People visit an exhibition in Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum in southwest China's Chongqing, April 17, 2022. (Xinhua/Huang Wei)
China's cultural and tourism sector
During the summer holidays, museums across the country are bustling with activity. Instead of leaving immediately after viewing the exhibits, many visitors conclude their journey by visiting the cultural and creative shops. Here, they select original limited-edition products, often designed based on real cultural relics, to round out their cultural experience.
At the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum's cultural and creative gallery, visitors are greeted by a range of animal-shaped products that are both charming and unique. These include a bird-shaped pillow and a rabbit-shaped magnet, all inspired by artifacts discovered in the Three Gorges region.
The poem "Early Departure from Baidi City" by renowned ancient poet Li Bai, originally written in today's Chongqing Municipality in southwest China, has been given a modern twist in the form of a book-shaped artifact. The cover displays the poem's title, while one side features full text and the opposite side depicts an illustration of the turbulent waters of the Yangtze River, with boats swiftly sailing through.
A museum and culture craze is currently sweeping across China, with museums emerging as new growth points in the cultural and tourism market. This heat has also sparked a "cultural and creative wave," leading to the establishment of more and more cultural and creative departments within major Chinese museums, focusing on developing a variety of creative products.
Cultural and creative product planners and operators, recognized as a new profession by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security this year, are tasked with designing products based on market demand and executing marketing operations.
Li Yao, a specialist at the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum, explains that these professionals need to integrate knowledge from various fields, including art, culture, museum collections, marketing, laws, regulations and digital technology.
Cultural and creative product design requires a deep understanding of cultural relics and secondary creation. "Designers must integrate modern creative design while respecting historical culture and using cultural relics appropriately to avoid inappropriate adaptation or misuse," explained Li.
In terms of planning, such specialists must first select cultural relics that are both representative and popular. They then use technology to digitize the shape and characteristics of the artifacts and create new ones based on different product categories, Li added.
Li Yao illustrates this process with a money tree fridge magnet, inspired by a grey pottery pig money tree base, dating back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), from the museum's collection. The design incorporates cultural elements and auspicious meanings, featuring the golden phoenix, a butterfly and a lotus. It also boasts a pink tone that represents a gentle and wealthy pig, embodying a cute image of prosperity and good fortune.
The design of cultural and creative products also benefits from the collaboration and integration of cultural heritages from different regions. This year, the Chongqing China Three Gorges Museum collaborated with Jingmai Mountain, the world's first tea culture World Heritage Site, to launch a Yunnan Pu'er tea set framed with ancient paintings from the museum's collection.
In addition to tea leaves, the utensils for drinking tea also reflect the essence of cultural heritage in the hands of cultural and creative product planners and operators. There is also a display of a set of tea cups in famous ancient kilns. This display utilizes the intangible cultural heritage of Rongchang pottery skills from Chongqing to replicate six pieces of porcelain from five dynasties, thereby preserving a rich cultural tradition.
Often, when traveling, people purchase local souvenirs as mementos. Compared to products inspired by the cityscape, these cultural and creative products that take the form of cultural relics are more unique and rich in local flavor.
"I chose a magnet modeled after the gray pottery drum-playing and storytelling figurine. When I was visiting the exhibition hall, I learned that this type of figurine is unique to this place, and the design of the figurine is very festive, with a smiling expression," said Liu Fangchen, a tourist from northeast China's Shenyang City, introducing the souvenir she picked.
According to a report by Zhiyan Consulting, the market size of China's cultural and creative products reached 16.38 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 13.09 percent. In 2020, the sector's market size accounted for 10.67 percent of the global total, and by 2023 it had risen to 11.56 percent.
