Museums offer livestreaming tours during epidemic

A guide from Liangzhu Museum in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, introduces cultural relics through livestreaming on Feb 23. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The educational winter break should have been one of the busiest seasons of the year for Bai Xuesong, a tourist guide from Xi'an Beilin Museum in the capital city of Shaanxi province.

However, the nationwide extension of the Spring Festival holiday and the safety measures being implemented following the outbreak of COVID-19 have created an extraordinary situation.

The Beilin (literally meaning "forests of steles") museum is home to over 10,000 precious stone carvings, steles, epigraphs and other calligraphy works that have been engraved on rocks throughout Chinese history, one of the largest collections of such cultural relics in China. Like many others, this institution has remained closed for over 40 days in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.

Since joining the museum in 2012, 33-year-old Bai has guided around 1,000 tours a year.

This year, however, museum administrators have given him a new stage upon which to display his talents: hosting a two-hour live "prime-time talk show" on Taobao, one of China's major e-commerce sites. The first episode streamed at 8 pm on Feb 23.

Despite being talkative, humorous, and knowledgeable when introducing the history of Chinese calligraphy to museum visitors, he was reluctant to accept the assignment.

"I don't even use Sina Weibo nor post on WeChat," he tells China Daily in an interview via telephone," let alone participating in any live broadcast.

"But this time I thought why not have a go, even if it's only once?" Bai explains.