What are the niche museums in China?

Starting from the end of 2017, the opening of programs such as the National Treasure has made some museums become a net red, and museums are listed on various tourist lists. Since the beginning of recent years, museums have ceased to be a niche tourist attraction and have gradually evolved into a way of life. And the theme of museums in 2018 - the hyper-connected museum - aptly illustrates some of the changes that are taking place at the moment, which are also redefining how we visit museums.

The Changing Identity of Museums. Traditionally, museums have been perceived as a place to view history, and the number of X-rated artifacts in their collections has often been an important consideration when discussing which museum is better. Museums are shifting from object-oriented to people-oriented, paying more attention to the fate of individuals under the macro-history. Under this concept, the audience is shifting from being the receiver of information to becoming the subject, and museums are focusing more on the connection with the city or community in which they are located. There are two museums that I think are doing a better job in this regard, one is the Qingxi River Museum, which showcases the economic and social changes around a river in Seoul and the lives of the people along the riverbanks; the second one is the Dujiangyan Water System Museum, which is located next to the Dujiangyan Water System in a village called Guangtan Village, where Chen Jianjun, who was doing fieldwork along the Minjiang River, inadvertently discovered a handmade boat-building workshop in the home of villager Cheng Wenzong in 2014. So the idea of a water system museum was born, which is used to remember the shipbuilding history of Guangtan Village through cooperation and interaction with villagers, planning architects, community residents, anthropologists, civil society organizations and other communities.

Communicating culture through architecture. Traditionally, a museum is merely a venue, and the museum as a public ****building itself is often overlooked. Even if some museums are conscious of the building itself into the regional cultural elements, but also more "embellishment". Nowadays, museums from the overall design more focused on the integration with the terrain and local culture. I.M. Pei's works in China have broken this barrier, and the Suzhou Museum he designed has already become a Netflix museum. The design of the museum itself contains many elements of Suzhou gardens, but is much more simple, and there is also a rock wigwam with Mi Fu's landscapes in it. The Museum of Folk Art at the China Academy of Art is also the work of Beilao, and the entire venue creates a subtle and powerful structural system without destroying the environment and with full respect for it.

Intelligent Museum. High technology is also used in museums. I recommend a niche museum, the Tianshui Folk Museum, which uses projection technology to conjure up Qin opera faces of different characters on a model, and visitors can even DIY the faces and print them out as souvenirs.