The digital shadow plays art collection launched by DUNYUSHAN Photo: Courtesy of DUNYUSHAN

File Photo:Xinhua

An art collection shown online that was designed to combine shadow plays - part of China's intangible cultural heritage - with digitalization techniques was launched by DUNYUSHAN, a digital collection, on International Museum Day on Wednesday to help more people appreciate China's traditional culture.  

The collection includes five digital shadow play works in the Huaxian shadow play style. The traditional artistry defines China's earliest shadow play culture, which originated in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province over 2,000 years ago. 

In 2006, it was named as part of China's national intangible cultural heritage. 

"One of the major benefits of art or cultural digitalization is that it can reach a larger audience," Guo Ming, an insider of the art digitalization industry, told the Global Times. 

The five works are rooted in Chinese classics, involving heroic figures such as Zhao Yun, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei from The Romance of Three Kingdoms, one of the four great classical Chinese novels. 

Maximum Yang, a 27-year-old collector, told the Global Times that he believes the value of digital collections lie in their new form. Digitalized cultural works will have digital certificates to show the exclusive ownership of the collector and traceability can effectively protect the rights of the creators. 

DUNYUSHAN's digital project was co-designed with physical museums including the Xi Peng Zhai shadow play museum to celebrate the 2022 International Museum Day's theme of "The power of Museums."