Building Museums: An Open, Inclusive, People-oriented, and Sustainable Platform for Cultural Exchange
Date：2023-06-27
In the third dialogue of the China-Europe-America Museums Cooperation Initiative, Liu Yi, Director of Nankai University Museum, interpreted the significant role of museums as platforms for art and cultural exchange. He believes that museums should uphold the principles of openness, inclusivity, multiculturalism, and equal exchange. In order to ensure the long-term sustainability of museums, he proposed three suggestions: mobilizing and leveraging diverse forces to support museums, through policies, funding, and social services, in exploring and accurately presenting the value of cultural heritage; attracting individuals beyond the museum community to interpret the essence of museum collections, thereby engaging visitors as contributors to the art and cultural experience of museums; actively paying attention to the application of new technological means in the field of museums and utilizing digital empowerment to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of museum culture.
Liu Yi, Ph.D. in History, professor at Nankai University and Director of the Nankai University Museum. His research interests include: archaeology of Chinese mausoleums and ceramics, museum studies, and history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. He has published more than 100 papers in both Chinese and international journals, and several monographs, including Life inside the Imperial Palaces of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 30 Courses of Porcelain Identification, Imperial Mausoleum System of the Ming Dynasty, Ancient Chinese Mausoleum System, History of Chinese Ancient Material Culture: Mausoleum, Archaeological Research on the Ming Dynasty Vassal King Tombs. He is the chief editor of Introduction to the Study of Cultural Relics, a key textbook certified by China’s Ministry of Education, and has edited various museum collection catalogs, archaeological excavation reports, and professional journals. He has led multiple research projects of the National Social Science Found of China and provincial and ministerial level scientific research projects. He is a member of the National M.C.H.M Education Steering Committee and China Archaeological Society, Deputy Director of the Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties Archaeology Committee, Deputy Director of the Archaeology Education Committee, advisor to the Mausoleum Archaeology Committee, Executive Director and Academic Member of the Chinese Society for Ancient Ceramics, and Deputy Director of the Tianjin Antique Authenticate Committee. He has also served as a member of the Chinese Museums Association.
Full text of the speech
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, chairman, good afternoon. The theme of our session is how museums can provide a permanent platform for artistic and cultural exchange. I would like to share with you three of my observations.
Firstly, museums serve as significant platforms for human artistic and cultural exchange. Museums are modern cultural institutions that have emerged at a certain historical period of human civilization. Since their inception, they have undertaken the crucial mission of showcasing and disseminating human civilization. With the rise of the internet, museums have become places not only for knowledge acquisition but also for knowledge exchange. In today's diverse cultural landscape, museums possess advantages that other forms of communication cannot compare to, such as the tangibility and authenticity offered by physical exhibitions. In this sense, museums play a vital role as platforms for human artistic and cultural exchange. We must uphold and fully utilize these platforms.
The second point is to uphold openness, inclusivity, and equal exchange while recognizing the coexistence of diverse civilizations and rejecting cultural chauvinism. It is important to acknowledge that the world is characterized by cultural diversity, and we should refrain from judging cultures as superior or inferior. Museums should embrace the principles of openness and inclusivity, promoting a multicultural perspective, and strive to build cultural exchange platforms from an equal standpoint. We should employ various methods and approaches, including exhibition exchanges, academic salons, talent exchanges, and project collaborations, to create multi-dimensional, multi-level, versatile, and diverse platforms for communication. Strengthening international cooperation and inter-museum collaboration is crucial. We must provide accurate, comprehensive and in-depth interpretations of the essence of our collections, particularly the cultural significance of indigenous cultures and native traditions. In this regard, it is imperative to adopt an open and inclusive mindset and maintain a stance of equal exchange.
The third point is to construct a museum cultural exchange platform with a long-term development perspective. We understand that museums are crucial cultural institutions that hold a significant position in the dissemination of human civilization. It is essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of museums. To achieve this, I would like to highlight three specific areas that require particular attention.
The first aspect is to actively mobilize and utilize various forces and resources, including government agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and the general public. We should fully leverage the roles of these different forces in the construction of museums as cultural exchange platforms, spanning policies, funding, and social services. From the perspective of museums, we should create a conducive working and research environment, deeply explore the cultural heritage value of different collections, and accurately translate these values into exhibition narratives to present them to the general public.
At the same time, we also aim to attract more individuals beyond the museum community, particularly the visitors, to participate in the interpretation of museum collections. Attracting and encouraging active public participation, as well as deep involvement in the construction of museum cultural exchange platforms, is an essential task for the development of museums today. Visitors are both consumers and the recipients of our museum services, and serving them well is a primary objective of our museum work. Visitors can become participants and contributors to the art and cultural experience of the museum through various forms of engagement, sharing, and communication. Ultimately, the focus of museum studies should be on people rather than solely on technology. This shift in perspective has been an important transformation in Chinese museum studies in recent years. That is my second suggestion.
Thirdly, we should actively pay attention to the application of new technological means in the field of museums. Currently, it is particularly important to leverage digital empowerment for the communication and dissemination of museum culture. The unprecedented unfortunate event of the COVID-19 pandemic has also presented us with unprecedented development opportunities. Over the past three years, many museums have actively or passively embraced digitization and have accumulated valuable experiences. The combination of online and offline approaches has laid a solid foundation for museum work. We should build upon this foundation and actively utilize digital technology to serve various aspects of the museum's endeavors, innovate exhibition formats, and optimize shared content. That concludes my presentation. Thank you all, and I welcome your feedback and suggestions.
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