How the Cultural and Creative Industries in Domestic Museums Receive a Contemporary Revive?

Luo Zhaohui (1155084240)

Inspired by architect Ieoh Ming Pei, a unique shape of the wooden seat has finally launched in the Taobao store of Suzhou Museum. The product was created by Suzhou Museum and independent designers, and then promoted by Taobao crowdfunding.

Converting static artifacts into popular designs, has become a trend of cultural and creative industries in domestic museums, but this was developed in the last two or three years. Regarded as a tourist souvenirs, the cultural and creative industries were not taken seriously in the past decades.

Dismal Past

Many people may have such an experience when visiting the the Forbidden City: the most popular items in the shop are instant noodles or beverage, souvenirs are lack of texture like Yiwu commodity, or too high to be afforded like cultural relic. 

The dismal business of cultural and creative industries are lead by the system to a large extent. As a public institution, the museum's operating funds are depend on financial support, then all income in the musemu should be paid. Over time, no one is willing to studying cultural and creative industries.

While under the background of "New Museology movement" in the 1980s, museums in Europe and America opened the historical tide of the revolution. Cultural relics are no longer the center of museums, instead, they began to emphasize the feelings of visitors. For example, Paris Le Louvre Museum opened up the underground shopping malls, converting the museum into a public space of art and commerce.

With many museums open for free, designing art derivatives has become a common mode of operation. British Museum has cooperated with many manufacturers, forming a complete set of mature industries from design, manufacturing to marketing. For example, when you search “Rosetta Stone（罗塞塔石碑）”on the official website, there will be more than 60 kinds of derivatives covering a variety of price and types.

The New York Museum of modern art (MoMA), on the other side of the ocean, has built a souvenir shop into a brand of design and art. Although it would take Van Gogh's "Star" printed on the umbrella and mugs, MoMA souvenir shop looks more like a fashion buyers shop, you can get many cross-border products here such as the stationery designed by Chanel Karl Lagerfeld, or the vase designed by Japan's famous porcelain masters Komatsu Cheng.

Change from the Forbidden City

A scotch tape called “朕知道了” in Taipei Palace Museum began to explode on social network in 2013. The inspiration of “朕知道了” can traced back to a Zhupi memorials exhibition （朱批奏折展） in 2005. It is this special scotch tape inadvertently witnessed the beginning of an era.

“朕知道了”made the Forbidden City really aware of the huge market of cultural and creative industry. In the same year, the Forbidden City began to roll out a wave of creative products, the popular weibo and wechat public account “故宫淘宝” also entered into the public view that time. 

In the next few years, the 600-year-old Forbidden City began to become youth in an unprecedented gesture along with the Internet. People began to exclame that the past solemn palace has become“萌萌哒”, the products like “朝珠耳机”,“奉旨旅行”luggage tag, and “朕就是这样汉子”folding fan were in favour. 

The new look presented by the Forbidden City are much more from the details of the changes in the stack. Essentially, all changes can be derived from its selt-location: it starts from the viewpoint of the market, aiming to improve the audience experience and enhance the brand value of the museumas well as the way of cultural communication.

New inspirations

Driven by the Forbidden City, more and more domestic museums began to launch the cultural and creative industries. Also, there are external cooperation in most of the museums, the combination of social media and e-commerce become a marketing standard for most of the museums.

For example, the National Museum opened a Tmall flagship store last year, launching its own brand “国博衍艺”as well as the weibo account of the same brand. Also, Suzhou Museum and 聚划算 jointly held a cross-border fashion show based on the theme of "Walking History". 

While developing a really cultural connotation and well-recognized product is not easy. From the current situation, the domestic museum is still at the primary stage: although the number of cultural and creative museum has benn increased, the quality is not satisfactory. Many products are just to simply copy the elements of cultural relics, or malicious or simply do not adorable and practical.

Like British Museum cultural and creative development director John Robert said, "we follow the principles of avoiding the cheap consumer texture lead by the fashion design. 

Limited by talent, ability and capital, many domestic museums and cultural development still need a long way to go. When the opportunity comes, the challenge has just begun.