore, the exhibition is not so much an exhibition as a speaker of comprehensive resources of heritage, information, education and industries.

 

The six series of supporting activities and services, both on-site and online, spanned the whole exhibition period to tailor the needs of specific audiences, which enabled the exhibition to break the constraints of space and time, making the Three Kingdoms culture go beyond museums and books. In this way, culture connects with individuals while history blends with modernity.

 

 

 

Everything Comes to An End

But Never Will Culture

 

 

The Three Kingdoms culture is a shared memory and a spiritual home for generations of the Chinese people, as well as a shining card for fine traditional Chinese culture to go global. When the exhibition was about to end, visitors exclaimed, “If only I could go again!” The museum personnel also felt wistful. But the cultural relics from all over the country are also homesick and need to return to their hometown. The exhibition has come to an end, however, culture lives on.

 

The Exhibition of the Three Kingdoms Legend has fulfilled its mission to enable visitors to achieve “a reunion moment with the Three Kingdoms” and has served to pass on the splendid Chinese cultural herita