Text/Feng Yi
Helen Keller said in "If You Give Me Three Days of Light": "I will use this day to give a quick glimpse of the whole world, from ancient times to the present." I want to see the difficult and tortuous path that human progress has taken. Look at the rise and fall of the ages. "How do you compress so many things into a day?" Of course it is a visit to the museum.
According to the latest data from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, there are 5535 museums in Chinese mainland, and in addition to the museums at the national level, in various provinces and cities, there is a huge number that has been overlooked - 1153 university museums.
As early as 2008, the collection of the University Museum of China has exceeded the sum of 7 famous museums such as the Forbidden City, the National Museum, the Nanjing Municipal Museum, the Henan Provincial Museum, etc., and some exhibits are unique, rich collections plus academic advantages, these small and specialized, and there is no lack of wonderful narratives of the university museum should have become a useful supplement to the social public museum, becoming the most special scenery in the city, even in the case of the general public museum to serve the public, not to cross the thunder pool half a step, The University Museum can be a testing ground for the museum's pioneering exhibitions.
As the famous German philosopher Jaspers once said in the book "The Idea of the University", "A true university must contain academic teaching, scientific and academic research, and creative cultural life, and museums play an important role in all three aspects." "And in this part of China, the treasure museum hidden in the university is still waiting for the people who will find them."
Among the many university museums, the most closely related between "production" and "exhibition" is archaeology, which largely reflects the dominance of the university discipline in the industry.
From the northeast gate of Peking University into the campus, all the way to the green forest, the old building is hidden in it. When you see a small lake and a chic pavilion, you will arrive at the Crane Garden. The garden was named after Mianyu the Prince of Hui, the son of emperor Jiaqing of the Qing Dynasty. It was burned down by the Anglo-French army and witnessed the "cowshed" years of intellectuals in the middle of the last century, until 1993, with the financial support of biologist, pharmacist, collector and philanthropist Dr. Arthur M. Sackler, that an archaeological and art museum was built here, documenting the development of modern archaeology marked by field archaeology in Chinese academic circles, coupled with its unique geographical location, which gave the university museum an innate sense of mission.
Thick iron doors, connected by a straight corridor, every two or three meters, there will be a "groove" on the walls on both sides - it is another iron door, from time to time there is a choking smell of camphor, full horsepower air conditioning blowing so that people can also get goosebumps in the middle of summer, but also pay attention to the mouse traps that appear from time to time on the ground. Staff patrol the area once a day, because behind each iron door are valuable antiquities, even oracle bones that are demanding to preserve the environment.
The reason why it is called the best archaeological museum of Chinese universities is that in addition to the collection of tens of thousands of pieces, it is also due to the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University on which the museum relies. At the end of his book A Brief History of Archaeology, British archaeologist Green Daniel writes: "In the coming decades, a new understanding of China's importance will be a key development in archaeology." Peking University is the first university in China to open archaeology, and Ma Heng, a Jinshi archaeologist and former dean of the Palace Museum, and Hu Shi, a famous modern scholar and historian, have successively served as the director of the archaeology department. It can even be said that the history of Peking University's School of Archaeology and Literature is the history of modern Chinese archaeology.
At the entrance of the exhibition hall is a large blue and white dragon pattern cylinder of the Ming Orthodox period with a 1 meter high and painted with dragon pattern clouds. After the cylinder was fired that year, because the deformation did not meet the royal requirements, the kiln factory could only smash it into landfill, but it was unexpectedly dug up in 1988 in the Ming and Qing Imperial Kiln Factory in Jingdezhen, and repaired to what it is today.
The most eye-catching of the exhibits is the Jinniushan human bone fossil, more than 50 fossils are arranged from the skull to the toes in a lying position, which is the northernmost latitude and the largest ancient human fossil found so far. There are always visitors who use the lights to carefully observe these 280,000-year-old fossil remains.
In 1984, Professor Lu Zunchen of the Department of Archaeology of Peking University led students to carry out excavation work at the Jinniu Mountain site. Because of the abundance of coal production in the area, it was plundered by the Japanese army and greatly damaged, but that fieldwork found a large number of early Paleolithic remains, including human fossils, stone tools, animal remains, ash piles, and burned bones. Teachers and students built a shack at the excavated specimen and took turns to look after it for more than a month before they were finally excavated.
After looking at the exhibits of the Neo-Paleolithic period, there will be a most direct perception - the whole museum pays attention to the selection of archaeological excavations with accurate excavation sites, and will organize the exhibits according to the Chinese archaeological discipline system, according to the era, region and archaeological culture, and at the same time understand the process of the development of modern Chinese archaeology while understanding the ancient culture.
In this museum, the process of excavation of the exhibits and the significance of the discovery are often more wonderful than the exhibits themselves: a mottled and inconspicuous amphora jar with the earliest rice grains found; the bronze mirrors of the Wang Mang dictatorship can still clearly identify the patterns on them after nearly 2,000 years; and the story of the "Boya Drum and Piano" carved on the Tang Dynasty Eight-Curve Mirror is exquisite and eye-catching. The only regret is that due to the limited space for display, 80% of the cultural relics can only be locked in the warehouse, catching up with the theme exhibition occasionally appearing.
Among the obscure university museums, the Yifu Museum of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) is famous, after all, it is the earliest 4A-level tourist attraction in the domestic university museum.
Stone is the best carrier for recording the earth's long time. Dinosaur fossils, fossils of ancient creatures, jewelry and jade, precious minerals... There are more than 70,000 "stones" in yifu museum to preserve time, whether it is rare or rich, it is superior in the same type of university museums in China.
When you enter the museum, you will see a "wall" of about 100 square meters at a glance. This is not an ordinary wall, but a fossil of various animal traces from more than 200 million years ago. This fossil wall, produced in northern Shaanxi, was discovered by professor Lu Zongsheng during the field geological exploration, first found only one piece, and then continuously excavated, until 100 square meters, which took a whole 7 years.
At that time, because the stone was too large, in order to transport it back to the museum, it had to be cut all and moved piece by piece. Before cutting, take pictures first, after cutting, in addition to taking pictures, each piece also needs to be marked in detail and draw a sketch. This fossil wall is cut into a total of 67 pieces, each 7 to 8 centimeters thick, with a minimum of nearly 300 kilograms and a maximum of nearly 500 kilograms.
In 2020, the Sackler Museum of Archaeology and Art, Peking University, "Moving Whirlpool- Exploration of the ContemporaryNess of Majiayao Faience Pottery Patterns" exhibition hall, looking at the proposed frog and mosquito faience pottery and contemporary art installations.
After being shipped back, it was only in 2003 that it was completely spliced and exhibited, and each fossil was supported by a steel frame behind it, which cost nearly 500,000 yuan at that time. Now it has become the treasure of the town hall.
Liu Xunyue, moving and planting are all text. Careful observation, many curves on the fossil wall are clearly visible, in addition to the footprints showing the evolution of life, the lines are slightly formed, it is simple and natural, wonderful and impressive. One of the thin lines is the traces of ancient fish sweeping out with their tails or fins as they swim underwater; the other line is arranged one by one, which is the trace left by invertebrates crawling underwater; and there are multiple sets of claw prints, which were left by small amphibians or reptiles at that time.
But to become a 4a scenic spot, it is not enough to have "treasures", and the museum has also put a lot of effort into how to "display" these stones.
Let's start with the display technique. In 1996, the Geotechnical Museum designed a web page, and two years later, it tried multimedia, developed its own software "The Mystery of Dinosaurs", and set up a touch screen in the exhibition hall. Now the "digital hall" is more perfect, with a click of the mouse, you can wander in the minerals, rocks, gems, mineral resources and other 7 virtual theme exhibition areas.
At the exhibition hall site, the combination of sound, light and electricity also enhanced the scientific and technological content of the museum. In the Hall of The Mysteries of the Earth, there is a world-first magnetic levitation globe with a diameter of 1.5 meters and an oblique rotation at an angle of 23.5 degrees to the ectoral plane, which simulates the condition of the cosmic starry sky. The geological landscape restored by holographic technology, such as the imitation karst landform cave, brings tourists into the specific scene atmosphere.
In terms of interaction, the earthquake hall equipment in the museum can simulate the real earthquake feeling; spend a few dollars to make the dinosaurs "lay eggs"; wonder if they can escape the pursuit of dinosaurs, you can ride a bicycle racing with dinosaurs; a "dragon eye to see the world", through simulating the eyes of dinosaurs, you can see only black and white.
Professional explanation is also what the museum cares about. Professor Xu Shiqiu, the former curator of the museum, once known as the storyteller of the museum, told us a metaphor for the evolutionary history of the earth: "If the history of the earth's 4.6 billion years is condensed into one day, 00:00, the earth is born; 04:10, life appears; the whole day is calm, no major events; it is dark, life begins to surge; 21:11, the explosion of life on the earth, that is, the outbreak of life in the early Cambrian period, about 540 million years ago, the ancestors of major animals appeared at the same time; 21:55, The plant kingdom leaves the ocean, conquers the continent, creates conditions for animals to land, prepares food; at 22:10, the vertebrates leave the ocean and conquer the land; at 22:50, the dinosaur family comes to the world and begins to rule the earth, until 23:40, the whole army is destroyed and dies on the earth; 23:59:13, human beings appear, the entire history of mankind is only equivalent to 47 seconds in a day, the five thousand years of history of the Chinese nation is only equivalent to 0.09 seconds, assuming that people live for 100 years, which is only equivalent to 1/600 seconds. "Explanations like this may not be comprehensive and systematic from a professional point of view, but they are intuitive and interesting.
An unbuilt museum at the China Academy of Art, the museum is a cylindrical four-story green-brick building on Hangzhou's most beautiful Nanshan Road, just a few minutes west of the West Lake.
Every year in June, during the graduation season, the museum is crowded. Various activities have been staged here, such as the graduation exhibition of outstanding students, the rock music festival of the "Art Museum Night" series of activities, the creative market, etc., which have not only been well received by students, but also attracted a large number of visitors.
In 2012, the art museum wanted to increase its popularity through some activities and attract more young people to come in, and the curator Yang Jinsong thought that there were many talented student bands in the Academy of Fine Arts, and there were 15 original rock bands alone, of which 3 bands were still famous in China, but they did not have an outlet for release. So Yang Jinsong found them, hoping that during the graduation exhibition, he could hold a concert in front of the art museum to help entertain. The two sides hit it off and led to the first "Night of the Art Museum" Scraper Music Festival.
Unexpectedly, this made the original cold and deserted art museum gather a lot of young people at once. The following year's "Don't Oranges" music festival came with more people. Before the music festival, there were young people in Hangzhou who posted on Douban and forums to convene people, and there were detailed strategies. This time, the museum didn't even need to invite bands, and many other university bands came to join in the fun. People listen to music, wander around the creative bazaar, and go to the art museum to see the works of the graduates. The museum has also cancelled tickets, extended opening hours, and provided tea for free.
This small success touched the director Yang Jinsong, who said that in recent years, the art museum of the Academy of Fine Arts has been trying to transform. "We have always had problems with the positioning of the museum. The identity of the art museum is that of the university, but the function is social, and the art museum has the obligation to provide the cultural products needed by the society, rather than purely entertaining itself. The problem with the University Art Museum now is that it thinks that it is high-end, but it treats the whole society as a dou. ”
Yang Jinsong said that the art museum is not to sensationalize the public, the focus is not on popular music, is to attract the public to see the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts and an art museum, there is time to visit.
Attraction alone is not enough, the key is to retain. In order to retain these visitors, the museum has come up with many ideas, and in the case of limited exhibits, it is most effective to hold some interesting exhibitions. Like the "40+20" exhibition, 40 international young artists and 20 young Chinese artists spend 14 days in the art museum, working while exhibiting, this exhibition is to let the public and interested people feel how the artists create on the spot, deciphering the artist's life behind the works.
Yang Jinsong quipped: "Even if everyone walks in on a hot day to blow air conditioning and visit, as long as the people enter the art museum, we will succeed, and the art museum without popularity is dead, not alive." ”
The museum complex of Taiwan University, which is composed of more than ten branches, is scattered around all corners of the campus. In terms of size alone, it can surpass many university museums.
Many university museums do not lack precious collections, but if they are regarded as independent individuals locked behind the glass, they will be separated from the people outside the glass. In NTU's museums, guided tours, keynote speeches, special exhibitions to match campus seasonal or research achievements, hands-on workshops and experience camps, concerts in the hall of the museum, and the development of museum-exclusive cultural and creative souvenirs have become specific formulas for solving this problem.
The "Campus Tour Interpretation Club" spontaneously formed by National Taiwan University students in 2003 and the "NTU Museum Carnival" was held on International Museum Day in May of the same year, which gave the people in Taiwan the first channel to contact, view and appreciate the collection.
Like people's inherent impression should be the archives of the old paper pile, in the hands of the Taiwan University people, they tried to use the seals of the units of NTU left in the archives, designed the "disappearing mark" special exhibition activity, from the remaining old official documents paper, extracted seals of extremely diverse size, shape and color, traced the historical reasons for the establishment of the units in the school, and explored the real process of disappearing and merging, fully presenting the historical materials buried in the archives, and at the same time combining innovative concepts, rearranging the disappeared seal elements. Designed into a note paper, bags and other souvenirs that meet the aesthetics of modern people, and a diy workshop on seal carving has been set up, so that the golden stone art of the archives is not only a deep display of history, but also a combination of creative aesthetics into real life. This series of events has set off a wave of engraving seals in Taipei.
Travelers and students love the Rhododendron Festival every March, when the NTU Museum Complex launches a month-long search line that can be redeemed for gifts by visiting NTU museums and stamping their study passports.
There are more activities on museum day, before the NTU Museum Group has launched the "University Museum Time: Ask the Professors of The University of Taiwan, Let the Professors Run a Look", inviting three senior professors of zoology, botany and entomology to conduct in-depth tour of the museum, visit the warehouse, and conduct face-to-face Q&A with the public. As soon as the battle book was written, the citizens went crazy, dragging their families to gather at National Taiwan University, just to ask the professor on the stage with a thousand strange questions. Of course, the doubts about the natural world in my heart are also solved subtly.
There are many more university museums in the deep boudoir: the Beihang University And Aerospace Museum has the only two remaining "Black Widow" fighters in the world; the Archaeology and Art Museum of Jilin University has the most complete duck-billed dragon fossils in northeast China, bronzes from the Shang Dynasty, and one of only three "Yue Fei Seals" in the country; the Qian Xuesen Library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University has more than 76,000 copies of Qian Xuesen's manuscripts, documents, and books; the Expo Park of Northwest A&F University is not only a museum, but also a large garden. There is also the largest butterfly flying garden in China; the Chinese Fish Culture Museum of Shanghai Ocean University has the largest sperm whale specimen in China; the rough herbarium of Northeast Forestry University treasures more than 150 kinds of endangered animal furs; the climate change museum and entertainment museum in hong Kong Chinese University, which are rare in the types of mainland university museums...
However, according to the official website of the International University Museum and Collection Committee (UMAC), there are 3436 well-known university museums in the world, of which only 41 are included in the Chinese University Museum, which is far from the first ranked Germany (859).
University museums may never treat every ordinary person as an object of display like a public museum in society, and the boundaries of the ivory tower are like a filter that attracts only a small group of people who really love it, so that they can get the inspiration process from extensive reading to intensive reading.