China News Service, Xiamen, August 22 (Wu Guanbiao, Sun Hong) In August, Gulangyu Island in Xiamen, Fujian Province was crowded with people. Special exhibition halls such as the Gulangyu Forbidden City Cultural Relics Museum, the National Art Museum of China Gulangyu Art Space, and the Gulangyu China Film and Music Museum, which were revitalized and transformed from old buildings, have become popular destinations for tourists.
On the 22nd, the "Vibrant China Research Tour" themed interview team visited Gulangyu Island in Xiamen to explore how each cultural relic building has been transformed into a public cultural space, and to experience the practice of this small island in the protection and revitalization of cultural relics and the integration of culture, business and tourism.
Walking into Gulangyu·China Film and Music Museum is like stepping into a long scroll where movies and music blend. In the exhibition case, a red-core vinyl preview of the theme song of the same name, China's first film "Fishing Light", which won international honors, attracted people's attention; in the interactive area, visitors were crowded in front of the record-shaped disk song-requesting device. When they pressed the button, familiar melodies such as "Love to Fight Will Win", "Men Should Be Strong" and "Shepherd's Song" lingered in their ears; beside the retro audio and video receiver, some people closed their eyes to listen, and some sang along softly.
Jiang Xiaobing, the person in charge of the exhibition hall, said that the museum was officially opened to the public in May this year. It uses multiple special exhibition halls to spread out the century-old development of Chinese film music. It is the first special exhibition hall for film music in China. In the future, it will also be integrated with the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, and other activities such as landing film festivals.
At the Gulangyu Art Space of the National Art Museum of China, “From Picasso to David Hockney—Selected Exhibition of International Works Donated by Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig” is on display. Tourists often take photos in front of "Man Smoking a Pipe" and "Infantry with Birds" by the Spanish art master Picasso in his later years. According to reports, more collections from the National Art Museum of China and international art treasures will be displayed here in the future, allowing this century-old building to continue to radiate cultural vitality.
Behind these high-quality cultural spaces is Gulangyu Island’s persistent protection and revitalization of cultural relics. In the nine years since "Gulangyu: Historic International Community" was successfully applied for World Heritage status, Gulangyu has invested a total of nearly 200 million yuan (RMB, the same below) to complete the renovation of 51 cultural relics and the maintenance of 175 architectural features.
Lin Ruixin, Director of the Cultural Preservation Department of the Gulangyu Island Management Committee, said that unlike the model of "shelving the pavilions after repairs are completed", Gulangyu Island is based on the original function of the heritage, promoting the transformation of cultural relics buildings into public cultural spaces, continuing to provide high-quality exhibitions, music performances, public welfare research and other public cultural services, and promoting cultural relics and heritage from being "protected" to "being shared."
As cultural relics become "alive", consumption also becomes "hot". Relying on Bagua Tower Organ Museum, Shuzhuang Garden, Gulangyu Forbidden City Cultural Relics Museum, Yanping Theater and other exhibition halls, Gulangyu has introduced Nanyin, puppet shows, lacquer thread carvings, shadow carvings and other projects to realize the linkage display of historical buildings and intangible cultural heritage. At the same time, it has deeply explored elements such as world heritage architecture, music and art, and South Fujian cultural heritage, and developed cultural and creative products such as art derivatives and film music-themed records, turning cultural resources into cultural tourism commodities that can be taken away and spread.
According to statistics, in the more than three months since their opening, the National Art Museum of China Gulangyu Art Space and Gulangyu China Film and Music Museum have achieved ticket sales of more than one million yuan and cultural and creative income of more than 200,000 yuan.
While cultivating consumer formats, Gulangyu focuses on standardizing industrial governance and maintaining a high-quality consumer ecology. The island implements a pre-consultation mechanism for commercial formats, giving priority to the introduction of cultural and artistic, intangible cultural heritage, and local specialty merchants in southern Fujian to avoid the homogenization of commercial formats; it implements a "one store, one code" global credit supervision system, covering nearly a thousand travel-related merchants on the island, to ensure the tourist consumption experience.
In the future, Gulangyu will continue to protect and utilize world cultural heritage, release the cultural value of world heritage, deepen the in-depth integration of culture, business and tourism, and create a demonstration model of "world heritage, cultural museums + cultural tourism consumption".
