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SCIO press conference on strengthening heritage conservation to carry forward Chinese civilization

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Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine:

Museums are important sites to protect and inherit human civilization. What are the developments of museums in China? How to better stimulate the vitality of museums and promote their innovative development while upholding fundamental principles? Thank you.

Liu Yang:

Thanks for your questions. Over the years, the NCHA has earnestly implemented a series of important museum-related remarks and instructions made by General Secretary Xi Jinping, intensified the reform efforts, optimized the systems and layouts, and improved service efficiency. As a result, a modern museum system featuring a great variety of museums, diverse themes, benefits for all, and equal access to such services has been basically established. China saw 322 museums newly registered last year, with the total number of such museums hitting 6,565. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we held 34,000 offline exhibitions and nearly 230,000 education sessions last year, receiving 578 million visits. At the same time, we launched nearly 10,000 exhibitions and more than 40,000 education sessions online, which received nearly 1 billion views on the internet and more than 1 million views on new media platforms. Museums are increasingly becoming an important part of people's better lives. Looking ahead, we will always work to stimulate vitality through reforms, lead developments with innovation, help museums innovate while upholding fundamental principles, and promote the improvement of their quality and efficiency so as to better meet people's ever-growing intellectual and cultural needs. Our efforts will be mainly taken from five respects.

First, we will innovate institutions and mechanisms. We will further improve the mechanism for the opening of museums and continue to push forward some key reform tasks regarding museums. At the same time, we will actively explore building joint certification, construction, and management mechanisms with industrial and university museums so as to bring more museums under the management scope and boost more dynamic development of museums.

Second, we will optimize systems and layouts. We will continue to promote the establishment of world-class museums with Chinese characteristics and key national-themed museums, support the distinctive development of museums at the level of provinces and important prefectures and municipalities, and initiate the pilot project to improve small and medium-sized museums. At the same time, we will intensify efforts to regulate and support non-state-owned museums and coordinate the development of diverse museums with varied attributes at various levels and across different places.

Third, we will consolidate the development foundation. We will review the registration of first-class cultural relics in museum collections and cement the foundation of collections protection and management. We will promote the implementation of key projects to conserve and make use of cultural relics in museum collections to better protect them. We will advance the digitalization of museum collections and make basic information more transparent and accessible.

Fourth, we will improve the efficiency of services. We will continue to promote the selection of "Top 10 National Museum Exhibitions" and the themed exhibitions on "Carrying Forward Fine Traditional Chinese Culture and Fostering Core Socialist Values," and organize celebrations of traditional festivals and anniversaries in museums so as to continuously provide more high-quality services. We will guide local museums to optimize the ticket reservation system based on their conditions and better regulate and guide the staff responsible for museum interpretation to improve the reception service.

Fifth, we will enhance communication and exchanges. We will strengthen cooperation with the media, produce and release a series of quality programs to tell stories about cultural relics well, and disseminate our history and culture. We will formulate documents on improving outbound exhibitions, strengthening overall planning and improving curation so as to continuously increase the international influence of the Chinese civilization. Thank you.