China unveils plan for International Museum Day as epidemic wanes

BEIJING — Activities and events to be held in China for the upcoming International Museum Day have been released on May 11 as the coronavirus epidemic wanes.

Nanjing Museum in East China's Jiangsu province will host the main event on International Museum Day, which falls on May 18, according to the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA).

A special exhibition with a selection of over 200 cultural relics dating from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) to the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220) will be jointly launched by eight cultural institutions, including the Nanjing Museum and Henan Museum, to mark the day, Gong Liang, curator of the Nanjing Museum, said at a press conference.

Themed "Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion"，this year's campaign for the International Museum Day will also include special activities held around May 18 in other places across China. The aim is to build platforms of communication between museums and the public, the NCHA said.

While paying tribute to medics, a batch of material demonstrating China's collective efforts in the combat against the epidemic will be donated to the Nanjing Museum at the opening ceremony of the main event. According to the NCHA, provincial museums in Hainan, Gansu, Liaoning, and Heilongjiang will also hold exhibitions to honor China's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.

Apart from controlling the scale of the offline main event on the spot and improving the emergency plan, online activities will also be intertwined with offline events for the first time due to the epidemic, Guan Qiang, deputy head of the NCHA, said at the press conference.

Related activities will be livestreamed via the internet, he added.

A total of 11 Chinese cities including Chongqing, Guangzhou, Beijing, and Changsha have hosted the main event since 2009.

In collaboration with Xinhua News Agency, the NCHA will launch a platform to show the best of the online exhibitions of China's museums as part of a series of events scheduled for the International Museum Day, Guan noted.

The NCHA will also invite celebrities and experts to interpret the exhibitions and explore approaches to innovatively convert and develop fine traditional Chinese culture through a livestream on the platform, Guan added.