Chinese youth fall in love with cultural 'treasure hunt'

Documentary director Xu Huan did not think her cultural relics videos would become a hit among young Chinese.

"When I first started, it was a personal interest project to tell the history of the objects on camera. But now public interest in such films is growing," she said.

Xu, 49, has been filming relics and museums for the last 13 years and her latest work, "If National Treasures Could Talk," debuted on China Central Television (CCTV) in January and soon went viral online, with a single episode attracting over 500,000 audience.

"I found out many post-90s youth followed the program. But I didn't intend to make a program tailored for them," said Xu.

Xu's idea to make five-minute episodes came during her travels abroad. In 2012, she visited the British Museum and bought a DVD which had short videos about its treasures. Xu started selecting artifacts and featuring their stories for a documentary about the Palace Museum which received excellent ratings. "This inspired me a lot. A slow pace and serious tone are not required for a quality documentary. Bite-size vivid storytelling can enable people to understand and appreciate the object easier and quicker," she said.

Chinese cultural progroam "If National Treasures Could Talk".

"Let the relic do all the talking" is Xu's philosophy and this has been well received by young audiences. Since it first aired, the program has received tens of thousands of supportive "danmu," the live viewers' comments that fly across the screen on video-sharing platform bilibili.com, popular with China's post-90s generation.

"People take it for granted that millennials get bored easily with shows focused on culture and traditions. Actually we are just as interested as our parents," said Wang Ying, a student who majors ancient Chinese history in Beijing Normal University.

A report by CSM, a leading Chinese media research company said young Chinese previously preferred TV shows with pop idol guests, but a growing number are turning to cultural TV programs.

Xu admitted she underestimated youth interest in traditional culture and artifacts. "Actually, we don't stress how ancient the object is in the program. Even before I started filming, I told myself this program should not just focus on the objects, but their evidence of human history and connection to people in China and around the world," said Xu.

Antiques are often seen as a witness to history, yet the documentaries have helped unearth the human stories behind them.

Chinese cultural progroam "If National Treasures Could Talk"

On bilibili.com, many viewers said they wanted to visit museums and have a closer look at the artifacts after watching the program.

Wang Ying said it is like a treasure hunt. "When you are told what these treasures are like, where they are, and how they are related to you, you definitely want to see them," he said.

In recent years, museums across China are paying more attention to the way they present ancient artifacts to public and underlining their educational role as well.

"Museums have to transform their role from simply displaying objects into promoting the audience's active learning with interactive activities," said Fang Qin, curator of Hubei Provincial Museum.

Beijing-based Capital Museum holds many interactive activities, such as workshops that are designed to teach children how to recreate artifacts.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)