Old tales told anew(2)

Digitized images from the new smartphone app, Night Revels of Han Xizai.

The Palace Museum, also a former Chinese royal palace from 1420 to 1911, first opened as a public museum in 1925. It is the country's largest museum by the number of collections.

"Night Revels of Han Xizai (the painting) is a realistic masterpiece in Chinese painting history," says Yu Hui, a traditional Chinese painting scholar from the museum.

"The work provides abundant information on art, society and customs of the time. However, it's a pity that the opportunity for visitors (at the museum) to see it is rare, due to preservation demands," he says of the need for the app.

Although via mobile devices the painting is able to travel widely, the app is just another stride in the Palace Museum's ambitious long march to chart out a comprehensive digital territory.

In 2013, the museum released its first iPad app, Twelve Beauties of Prince Yong, to explain traditional Chinese portrait paintings of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Auspicious Symbols in the Forbidden City, an app explaining the cultural connotations of auspicious symbols on relics, was released in the same year. Emperor's One Day, an interactive game app on Qing royal rituals, was introduced to young generations last year.

"We'll use the next three years to build a one-stop digital service platform combining websites, app complex, social network and multimedia database," Shan Jixiang, the museum's director, said at the app's launch last week.

Shan, an architect by training, has attracted public attention since taking the position in 2012 through his bold moves to shake off old-fashioned stereotypes against his institution, and in the process has started to look more like a technocrat.

He proudly claims website now attracts about one million hits a day.

"There is a newsroom-like information development center in the museum. Team members keep pitching new topics to mix public interest and the latest academic achievements. When more down-to-earth products were produced, the museum will break down the didactic role of giving visitor's one-sided information."

Digital theaters and virtual exhibition halls will soon be opened inside the old palace's long locked-up buildings, he adds.

"People who weren't attached to cultural relics will clearly understand cultural symbols through these new channels. What's more important, we'll nurture more of Chinese culture among kids in that way."