On June 12, the main event of the 2021 Cultural and Natural Heritage Day was held in Chongqing Municipality under the theme of “cultural relics illuminating the centenary journey.”During this event, the National Cultural Heritage Administration released the promotional activities and shortlist for the 2021 “Outstanding Omnimedia (New Media) Projects in the Field of Chinese Cultural Relics.” The “Treasure Hunt Relay: Global Museum Director’s Choice” project initiated by the National Museum of China has made the list of top 10 promotional activities, marking the second consecutive year the National Museum of China has been recognized.
Museums are palaces for sheltering and inheriting human civilization, connecting the past, present and future. In September 2020, the National Museum of China initiated the event “Treasure Hunt Relay: Global Museum Director’s Choice” to spread the idea of building a community with a shared future for mankind, through dialogue, joint efforts and win-win cooperation. We invited directors from sixteen museums across five continents to introduce the history of their institutions and selected objects from their collections. This event presented iconic cultural treasures for a global audience in a relay format, sharing the essence of human civilization through the Web.
The event “Treasure Hunt Relay: Global Museum Director’s Choice” is not only a benevolent attempt to unite the museum industry to collaboratively fight against the pandemic, but also an endeavor to present the world with the cultural charm of museums, jointly expanding the social influence of museums through the Internet. We sought to provide our global audience with a chance to experience the power of culture from the comfort of their homes.
There were 16 special sessions in total, the directors’ choices were brilliant and found beauty in each. It had led the global audience into a treasure house of world culture, displaying our splendid and diverse world civilization. More than 20 platforms participated in the livestream. A total of 200 million online viewers “tracked” this Treasure Hunt Relay. The whole event was covered by media in multiple languages including English, Russian, Spanish, and Arabic, continuously gaining international communication influence. It was also widely praised and received compliments in the participating museums and the host countries.
The NMC has won the award for the second time, which is a recognition of the NMC in the field of new media communication. In the future, the NMC will insistthe online promotion, and provide more "good exhibitions, good lessons and good cultural relics" to meet the growing cultural needs of the public.