The month-long campaign - Beijing Museum Month - came to a close on Tuesday, attracting a significant number of young visitors through interactive activities. Attending a press briefing at the Beijing Capital Museum on Tuesday, government officials, scholars, exhibitors and visitors told the Global Times that they are pleased to see more young people express their interest and take part in cultural activities. 

Justyna Szpakowska gives a speech at at the achievement briefing session to the media at the Beijing Capital Museum on June 18, 2024. Photo: Dong Feng/GT

With the slogan - making studying more enjoyable - the campaign has seen about 2.1 million people visit museums. More than 90 museums and cultural and creative institutions participated in the Cultural and Creative Week, with ticket sales of nearly 2 million yuan ($275,600). Additionally, more than 20 museums hosted the Film Week, playing nearly 40 movies, and during the Reading Week, 25 museums held more than 40 lectures, new book release ceremonies, book discounts and book exchange activities.

Justyna Szpakowska, a former veteran journalist from Poland, now a PhD student majoring in museum digitalization at the Communication University of China (CUC), told the Global Times that the museums of Beijing are like old friends to her. 

Szpakowska, whose Chinese name is Cui Hua, has lived in the Chinese capital for 15 years. During this period, she has noticed that the city's museums have been attracting more and more Gen Zers through a variety of exhibitions, "By combining exhibits and technology, more youngsters are visiting museums in a more interactive way."

Talking about Gen Zers' interactive way of visiting museums, she said that the young generations are not satisfied to just watch the relics displayed in exhibitions, and they are more likely to take pictures and shoot videos and share these through social media. To satisfy this new demand, museums need to develop new functions. 

A fan of all kinds of museums, Szpakowsk considers them windows for overseas students and foreign visitors in general to admire and better understand a country's culture. 

Students from Beijing School recite their original poem "Ode to the Grand Canal" at the achievement briefing session to the media at the Beijing Capital Museum on June 18, 2024. Photo: Dong Feng/GT

Chen Lan, a vice principal of Beijing School, told the Global Times that the school has implemented a project that combines subjects such as history, geography, physics, maths, Chinese, law and ethics lessons. 

"We have identified connections between museums and our junior high school's curriculum content and, we have designed a new project-based learning curriculum for our students," she explained. 

Each week of the Beijing Museum Month featured 10 high-quality projects: the exhibition week promoted top exhibitions, the cultural and creative week promoted most popular cultural and creative works, the film week promoted movie-watching activities according to the visitors' wish list, and the reading week provided immersive reading activities. 

Cultural exchange platforms

Beijing, as a city of museums, has provided many platforms for international scholars, students and friends to gain in-depth understanding of Chinese culture. Museums are perfect places for mutual learning among different cultures and civilizations, Szpakowska said.  

She was one of the delegates who were tasked with discussing with experts, scholars and museum enthusiasts the topic of developing museum programs in innovative ways earlier this month and in her role of lecturer of the CUC, she is preparing for a new cultural exchange event in October. 

Overseas students share their impression to the Beijing Museum Month at the Beijing Capital Museum on June 18, 2024. Photo: Dong Feng/GT

Overseas students from Nigeria and Thailand, who are now studying at the CUC, also shared their opinions on the museum campaign and expressed the desire to share more about Chinese culture with their own peers back home. 

Szpakowska said that she looks forward to taking part to more campaigns like the Beijing Museum Month and sharing this kind of unique cultural exchange experience with friends all over the world. 

Song Haojie, a deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, told to the Global Times that the Beijing Museum Month will be repositioned as a flagship campaign to raise awareness and attract more visitors. The aim is to establish May as a signature month for Beijing's cultural scene, showcasing the city's rich heritage and attractions.

"The four themed weeks are an innovative way to recommend the cultural relics to our visitors and stories behind the relics and exhibitions. Through this way, visitors will learn more about the outstanding Chinese culture and Beijing's cultural heritage," Song said. 

To provide more high-quality exhibitions, Song said that Beijing will organize an exhibition featuring VR experiences on the Sanxingdui cultural relics on June 27 and by the end of this year an exhibition on Greek civilization will be hosted in the city, to allow more visitors to appreciate the charm of both traditional Chinese culture and other civilizations.