Museum visitors relish buying creative souvenirs

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," Li explained.

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 illustrates this process with a money tree fridge magnet, inspired by a gray 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.

While traveling, people often 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. While 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 Shenyang, Liaoning province.

According to a report by Zhiyan Consulting, the market size of China's cultural and creative products reached 16.38 billion dollars last year, 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 last year it had risen to 11.56 percent.

Xinhua