The museum shop was once a fixture, neglected by visitors for its monotonous and poor quality. Now, cultural and creative products light up the museum shop, making it “the last exhibition hall”. According to Jiang Han, deputy director of the cultural and creative Department of Suzhou Museum, visitors will have a complete museum tour when they visit the museum, watch the exhibitions and exhibits, participate in the interactive experience, and finally come to the art shop of the museum and take away one or two cultural products.
Zhang Yameng is a sophomore girl, usually the biggest hobby is to do ledger. Notepads, cute and fun stickers, crayons, etc. are all essential ingredients. For her, another must-have item is the Palace Museum creative tape. “When I heard about the Forbidden City before, I felt very solemn and solemn.” After seeing the dazzling and lovely cultural products, she changed her mind. “It turns out that the Forbidden City is also down-to-earth and interesting.”
In recent years, cultural and creative products of museums have been greatly sought after, and the sales of cultural and creative products of many museums have increased to varying degrees. Suzhou Museum, for example, received 2.4 million visitors in 2017, and the sales volume of cultural and creative products reached more than 14 million yuan, an increase of 40% to 50% almost every year. In January 2018, suzhou museum was awarded the title of “TOP20 best tourism cultural and creative projects in China” for its remarkable social and economic benefits. The cultural and creative products of Chinese museums are breaking through the monotonous traditional image and appearing in front of the public with an entirely new look.
Creativity is more “appetizing”
In 2015, a new Regulation on Museums was issued. Since then, The State Council, the Ministry of Culture and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage have successively launched policies to encourage cultural and creative development in museums. The successful practice of the Palace Museum as a “pathfinder” and the support of national policies have triggered a boom in the development of cultural and creative products in museums around the country. “The concept of cultural creation has undergone a qualitative change”, Jiang Han, deputy director of the Cultural creation Department of Suzhou Museum admitted, “at the beginning, we had no experience in cultural creation. We simply pasted images of cultural relics onto products, which was not creative. Now tourists have more choices.”
“I know” tape from the Palace Museum in Taipei, a jade cabbage umbrella, a folding fan “I Also miss you very much” from the Palace Museum in Beijing, and pearl earphones from the Palace Museum in Beijing. These interesting and practical cultural products have captured the hearts of young people as soon as they are launched. At present, the consumers with the most purchasing power for museum cultural and creative products are the “post-80s” and “post-90s”. They are individualistic and energetic, well versed in Internet culture, pursuing fun shopping and possessing good aesthetics. Only by understanding the consumer psychology of the main shopping groups and making products that meet their needs can museum cultural and creative products truly enter the lives of ordinary people.
Museums are the essence of a country’s culture and have profound cultural deposits. Cultural and creative products are the carrier to connect museum culture and tourists. Researchers need to deeply explore the cultural value contained in collections and integrate traditional elements and trendy thinking into cultural and creative products.
“Open the door” for cooperation
Since 2015, the Palace Museum has led cooperation with Internet giants such as Alibaba and Tencent to jointly develop museum IP products. The National Museum of China is even more ambitious. It has reached a strategic cooperation with Alibaba and established the online platform and offline operation center of “Cultural and Creative China” to establish a cooperation platform for museums and other cultural and museum institutions, art design experts and capital companies, and jointly promote the development of IP with Chinese characteristics. Under their leadership, many museums across the country have started the IP fever of commercial operation jointly with the outside world.
However, developing a good IP product is not easy. Museums should make use of their professional and academic advantages to refine the unique cultural symbols contained in the cultural relics in the museum, and bring the characteristic elements of the museum into modern life to become a new fashion of life. Suzhou Museum is located in Wudi, and there are many local handicraft traditions. Therefore, displaying the elegance of literati and spreading local handicraft culture has become the main direction of Suzhou cultural and creative products. External enterprises can make use of their strong economic strength and various social marketing means to assist in development. Taking Suzhou Museum as an example, Surb’s cultural and creative products are not only sold in the museum, but also both online and offline, both at home and abroad. Online, Subo opened wechat and Taobao stores to realize interactive cooperation with online platforms, such as participating in the 2017 Taobao Maker Festival. Offline, in addition to Surb itself, they also cooperate with local Eslite stores in Suzhou to give more people access to surb’s cultural and creative products.
In addition to foreign visitors visiting the museum and buying cultural and creative products, the museum is also using various channels to promote cultural and creative products of Chinese museums abroad. Suzhou Museum on the one hand and Dunhuang network to carry out cooperation, online sales products. On the other hand, it is also using various exhibitions to promote its products. In 2016, some of the cultural and creative works of Suzhou Museum were exhibited in Paperworld Office Supplies Exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, which won high praise and led the trend of shareholder culture in Frankfurt. In 2017, Paperworld for the first time established “Oriental Cultural Element Product Exhibition Area” with Suzhou elements as the main elements. Suzhou Museum’s cultural products — kesi wallet, Wugou Heavy Hui sword ruler bookmark, travel card, paper tape and so on have become the most popular products.
Let cultural relics “tell” cultural memories
The old suzhou Museum has a wisteria tree planted 500 years ago by Ming Dynasty painter Wen Zhengming. The tree is still alive and well through the years. Subo staff collected, dried, screened and planted seeds by hand, and selected suitable seeds with exquisite and elegant packaging as supporting cultural and creative products for the Exhibition, which won “praise” from tourists.
A small seed, not only condensation of the old wisteria tree vicissitudes of history, but also with wen Zheng Ming imprint of elegant art, in the hearts of visitors to take root. An excellent cultural and creative product not only has commemorative significance, but also can arouse more people’s curiosity about museums and cultural relics in their collections. In this sense, cultural and creative products are the “last exhibition hall” of the museum, which can be taken home by visitors.
Xu Ningxin, a senior student, has been very interested in history since childhood, which is related to the cultural and creative products she bought when she was young. “At that time, my parents took me to Xi ‘an to buy the ancient Qin currency and the cultural creation of the Terracotta Warriors, so I learned about The Emperor qin Shihuang and the circular money with square holes. That’s how I developed my interest in history.” Just on junior high school contact history, when it comes to the Qin Dynasty, she knows more than others.
The most precious thing in a museum is cultural relics, and the most precious thing in cultural relics is the historical memory that solidifies them. When we walk into the museum and stand in front of the exhibition cabinet, we can pass through time and space, hear and see the “narration” of cultural relics. When we leave a museum, a good cultural product can help us retain our memories and take home the museum’s exhibitions, artifacts and social ideas they reflect.
For Gong Liang, director of Nanjing Museum, the significance of the museum’s cultural and creative products is not only to awaken cultural memories, but also to set a benchmark for Chinese lifestyle. Aiming at the lack of space for modern families to communicate and interact, Nanjing Museum has curated the exhibition “Here”, which tells about nine ways of life in ancient China, namely “qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine, flowers, incense and tea”. These are nine traditional and beautiful ways of communication. If we can develop cultural and creative products based on them and make them appear in people’s lives, we believe that people will walk more frequently, have deeper friendship and live a better life.
