Museum of the Institute of History and Philology Established in 1986‚ Museum of the Institute of History and Philology‚ Academia Sinica has the function of preserving and exhibiting its archives. All the relics inside are all collected and purchased by our senior members who braved the cold and the scorching sun. In order to fully demonstrate these relics discovered from hill to dale‚ the museum reopened on the axis of showing their historic meanings and archaeological context in 2002. | | | Museum of the Institute of History and Philology | Facing an era of public knowledge and culture sharing‚ the museum not only displays the archives and plans for a wide range of exhibitions‚ but is also aiming for becoming a platform for the public to appreciate the relics and let them come into their lives. The relics are not merely materials for academic research‚ objects on exhibitions or pictures on the catalogs. We use creativity to revive these thousand-year old relics which tell stories behind them and give a human touch toward the crowd. Revival through Cultural Creativity after a Thousand Years Through acquaintance and our understanding of these relics‚ in the process of conception and designing‚ we try to unfold the historical stories and the cultural meanings of the relics as much as possible. The museum’s products of cultural creativity are presenting themselves as follows: We took the rubbings of the Bodhisattva Avalokitêśvara carved on the precipice‚ as seen in the special exhibition “ A Promise to the Buddha”‚ trace the line and gild on the cover‚ giving the hope of not only devotion and peace but also the mercy as seeing the Bodhisattva Avalokitêśvara. Inside the notepaper is a rubbing image of a family praying to the Buddha reverently for the promising future in the record of statues in the Song of the Southern Dynasty (A.D.420-479). By applying the principles of animation‚ we let the family of seven move along with the paper‚ praying to the Buddha one after another. It is symbolic of the execution in the record of statue in Buddhism. Different from the past to focus only on oracle bones images and text‚ we offer researchers’ experience of the oracle “conjugation” process through “hands-on” activity while “putting together” puzzles‚ so that oracles’ “incompletion” during excavation and “completion” after study are well presented. The oracle bones from the Shang Dynasty (about 17th-11th century B.C.) hence are no longer out of reach. Experiencing the “conjugation of oracles” by means of “jigsaw puzzles” is better than a thousand words. The design idea of “Lucky Charm for Examination Omamori” is taken from The Small Golden Placard of the Civil Palace Examination in the 27 th year of Daoguang’s reign in Qing Dynasty (1847). We are not satisfied with merely the embroidery of "Pass the Examination”. “Intricately” we enclose one miniature Jibang which one can write their name on‚ presenting the fun of "Number One Scholar on the List of Success" humorously.  | | Lucky Charm for Examination Omamori | “President Tiger” is based on the Kneeling Anthropomorphic Figure with Tiger Head from the Shang Dynasty. The features of the relic are highlighted through appreciation and the use of it. The raw marble material is turned into a beech doll‚ an ear-erected‚ grin and kneeling tiger. It is designed with ears to insert name cards‚ a mouth to hold pencils and ankles to store notepaper. The name “President Tiger” is given to its human body with a tiger head. We utilize the groove on the legs of the Jade Elephant of Shang Dynasty to insert an invisible blade of letter opener. Meanwhile‚ the incomplete trunk is polished and the emblazonry on the body is simplified to recreate this comfortable feel and fondle admiringly “Elephant Letter Opener” which gives no resemblance to a letter opener. Unlike other ideas that come out from the relics‚ the owl pencil sharpener designed based on the Sculpture of a Standing Owl from the Shang Dynasty was a reverse thinking. The original design concept is taken from the wooden stationery pencil sharpener. It is hard to distinguish these two Chinese characters: “sharpening 削(Xiao)” and “owl 梟(Xiao)”‚ for they share the same pronunciation in Chinese. As a sudden stroke of genius‚ we decided to make comparison between “Figure of a Standing Owl” and “Sculpture of a Standing Owl” from our special exhibition “ Xibeigang Tomb M1001”‚ to find out which one well resembling an owl pencil sharpener. After discussion with several design studios‚ taking into account the needs of mass production‚ we finally chose a wooden doll; in consideration of modeling‚ the Sculpture of a Standing Owl won the role. In addition to "reverse thinking"‚ incoordination between the relic’s figure and the product’s structure. For example‚ during the process of designing the "Owl Pencil Sharpener"‚ a conflict in the ancient style and the modern design took place. We once intended to let the arc of the owl’s beak‚ the horns on his head‚ the human ear on the side and neck‚ etc.‚ all reflect in the product‚ in the hope of building an "avatar" of the relic.  |  | The Owl Pencil Sharpener in the experiment: a curved beak‚ laser-scribed horns and human ears
on the head‚ along with the one-piece neck. | Due to the difference between the material of marble and wood‚ and the visual gap between stone carving and wood engraving‚ the design is drawn toward the idea of "cut‚ reduction and simplification". The product is thereby striking the balance through ingenuity between the ancient and the modern‚ replication and modification‚ customization and mass production. The “Owl Pencil Sharpener” is born thereby.  |  | | Owl Pencil Sharpener | As introspection: although emphasizing the originality is to be the main idea of cultural and creative revival‚ however‚ the problems are‚ what are the features to preserve? What should be emphasized or remodeled? Even though there are no objective criteria‚ but the aesthetic experience will be another standard of measurement. We choose the Oracle Bone with Cinnabar Inscriptions‚ which symbolizes "harvest"‚ to design the Oracle Bone Mug. An attempt to break the cultural concept of image that must be complete is shown by not placing the whole piece of oracle bone on a mug; instead‚ we just extract the characters from the oracle bone inscriptions and change the color to stylish blue and white printed on a mug of round top and square bottom. An elegant oracle bone mug which is full of stories is thusly created. In our point of view‚ cultural creativity is a status of revival after a thousand years. Therefore‚ we do not merely print images of relics on the mugs icily; instead we build up connection between creativity and the mugs on the axis of relics to give embellishment with a sense of beauty.  | Recorded on the day of Bing-Zi‚ the augur "Wei" asked whether this year would have a good harvest. |  | | Oracle Bone Mug | Best Spokesperson In addition to cultural and creative design‚ we also extend outwards‚ trying through diverse interfaces‚ to let these historical relics not only appear in the books or museums‚ but also surround our lives. We invite stamps that "leap all over the world and fly into millions of households" to serve as a cultural "spokesperson". In December 2014‚ Chunghwa Post Co.‚ Ltd. handpicked several relics of the Ruins of Yin (Late 14th century–Mid 11th century B.C.) from our museum and released " Ancient Chinese Artifacts Postage Stamps — The Ruins of Yin ". A stamp release ceremony was then held together with The Institute of History and Philology.  | | "Ancient Chinese Artifacts Postage Stamps" Souvenir Sheet |  | | "Ancient Chinese Artifacts Postage Stamps" Release Ceremony | It is the first time for the relics of Yin Ruins of Shang Dynasty (Late 14th Century-11th Century B.C.) to present in form of stamps in three thousand years. The museum exploits this occasion of “A Three-Thousand-Year of Wait” and planned a special exhibition “ Stamp the Briliance”‚ displaying eight objects from this collection. based on the prototype of Kneeling Anthropomorphic Figure with Tiger Head from the Shang Dynasty‚ we designed a “Tiger Mailbox” and released an “Stamp the Brilliance Postcard” for an “integrated marketing”. Relics and stamps add value to each other by means of two-way advertisement. The stamps fascinate for their historical stories; the relics are getting closer to our lives via the circulation of stamps. For the “availability of utilization”‚ the relics thusly have more contact with the masses and possess more humanity through “interaction with people”. The operation of social networking sites also increases the opportunity to interact with people and create a friendly atmosphere to experience the charm of culture. By running a Facebook Fan Page‚ the museum could put aside the seriousness of academics temporarily‚ and use imagination‚ with a humorous tone‚ to introduce the relics and the stories behind.  | | The introduction of relics with one item per week on the Facebook Page has escaped rigid text descriptions and opened a window of imagination‚ leading the audience into the world of relics. Starting with the use of the images of the roles in well-known movies‚ we have made association and posted the picture of Hu Flask with Standing Bird and Flowers from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771-221 B.C.)‚ as coming through time traveling‚ onto Facebook. | Relics are endowed with humanity by means of imagination and drawn closer to the public with a sense of humor. Relics are no longer distant history‚ but vivid‚ tangible stories‚ by which more people can get closer to the relics and have experience history. That is exactly the “value” that the relics have been “added” on. Creativity Enchanted‚ Value-Adding to Relics Creativity is of no boundaries‚ so that the way of value-adding to relics could be infinite. In the experience of the museum‚ adding value to the archives‚ aside from business opportunities‚ is to let the relics speak‚ a little bit more. That is the “value” we are the most eager to increase with all effort. We are making effort to draw people close to the relics‚ more closely. Then we could live the culture as the cultural lives in us.  | | An Owl Pencil Sharpener resembling a boy attendant grinding the ink and the couplets with oracle bone characters “Fortune Ram"‚ which means “wish you the best fortune in the year of ram (2015)”‚ laid on top. |
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