千年古韵邂逅现代潮流，中华历史文化正以全新姿态走进大众生活。近日，一则抖音短视频走红网络，国内一家餐厅依托汉代古墓出土的竹简、食物遗存等文物，携手省级博物馆复原西汉宫廷烧烤，重现两千年前的汉代风味。视频热度飙升，吸引大批网友慕名前往打卡，沉浸式感受源远流长的古人饮食文化。
如今，文物IP跨界融合已成国内新风尚。各地博物馆不再局限于传统展陈，纷纷推出文创雪糕、盲盒、仿古餐饮等创意产品，让厚重历史变得趣味十足、触手可及。北京故宫博物院、甘肃省博物馆、四川广汉三星堆博物馆等陆续打造特色文创好物，深受年轻群体喜爱。
与此同时，虚拟现实、3D扫描、直播、AI动画等数字技术，进一步打破时空限制。各类文物趣味短视频走红网络，兵马俑、古陶俑等历史形象生动“出圈”。历史不再只存在于展厅与典籍，而是融入美食、好物与日常娱乐，让传统文物借力潮流形式焕发活力，古老文明在当代传承不息。
《北京周报》2026 年第 24 期刊发英文报道，带你见证传统文化与现代潮流的精彩碰撞。
AI-generated videos of cultural relics, produced by local tourism authorities and museums across China
From Timeless to Trendy
Wang Siyang, a Shanghai professional who enjoys exploring new restaurants, stumbled upon a remarkable video on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, at the stroke of midnight earlier this year. On screen, skewers of beef and chicken were sizzling over charcoal fire—fat dripping into the embers, sending up wisps of white smoke. Interspersed with the cooking shots were museum-grade archival images: bamboo slips (used in ancient times as writing materials) and lacquerware excavated from the Mawangdui Tombs in Changsha, Hunan Province. And then, a name that any Chinese history buff would recognize: Lady Xin Zhui.
Also known as the “Mawangdui Lady,” Xin Zhui was the wife of the chancellor of the Changsha Kingdom during the Western Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 25). Her remarkably preserved body was discovered in the 1970s, along with thousands of artifacts that offered an unprecedented glimpse into the lives of China's ancient elite.
“How did Han Dynasty (divided into Western Han and Eastern Han (25-220) periods—Ed.) aristocrats eat barbecue?” “Has a 2,000-year-old recipe just seen the light of day again?”
The headlines were irresistible. The video, it turned out, was promoting a restaurant in Changsha, one that claimed to have recreated barbecue recipes with inspirations from the Mawangdui artifacts. With the support of the Hunan Museum, the restaurant had studied the bamboo slips and food remains found in Xin Zhui's tomb, using them to revive the flavors of Western Han Dynasty feasts.
By the time Wang found the video, the comment section was already exploding. Thousands of replies, with half asking for the address of the restaurant and the other half tagging friends with the same message: “Let's go. Han Dynasty skewers. Now.”
Wang forwarded the video to a friend with a one-line caption: “We need to go.”
In recent years, cities across China have seen a surge in creative, artifact-inspired products, from museum-branded ice cream and blind boxes to themed restaurants and lifestyle goods. These innovations aim to make ancient history feel relevant, accessible and even fun to a new generation. The strategy appears to be working: Younger Chinese are flocking to museums in record numbers, and social media feeds are filled with photos of artifact-themed snacks and exhibitions. For many like Wang, the line between learning about history and enjoying a day out has become deliciously blurred.
More than a meal
Wang and her friend travelled to Changsha during the May Day holiday, which ran from May 1 to 5 this year. They arrived at the barbecue restaurant only to find a line already snaking out the door. The air was thick with the smell of smoky charcoal and fragrant spices: cumin, fennel and something else, something ancient and unfamiliar. The restaurant had styled itself like a Han Dynasty courtyard, with low wooden tables, bamboo screens and clay ovens glowing orange in the dim light. Servers wore traditional costumes, and the tableware was also in an ancient style.
The star of the show, of course, was the barbecue made just as the Mawangdui texts had described. “The barbecue tasted quite different from the ones we normally have,” Wang told Beijing Review. “It used a lot of spices that modern palates aren't familiar with. In Chinese culture, we have a belief that some food also have healing effects, making people healthy.”
According to Yu Yanjiao, a research fellow at the Hunan Museum, the Mawangdui Tombs yielded an extraordinary amount of food-related artifacts. The foods found can be divided into four main categories: grains and staples, pastries and sweets, cooked dishes and beverages. Among these, the cooked dishes alone include over 100 varieties, featuring cooking methods such as stewing, barbecuing, deep-frying and pan-frying, steaming and even hot pot, a testament to the rich and diverse culinary culture of the Han Dynasty.
Various types of food were found stored in silk bags, lacquerware, pottery and bamboo baskets. Moreover, detailed records of ingredients and dishes were inscribed on tomb inventory lists and wooden tags attached to the bamboo baskets. Through these materials, Yu explained, researchers have been able to reconstruct a vivid picture of what the tomb owner's family ate more than two millennia ago.
“Our hope,” Wang Hao, founder of the restaurant, told Xinhua News Agency, “is that through these flavors, which have traveled across thousands of years, more people will come to learn about Hunan and understand China.”
A nationwide movement
The collaboration between the Hunan Museum and the local restaurant is far from an isolated case. Across China, local cultural and tourism authorities, museums and other cultural institutions are breaking free from their traditional roles as quiet, solemn repositories of the past. They are transforming into vibrant cultural hubs that meet young people where they already are—on social media and in their daily lives.
Driven by this mindset, museums nationwide have rolled out a wealth of relic-themed cultural creations spanning food, trendy toys and daily essentials, designed to bridge the gap between ancient civilization and contemporary youth culture.
The Palace Museum in Beijing, known internationally as the Forbidden City, stands as the trailblazer of this cultural creativity boom. Long confined behind thick glass display cases, its centuries-old imperial treasures now translate into affordable daily items, ranging from delicate hairpins patterned after ancient court jewelry to scroll-printed notebooks and signature palace-themed ice cream. These small commodities fly off shelves year-round and regularly top online shopping charts during holidays, turning royal history into a portable part of everyday consumption.
Provincial museums have followed suit at a fast pace: The Gansu Provincial Museum has turned its iconic Bronze Galloping Horse into cute fridge magnets and key chains, while Sanxingdui Museum in Sichuan Province offers blind-boxes with figurines modeled on its mysterious bronze statues, quickly winning favor among Gen Z consumers on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu (RedNote) and Douyin.
Digital empowerment further expands the reach of museums beyond physical exhibition halls. Many major museums have invested in virtual reality, 3D scanning and livestreaming technologies to break geographical and time limits. This digital shift not only allows global audiences to explore collections remotely but also enables interactive learning experiences, such as virtual guided tours, online curation workshops and gamified exhibits. Moreover, livestreamed lectures foster real-time dialogue between experts and the public.
But physical products are only half the story. To shatter geographical and generational barriers entirely, museums are turning to digital tools that bring artifacts to screens around the world. AI-driven animated clips have become a powerful marketing tool for museums and tourism authorities looking to attract visitors, with several nationally celebrated success stories setting industry benchmarks across China.
By using AI, local cultural departments bring ancient relics to life in short videos, making history more approachable while promoting regional culture. For example, a video released by Shaanxi's cultural and tourism bureau features Terracotta Warriors and Tang Dynasty (618-907) figurines dancing to a beat, earning over 50,000 likes online. In Sichuan, a similar video showing swaying Eastern Han pottery figurines garnered more than 100,000 likes shortly after its release.
“I used to think museums were only for scholars and tourists,” Wang said. “Now I feel like history is something I can hold in my hand and even eat.”
英文采写：吕 岩
编 辑：万明子
责任编辑：吕 翎
设计排版：卢一凡
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