On September 8, staff from the Shaanxi History Museum’s Qin and Han Gallery equipped participants with devices. Photo by intern reporter Zhou Siyuan.
In the “Polo Painting,” the rider swings the mallet and gallops, with dust seemingly flying towards the viewer; in the “Bird Watching and Cicada Catching Painting,” the sleeves of the palace maid sway gently in the wind, and the branches and leaves seem within reach… On September 8, the Shaanxi History Museum, in collaboration with Shenzhen Yuanxiang Information Technology Co., Ltd., launched the immersive VR digital experience project “Beyond the Mural is the Tang Dynasty.” This is the museum’s first immersive digital product themed around Tang dynasty tomb murals. With VR glasses, audiences can travel back a thousand years and “enter” the murals of the tomb of Prince Zhanghuai, experiencing the grandeur of the Tang dynasty.
The Tang dynasty tomb murals are representative collections of the Shaanxi History Museum. “Due to the fragility of the materials and the special preservation conditions, authentic Tang dynasty tomb murals are difficult to exhibit like other cultural relics. Therefore, we continuously utilize new technologies to enhance the display and communication effectiveness of the Tang tomb murals, using digital presentation methods to make the murals ‘come alive’ and meet the public’s demand for immersive cultural experiences,” said Pang Yani, director of the Shaanxi History Museum.
In this VR immersive journey, audiences will follow the footsteps of Li Shouli, the son of Prince Zhanghuai, starting with a polo match that emerges from the mural, passing through the deep palace shrouded in night, experiencing the sorrow of the father-son farewell, and understanding the ups and downs of Li Xian’s life.
The touching story, combined with cutting-edge technologies such as 12K ultra-high-definition sampling, AI 3D reconstruction, and VR large space algorithms, allows audiences to immerse themselves in the charm of Tang dynasty murals. Audiences can interact with characters in the murals, watch polo matches, encounter palace maids birdwatching, and even “approach” foreign envoys in diplomatic scenes.
On September 8, Xi’an citizen Wang Pei said, “After putting on the VR glasses, I felt as if I had traveled back to the Tang Chang’an city, watching Tang people play polo, overlooking Chang’an city, and gazing at the stars in the night sky. This experience made me deeply appreciate the charm of cultural heritage.”
“‘Beyond the Mural is the Tang Dynasty’ is not only a technical attempt but also an important achievement in exploring new modes of cultural communication through the collaboration of cultural heritage and technology,” said Zhao Qiang, founder of Shenzhen Yuanxiang Information Technology Co., Ltd. “We adopted a dual-track approach of ‘historical research + digital reconstruction’—first systematically sorting out the four symbolic elements of Tang dynasty tomb murals, and then using our self-developed high-precision 3D technology to restore missing parts, ensuring that the restored images fit seamlessly with the original tomb space.”
For the already weathered and damaged murals, the technical team established a digital material library through 12K ultra-high-definition sampling, and then used a high-fidelity rendering engine to accurately capture the color and texture of the mineral pigments on the murals, allowing the vermilion, azurite, and malachite from a thousand years ago to present their original colors in the virtual world.
In recent years, Shaanxi has continuously promoted the digitalization of cultural heritage, allowing its rich cultural heritage to enter the public eye in new ways.
At the Xi’an Stele Forest Museum, the “Panoramic Stele Forest” digital exhibition hall has been launched, showcasing over 300 key cultural relics in a panoramic display. Audiences can “cloud tour” the Stele Forest without leaving their homes.
The Qin Shi Huang Emperor’s Mausoleum Museum is also exploring new digital paths. The “Empire Code—Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum” XR large space immersive experience project transforms the grandeur of the Qin dynasty into stories that can be listened to and histories that can be participated in through digital technology.
Digital technology is becoming the engine for the development of Shaanxi’s cultural heritage industry, continuously revitalizing cultural heritage. Behind this series of changes is Shaanxi’s systematic promotion of cultural digitalization strategic layout.
At the end of 2020, six departments in Shaanxi jointly issued the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Deep Integration of Culture and Technology in Shaanxi Province,” pointing out the key directions such as “carrying out digital collection and management of cultural resources” and “developing immersive experience platforms.”
Shaanxi has rich historical and cultural resources, providing abundant content creation materials for digital content production. The application of technology makes historical culture “tangible, perceptible, and interactive.” Audiences are no longer distant observers but participants. When “technology + cultural heritage” empowers each other, cultural heritage is stepping into the lives of the masses in a more vibrant manner.
Currently, Shaanxi is actively promoting the integration of cultural relic work into contemporary social life. The Shaanxi cultural relic system has introduced incentive policies for the cultural and creative industry, building a digital and virtual display system for cultural relics, creating themed cultural routes, promoting the integration of county-level cultural tourism, and strengthening the integration and concentrated protection and utilization of linear cultural relic resources, transforming old factories and buildings into new business formats and “new business cards.”
“In the next step, Shaanxi will align with the national cultural digitalization strategy, building a technology collaborative innovation system covering the entire cycle of detection, monitoring, restoration, protection, and display communication,” said a relevant person in charge of the Shaanxi Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau.
(Source: Shaanxi Daily)
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