Marine Life in the Forbidden City - A Multimedia Exhibition
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Please bring your confirmation email to the venue box office to collect your paper tickets before entry.
Please note your e-tickets WILL NOT allow access into the venue until you have exchanged them for paper tickets.
Ticket Collection Location: 1F, Customer Service Center, Sea World Culture and Arts Center.
Ticket Collection Time: 10:00 - 19:00 Tue - Fri (Last Admission 18:30) / 10:00 - 21:00 Sat - Sun (Last Admission 20:30)
- Closed on Mondays (during public holidays, the exhibition will be open on Mondays)
- All Attendees Require a Ticket
- No Cancellation
“Marine Life in the Forbidden City - a Multimedia Exhibition” is jointly sponsored by Beijing Palace Museum and Shenzhen Merchants Culture Industry Co., Ltd, and co-produced by Shanghai LinkA Culture Co., Ltd. The exhibition will be debuted at Shenzhen Sea World Culture and Arts Center on July 12, 2019 and last until October 8, 2019.
The "Marine Life in the Forbidden City", which is developed from “HAI CUO TU”, is a multi-media digital representation that transforms two-dimensional textual reading into a multiple sensory experience combining visual, audio and touch.
The Palace Museum used to be the emperor's home closed within high walls, and it was once the largest library and archives which were loaded with the quintessence of the millennia-old Chinese culture. It has also been a goal for this series of exhibitions to showcase, in a more audience-friendly way, to the general public what had been confined within and carry on our Chinese culture.
About HAI CUO TU "The Book Emperor Qianlong Loved "
300 years ago during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Nie Huang, a native of Qiantang (now known as Hangzhou, Zhejiang) toured through Hebei, Tianjin, Zhejiang, and Fujian and many other places to explore the coastal creatures and visit seafarers and fishermen.
He then made records of and illustrated all the sea creatures he saw and heard in his journey in both pictures and texts. Finally in 1698, he managed to accomplish "HAI CUO TU" which detailed over 300 creatures. This obscure author has gone into oblivion from history ever since.
Emperor Qianlong even stamped the imperial seals on the first page of the book such as "the Treasure of the Emperor Qianlong" and "Treasured Collection from Chonghua Palace", among others, which showed how much he cherished this book.
In 2014, the Palace Museum in Beijing published the book “HAI CUO TU”, getting this centuries-old book “out of the palace wall”. Readers who have read this book must have drooled over the oysters, kelp, and hilsa herrings.
After all, the author not only recorded their appearance, but also introduced their cooking methods and tastes. Undoubtedly, everyone would be amazed at the strange creatures in the book. Why is it called "HAI CUO TU", that is, "a variety of marine creatures", while in it there are also porcupines, oriole, and even tigers and leopards?
What are these "sea otter", "cross shark" and "flying fish"? Upon careful examination of the texts, we found that Nie was convinced that the purple scorpion would turn into a bat, the fish and sparrows can be mutually transformed, and the tiger shark in the sea can transform into a tiger on land.
He even explained in a "known matter of fact" tone that a giant python named "Shen" was a relative of the dragon, and can swallow up the seashore and puff out a mirage onto the sea.
Academic Research
The exhibition, “Marine Life in the Forbidden City” has received guidance from the Palace Museum, and was curated and designed by a team of well-known museum curators and bio-scientists. It took a total of 10 months to conduct scientific researches on more than 300 creatures depicted in the "HAI CUO TU" and translate the entire book into modern Chinese.
At the same time, a lot of academic research was carried out on the history of costumes, geography, food culture and the custom of the court during the Qing Dynasty, to make the exhibition more scientific, educational and professional.
Exhibition concept “Fantasy, Play, Explore”
The exhibition focuses on fantasy, play and explore. As to the forms of exhibition, video, animation cartoons, games, interactions and other means are used to mobilize the audience's audio, visual and touch senses, so as to experience the marine life depicted in "HAI CUO TU" in a three-dimensional space. As for the content of exhibition, it is based on the tour of the author, Nie Huang, along the coastal areas of North China and East China.
It leads the audience through time and space to follow Nie Huang in his visits to the fishing market and explorations into the mystery of what the porters, travelers and fishermen said or written. Audiences will see what the author wander around, hear what he heard, think in the same way as he did, and experience the ancient Chinese views of the world and logic hidden within the book.
When combined with the modern biological and ecological information provided in the exhibition hall, it will take audiences through a dialogue with the ancient Chinese across time and space.
Stroll through frames after frames of dream-like spaces and move through the mysterious marine creatures. Let's get in close contact with those sea lives. The exhibition respects and also hopes to release the audience's imagination and curiosity, especially for the children, so that they can develop their spirit of proactively pursuing knowledge, instead of just passively accepting them, to help further uncover the ancient Chinese cultural treasure of "HAI CUO TU".
We hope that there are children who are so inspired by "Marine Life in the Forbidden City" that they want to be a historian, oceanologist, or Chinese culture communicator; or the exhibition may offer even a little bit of inspiration for their lives. This is the reason why we do this exhibition."
Highlights
The "Marine Life in the Forbidden City - a Multimedia exhibition" comprises 5 exhibition areas.
From the gallery of paintings where a variety of sea fish are depicted, to the story of how "HAI CUO TU" begins; from Nie Huang's visit to the fishing market, his exploration into the "mysterious creatures" being told and written by the porters, travelers and fishermen, to the play area of "Imperial Garden of Sea Creatures"; all of which lead the audience in the footsteps of Nie Huang and Emperor Qianlong in an in-depth exploration of the ancient marine life.
The exhibition includes: veil projection hall, 3D Mapping projection, 9 interactive games, and a series of light and shadow photo space and interactive wall.
Free for one child under 1m when accompanied by an adult with a ticket.
Buy your tickets to Marine Life in the Forbidden City - A Multimedia Exhibition
Event Date:
Friday, July 12, 2019 - Tuesday, October 8, 2019
10:00 - 19:00 Tue. - Fri. (Last Admission 18:30)
10:00 - 21:00 Sat. - Sun. (Last Admission 20:30)
Closed on Mondays (during public holidays, the exhibition will be open on Mondays
Pricing Info:
Presale Ticket
￥69 Standard（￥128 Door Price）
￥128 Standard (x2)（￥256 Door Price）
Regular Ticket
￥98 Standard（￥128 Door Price）
￥158 Standard (x2)（￥256 Door Price）
￥228 Standard (x3)（￥384 Door Price）
￥198 VIP Ticket（￥259 Door Price）
￥688 VIP Ticket (x3)（￥839 Door Price）
The ￥198 VIP ticket includes:
VIP pass
Complimentary memorabilia, worth/value at 95RMB
The ￥688 VIP ticket includes:
VIP pass
Complimentary memorabilia, worth/value at 451RMB
Place Name: Shekou Sea World Culture and Arts Center
Place Address: Design Society, Sea World Culture an Arts Center, 1187 Wanghai Road, Shekou, Nanshan, Shenzhen
深圳市南山区蛇口望海路1187号海上世界文化艺术中心
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