Construction of ambitious cultural project begins

A new cultural facility is being built in Hangzhou by the Qiantang River. The Zhijiang Cultural Center extends a total area of 17.2 hectares, and construction is expected to finish in 2022.

It will include a cultural park, the Zhejiang Literature Museum and the Zhejiang Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum and new premises for the Zhejiang Provincial Museum and Zhejiang Library.

The present premises of the provincial museum and library will be kept. The new provincial museum will have a floor area of 100,000 square meters, five times its present premises on Gushan Road, giving more exhibition room for its antiquities.

The new library will have an exclusive floor for its more than 1 million ancient and rare books and manuscripts.

“The storage conditions will also be better and there will be a classic books museum showing part of our collections to the public,” Tong Shengjiang, deputy director of the library’s ancient books department, told Shanghai Daily.

A highlight of the center will be the Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, the first of its kind at such a scale in Zhejiang Province.

“Zhejiang has been known as the hometown of 100 kinds of craftsmanship, and is also the birthplace of Southern Opera, which originated in Wenzhou City,” said Dr Guo Yi, director of Zhejiang Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center.

She said the museum will be a place where heritage is not just seen in a piece of embroidery or wooden umbrella, but be an activate cultural space shared by the public.

“Our museum is different from those that just display objects. We hope to show how intangible cultural heritage is produced and used in daily life. It is not the past tense, but things living in the present,” Guo said.

To make heritage come alive and be relevant to the audience, Guo said they plan to have a traditional Chinese opera stage and a wooden sea boat inside the museum.

“If the opera stage represents traditional farming lifestyles prevailing in the area, the boat is a symbol of the sea culture in Zhejiang. These are the two specimens that explain who we are and where we come from,” Guo said.

The opera stage will be built by local craftsmen who have mastered traditional construction techniques of Chinese wooden architecture including the beautifully decorated caisson ceiling craftsmanship that originated in Ninghai County.

In the preliminary plan, there won’t be tables and chairs in front of the stage, as seen in traditional teahouses where people enjoy performances while chatting, sipping tea and eating snacks.

Instead, spectators will be in an enclosed area set around the stage. Audiences may enter the “theater space” guided by museum staff.

Visitors will be able to walk freely within the auditorium. They can go on the stage and even upstairs to appreciate the building techniques. When there is no show, they can also go backstage to see the props, makeup and costumes.

“Traditionally the opera stage is used for entertaining the gods. But I want my audience to have a more comfortable viewing experience. It will be a museum within a museum. And it is an open space, making interaction with the audience all the time,” said Guo.

Together with the opera stage, there will be a hand-crafted fishing boat where “A Day of a Fisherman” will be showcased with multimedia facilities and other exhibits.

“Our intention, however, is not to show the objects as cultural relics, but the craftsmanship behind them,” said Guo, who said the building process of the opera stage would be recorded and made into a video for anyone coming to see a performance.

From 2003 to 2008, the government conducted two large-scale surveys on Zhejiang’s intangible cultural heritage resources. They found over 2.7 million items covering 17 categories and 165 specific types. The surveys were the first move toward protection and inheritance.

At present, Zhejiang has 217 entries of intangible cultural heritage protected at national level and 196 national-level inheritors. Also 10 programs have been inscribed in the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list, which includes Kunqu Opera, traditional firing techniques of Longquan celadon and traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges.

Guo said the museum’s collection will emphasize the heritage protected at provincial and national levels.

The search for items for the collection began in November 2017. A total of 47 national-level inheritors have donated their representative works to the museum. This year they will target objects related to traditional operas.

The museum also works as a research institute and workshop for inheritors.

“These inheritors receive allowances from the government each year. They have duties to show their skills in the public and pass on know-how to the next generations. The museum welcomes performers and artisans from anywhere in the province,” stated Guo.

In the future, the museum intends to introduce more partners to further cultivate the economic value of the heritage.

“These resources are our biggest asset. We hope to make full use of them and let the museum be a model at the national level,” Guo said.