Chinese Museums, Closed Due to the Coronavirus Outbreak, Put Their Exhibitions Online
In recent weeks, China has taken extreme measures in the hopes of containing the novel coronavirus—an outbreak that the World Health Organization has deemed a global health emergency. Those include declaring a lockdown in the city of Wuhan and Hubei province, where the virus is thought to have originated, extending the annual Lunar New Year Holiday to keep workers at home, and more.
Cultural institutions all over China have also been forced to close amid the outbreak—but many have found a way to continue their work online. China's National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) has asked that the museums use social media and make their exhibitions available digitally.
Per CNN, the NCHA announced at a special meeting last month that it would "encourage cultural heritage museums and institutions around the country to utilize existing digital resources and launch online exhibitions as appropriate, providing the public with safe and convenient online services."
Some of these resources—including a virtual tour of China's world-renowned Palace Museum—are only accessible within the country's borders. But 100 other digital exhibitions (compiled here and here on the NCHA's Chinese language website), are available worldwide, albeit with varied amounts of information in English. A few of these feature virtual tours of China's key sites, like Emperor Qin Shi Huang's terracotta army and carvings and murals from Dunhuang's Mogao caves.
As the coronavirus caused the U.S. State Department issuing a "do not travel" warning for China, these digitized exhibitions may be the best access to the country's cultural institutions that Americans can get for weeks, or months.
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