Bringing history to life

From concerts to kids' plays, museums and cultural institutions are conceiving innovative ways to both educate and entertain the public, Deng Zhangyu reports in Zhengzhou.

Museums are this sweltering summer's hot ticket, with visitors struggling to secure entry to the country's cultural institutes, even when booking several days in advance.

When museum directors from across China gathered at Henan Museum in Zhengzhou, Henan province, on July 21 to take part in a cultural seminar, the main topic of discussion was how difficult it is to get tickets to museums. It's reported that tens of thousands of tickets to popular cultural and historical attractions, such as the Forbidden City, also known as the Palace Museum, in Beijing, are sold out in minutes — a phenomenon that reflects the popularity of such institutions.

"I can't help when my friends turn to me for tickets," says Zhai Hongzhi, deputy director of Henan Museum, where a board announcing that tickets are sold out has been set up outside the museum for days.

A popular museum that attracts visitors from across the country, Henan Museum has lifted its daily cap from 10,000 visitors to 12,000 this summer. However, that figure still can't satisfy demand.

Zhang says that, a decade ago, the majority of their museum's visitors were gray-haired, older folk. Nowadays, however, most visitors are young people, especially young parents with their children, and they know clearly what they want to see and learn from museums.

One of the key reasons for the growing popularity of museums among a wider demographic is that they are becoming more interesting, according to a consensus reached by museum directors and experts participating in the cultural seminar, which discussed how to "revive antiques and collections "and make them more attractive to the public.