Published : 20/09/2024
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) 75 years ago, the country has weathered storms and undergone tremendous changes.
This series, "Extraordinary 75 Years", provides a deep dive in China's achievements and breakthroughs over the past 75 years.
This article, as the third one of the Chapter of Cultural and Sports, takes you to understand the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional Chinese culture in the new era.
Cultural relics and new technology
Chinese civilisation has a long and rich history, leaving countless treasures. With social development, technology is increasingly applied to the excavation, restoration, preservation, and dissemination of cultural relics.
In 2011, the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" of the state listed "cultural digitisation construction" as one of the nine major projects; in 2022, cultural digitisation was elevated to a "national strategy" and included in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
The plan points out that by 2035, a national cultural big data system will be established, with digitisation results shared by the whole nation.
The Sichuan Sanxingdui site, whose excavation was restarted in 2020, is regarded as a new benchmark for scientific archaeology in China.
The constant-temperature and humidity archaeological work cabin is equipped with various functional operating systems that help archaeologists better and more safely extract cultural relics and prevent oxidation and damage.
3D scanning and printing technologies are used to make "protective cases" for unearthed relics. Artificial intelligence (AI) technology aids in the "cross-pit assembly" of artifact fragments scattered across different archaeological areas to restore their original appearance.
Read more: Guide to new Sanxingdui museum in Sichuan
The Beijing Forbidden City and the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang are regarded as pioneers of "digitalisation".
The Palace Museum in Beijing started its digitisation project in 1998, using 3D scanning and other technologies to create digital archives for buildings and cultural relics.
As of 2023, over 50,000 square meters of buildings in the Forbidden City have been made into high-precision 3D models; among the more than 1.86 million artifacts in its collection, 950,000 have been digitized.
High-definition digital images of over 100,000 artifacts are freely available online in the "Digital Relics Library," with more than 33 million views.
Together with several digital projects such as the Digital Pavilion of Treasures, the Imperial Collection of Paintings, and the Panoramic Forbidden City, visitors thousands of miles away can join online tour to the Forbidden City through the internet.
Also in the 1990s, the Dunhuang Academy began exploring the construction of "Digital Dunhuang" in hopes of permanently preserving and sustainably utilizing the Dunhuang grottoes.
After years of exploration, the Dunhuang Academy has established a complete set of techniques for the digital collection, processing, storage, and display of immovable cultural relics.
As of 2023, the Dunhuang Academy has completed the digitisation of murals in 295 caves and the image stitching of 186 caves; seven major Dunhuang sites and 45 painted sculptures have been reconstructed in 3D; and the spatial structures of 212 caves have been scanned in 3D.
The "Digital Dunhuang" resource library, launched in 2016, has shared high-definition images of 30 caves worldwide and provides a panoramic roaming service.
Millimeter-level accurate 3D printing technology, as well as immersive technologies such as AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality), provide more ways to showcase cultural heritage, allowing the audience to "experience it firsthand" and feel the charm of traditional culture.
In 2014, the Dunhuang Academy held the "Digital Dunhuang Exhibition" in Lanzhou, Gansu, for the first time "moving" the immovable murals and paintings out of the Dunhuang grottoes, including two caves replicated 1:1 using high-fidelity digital technology.
In 2018, the Palace Museum launched the Imperial Garden VR experience, using 3D effects to restore the historical appearance of the Imperial Garden, enabling the audience to see the full view of the garden that has disappeared or remains unopened.
New carriers of culture
The animated film series White Snake, released since 2019, is based on the Chinese folktale Legend of the White Snake. With its innovative artistic form, it has sparked more young people’s interest and resonance with folktales and traditional culture.
The blockbuster dance drama A Tapestry of a Legendary Land, premiered in August 2021, brought the masterpiece painting A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains out of the museum, attracting audiences from different countries and various circles.
As of April 2024, A Tapestry of a Legendary Land has performed 500 shows in 968 days, spanning 62 cities, remaining highly popular, and gradually expanding to countries and regions such as Singapore, Turkey, and Japan.
Tea sets, refrigerator magnets, clothing, and digital art exhibitions developed around A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains are also highly welcomed, showcasing a model for cross-boundary interaction of traditional culture IP.
Black Myth: Wukong, the domestic AAA game inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, took the internet by storm upon its release in August 2024, sparking widespread enthusiasm for Journey to the West culture and traditional Chinese architecture.
Read more: Story of Yang Qi, art director of Black Myth: Wukong
In recent years, cultural and creative products, film and television animations, modern dance dramas, electronic games, and others have become new carriers of culture, bringing traditional culture closer to the public, especially to the younger generation.
Intangible cultural heritage and new media
China is one of the countries with the most intangible cultural heritage. In 2006, China announced the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage projects.
By 2024, China has 1,557 national-level intangible cultural heritage projects and more than 3,000 national-level intangible cultural heritage inheritors.
In the past, the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage mainly relied on the passing down from master to apprentice and within families.
In the Internet era, the development of new media has provided more ways for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
Statistics show that as of June 2024, the number of Chinese netizens is nearly 1.1 billion, and the Internet penetration rate is 78%. Various websites and apps, including short video platforms like "Douyin," have become new stages for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
"Douyin" launched the "Intangible Cultural Heritage Partner" program as early as 2019. As of May 2023, there are nearly 20,000 intangible cultural heritage live shows on Douyin every day on average, with an average of 13 shows starting per minute.
The "Intangible Cultural Heritage Data Report" released by Douyin in 2024 shows that in the past year, 13.79 million netizens shared their intangible cultural heritage experiences on Douyin and the number of users purchasing intangible cultural heritage group buying products increased by 328% year-on-year.
Among the 1,428 registered intangible cultural heritage inheritors on Douyin, 199 are under 30 years old, an increase of 72% year-on-year.