Why are young people becoming the main audience of museums?

In my limited memory, visiting the museum for the first time was definitely not a pleasant experience: it was a group activity of "patriotic education" organized by a primary school. I don't know if it's because of the teacher's warning "don't make any noise" or the terrible smell coming from that tall and dark building. A group of children who are at a loss only dare to line up, silently read the incomprehensible words in the instructions and quietly walk past the bookcase-like showcase. Walking, girls screamed and adults reprimanded in the distance-when we visited there, we found the head of a martyr soaked in a box.

Now, the image of the museum in my mind is quite a cult, which has long been replaced by crowded scenes. When I have seen the snake-like queue of spectators on the whole street of Suzhou Museum, the report of 20 1 1 "Free Visit to Long Queue in Hubei Museum" seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill. When I was still shocked by the nervous attitude of the audience at the special exhibition of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France in the National Museum last year, this year's "Stone Canal Treasure" in the Palace Museum, a special exhibition that was not allowed to take pictures, exploded my circle of friends: people who shared the whole strategy said that "the queue was full of happiness at the moment when their legs were swollen, but Tomb-Sweeping Day saw the painting by the river!" Yes, there is even a word "running in the Forbidden City", which is specially used to describe the scene of rushing from the meridian gate to the Wuying Hall in order to seize the opportunity of the audience queuing.

Although in the eyes of many people, "natural history", "cultural relics" and "history" are still the exclusive terms of middle-aged people who are strung together and watching Jianbao programs at home, no matter from the photos of friends circle or real data, "Going to the museum" has indeed become a kind of "youth culture"-according to the survey data in the paper "Research on the Innovative Development Model of China Museum Tourism" published by Han in 2009, with the increase of museum visitors (the number of visitors to China Museum reached 830 million in 20 14 and 600 million in 20 13), museum visitors are getting younger and younger: young students are becoming museums. Of the total audience, 5 1% are students.

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Besides people who are interested in history, one of the main reasons why many people go to museums is that this in-depth exploration will at least make you look like a profound person. With the function of many museums changing from "these things are used for research anyway" to "this exhibition may inspire you", more detailed exhibits, more exquisite exhibitions, explanations that meet the needs of young people, and even just a convenient audio guide will make young people feel: Well, this place suits me.

Museums are closely related to tourism. When more and more young people put "seeing the world while they are young" into practice, under the influence of tour guides who advocate "deep travel", the world they want to see is much more profound than tourist attractions. The most direct and convenient way to travel with "depth and cultural connotation" is to visit the local museum, where you can know the history, customs and even the level of cultural development of a place as quickly as possible.

In this way, the children who clamored to see the world became "museum control". Each of them will tell you when chatting: "No matter where you go, you must go to the local museum." I even plan a trip because of the museum I am interested in. On the other hand, being a "museum lover" may make you more popular on social networks-in a QQ group of museum lovers in the same city, a "museum lover" named Zhecan told me: "Actually, I went there as an X at first, took some photos that I thought were good, and added some feelings to my circle of friends. As a result, I received a lot of' I didn't expect you to be so considerate' or'. As a result, I really liked this museum when I came and went later. "

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Like many emerging lifestyles, the role of new media in "going to the museum" cannot be ignored. "That's enough! I want to be quiet ","My life pays off-the story of Yong Zhengdi and Nian Gengyao falling in love and killing each other ","Once upon a time there was an emperor who didn't study hard and later died "... These articles that often appear in your circle of friends really come from the WeChat platform of the official cultural service center" Forbidden City Taobao ". Moreover, it will make players in Weibo feel ashamed that these "hard-wide" people who actually advertise the cultural and creative goods in the Forbidden City each have hundreds of thousands of readings.

"Home Jun" said in an interview with interface news @ Forbidden City Taobao: "It is also the general trend to tell stories in another way. Although our present article is fashionable in form, we dare not perfunctory in content. The published WeChat topic looks like a paragraph, but it is actually based on official history. The purpose of this is to make more young people interested in the historical and cultural information contained in the Forbidden City culture, thus attracting them to understand traditional culture and historical knowledge. "

In the seemingly prosperous "new media era", there are far more than one museum trying to interact with young people-"selling lovely cultural relics", "daily knowledge quiz", marketing by hot topics, or directly occupying young people's mobile phones-the photographer @ jingjingjingjingjingjingjingjingjing2 who takes pictures of museum cultural relics cooperates smoothly, because their ideas are also in line with my aesthetics. "

In addition to the satisfaction of social media and various official propaganda, "sense of ceremony" is also a major factor for young people to go to museums-whether they decide to eat clay pot rice instead of rice noodles, or "farming" and "piano crane" that sound profound, as long as they do not meet the most basic physiological needs, even if it sounds useless, it is also a sense of ceremony. And our sense of security and self-identity is based on these seemingly useless things.

"This year's explanation task has been completed," pengpeng, a volunteer in Guo Bo, just finished explaining an exhibition of Buddha statues in the crowd. When the National Museum was called the Museum of Chinese History, she was one of the first volunteers. This year is her twelfth year as a volunteer commentator. I was hanging out with pengpeng in the long corridor of Guo Bo, listening to her talk about her experiences as a volunteer: from the painful stage of "reciting explanations" at the beginning, to consulting a large number of professional books to solve the confusion of myself and the audience, from the artifacts of Tang and Song Dynasties to the fascination with bronzes.

"Now every time I go to see many cultural relics, I feel like an old friend-from the first meeting, to understanding its past, and then to imagining the scene when it was made ... I have seen it for ten years, ten years, twenty years and thirty years. What will I look like when I face it?" "Will you continue to be a volunteer in the future?" "Until I can't walk." As an employee of an Internet company, becoming an explanation volunteer has become an indispensable part of pengpeng's life.

As an ordinary audience, the "sense of ceremony" brought by queuing up early has also become an important part of the exhibition experience. "Before watching the exhibition, I knew that the Riverside Map on Qingming Festival had to be lined up. I booked a ticket in advance, set six alarm clocks, and arrived at the noon gate at seven in the morning. " Xiao Bai, a member of the "Museum Cleaning Team", told me. "The staff of the museum gave me a card with the number 782 written on it-can you imagine that 78 1 person went earlier than me. At 8: 30, I stood in line at the palace, staring at the sign in front of me from' estimated five hours' to' one hour'. I didn't dare to drink water at all, and I didn't enter Wuying Hall until two o'clock in the afternoon. After watching the exhibition, it's almost closed. An unforgettable experience. "

"So, how did you feel when you saw the original work in The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival?" I asked.

"It's beautiful, but ... I've been holding back all day, and all I can think about is rushing out to go to the bathroom."