In the exhibition hall with an area of only 2700 square meters, how to let the audience perceive the magnificent epic of the Great Wall running through 0 years? This is a question that Li Zhe, a professor at the School of Architecture at Tianjin University, and his team have been pondering over and over again. During the "May Day" period, the exhibition of the Huangyaguan Great Wall Museum will re-meet with tourists, and the main exhibition hall will be the first to appear, starting from the Great Wall in Tianjin, so that more tourists can know the Great Wall and understand the Great Wall. In order to tell the story of the Great Wall in a limited space, Li Zhe's team carefully studied the narrative method of "seeing the big pattern in a small space", borrowed the way of "storytelling" in the film, and through the narrative logic of "seeing people through things", empowered by digital technology and supported by academic depth, "hoping to make an exhibition that makes visitors feel 'interesting'".

The Tianjin section of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty has a great taste to a light long-term Tibetan knowledge

If you summarize the characteristics of the Tianjin section of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty in one sentence, Li Zhe believes that it should be "big taste to light, long Tibetan knowledge" 15 words. The team is committed to the study of the Great Wall, and has traveled to 0 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, but has not paid much attention to the Great Wall in Tianjin, "It can be said that we have not understood the importance of the Great Wall around us. Li Zhe boldly quoted a sentence from the exhibition, "The Tianjin section of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty is the richest, the most comprehensive type, the most complete route, and the most exquisite site selection among the eastern provinces, and it is the time and space anchor for interpreting the wisdom of ancient China." Here, the reason why we dare to use the word "most" is based on the team's in-depth and comprehensive investigation of the Great Wall of China.

Li Zhe took out a model that was about to be completed, and there were some beacon towers along the Great Wall line on the ridge between the three-dimensional restored Jizhou mountains. Li Zhe pointed to two of the known beacons, then held the model up to eye level, and looked through one of the beacons, the middle ridge tightly blocking the other. "We used a drone to search on the middle ridge that blocked the view, and sure enough, we found the remains of 4 smoke stoves." With the discovery of different types of beacon sites, the unique evidence chain of "beacon site selection" in the Tianjin section of the Ming Great Wall has gradually become complete: in the rugged Middle and Upper Proterozoic landforms, beacon sites are densely arranged and skillfully interspersed, forming an ancient "early warning information highway".

"We carry as much information as possible in an area of 200 square meters, which comes from more than ten years of fieldwork by the team. The more we investigate, the more we understand why the Tianjin section of the Ming Great Wall is a microcosm of the Great Wall. Li Zhe said that most of the cultural heritage knowledge related to the Great Wall in the exhibition hall is on public display for the first time, and these new cognitions not only subvert the public's inherent perception of the Great Wall, but also transform academic achievements into an aesthetic experience that the public can know and feel with an intuitive, easy-to-understand, fresh and interesting curatorial concept. For example, by analyzing the Ming Dynasty's "Chronicles of the Four Towns and Three Gates" and field surveying and mapping data, the curatorial team clearly presented the construction process of the Tianjin section of the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty: in the early days, only simple outposts were built with stones, and in the later stage, they were gradually upgraded to masonry structures. In the exhibition hall, a set of comparative models visualize this evolutionary process, allowing the audience to "touch" the texture of history.

Tell the spirit of the Great Wall with the story of "Four Wells".

According to reports, in this curation, the exhibition hall abandons the grand narrative commonly used in comprehensive exhibitions, and instead shows the moving "big history" of the Great Wall through the details of the lives of the soldiers along the Great Wall. In a scene of "Erdaobian (a defensive line built on the periphery of the Great Wall)", the relics found at the original site, the rolling logs, will be displayed at the foot of the side wall, and the huge rolling logs that have decayed and the side wall displayed in front of them are telling visitors the story of how the heroic soldiers at that time resisted the enemy.

A set of comparative photos of four-eyed wells, two-eye wells and one-eyed wells caught the reporter's eye. Why is the number of boreholes different? Li Zhe said that this question left to tourists is the team's attempt to tell a moving narrative about the spirit of the Great Wall. Visitors will find that wells with different numbers of boreholes are distributed in different places, and the closer to the main river and the lower the altitude, the more boreholes there are. Li Zhe said: "This is because when there is a drought in the mountainous areas, the places with fewer wells have higher altitudes and smaller river basins, and there will be a shortage of water first, and the soldiers stationed there will go to the double-eye wells to fetch water." At its worst, almost all the soldiers had to go to the four-eye wells in the middle camp to get water. This reveals how soldiers toiled to carry dozens of miles to the top of a mountain to survive in times of drought. ”

Li Zhe's team's small studio in the West Garden of Tianjin University's School of Architecture is almost crowded with all kinds of instruments, and on the desk, the completed and soon-to-be-finished models are carefully protected. Many of the models were handmade by team members, graduating students, and even family members. A model showing how soldiers make gunpowder at the foot of an enemy platform has just been made, the part that simulates masonry and the surrounding environment is made by a graduated doctoral student in his spare time, the tools for grinding gunpowder are made by Li Zhe himself according to cultural relics, and the Ming Dynasty border soldiers who are immersed in the work in the model are made of ultra-light clay by Li Zhe's mother. "What is the spirit of the Great Wall? How can we tell the spirit of the Great Wall in an unpreachy way? We are confident that after watching the exhibition, we will feel a sense of pride in our hearts, and if visitors think about it, they will definitely have a new understanding of the spirit of the Great Wall. Li Zhe said.

Break through the boundaries of time and space from the "space-time anchor".

In the face of space constraints, the curatorial team boldly adopted the strategy of "virtual and real integration". In the exhibition hall, a variety of high-tech audio-visual means make the static display panels more vivid: by scanning the QR code next to the exhibits with a mobile phone, you can see the hidden augmented reality "easter eggs" to reveal the stories behind the exhibits; Through drone scanning and 3D modeling, you can immerse yourself in the exhibition hall to "fly" over the entire 28.0 km of the Great Wall in Tianjin...... The digital exhibition is no longer just the icing on the cake, it "moves" the limited exhibition hall to every corner of the Great Wall.

In the exhibition hall, there is a display of smoke stove comparison, the first photo is from the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty at Yumen Pass, and there is a low foundation site standing alone in the endless desert; The second photo is from Inner Mongolia, with a pedestal in the shape of a field, which makes one wonder why it was designed; The third exhibit is the model of the smoke stove of the Ming Great Wall in Tianjin, the design of the cross-shaped flue and the ignition port lifted off the ground, which not only allows everyone to understand the Ming Great Wall here, but also understands the characteristics of the Han Great Wall in Yumen Pass, the beacon tower on the grassland and the smoke stove of the Ming Great Wall. This also makes the exhibition hall an "anchor point of time and space", spreading the story of the Great Wall in different dimensions in all directions.

Through the concept of "time and space anchor", the exhibition hall connects the special status of the Great Wall in Tianjin in the Great Wall system: it is not only the "throat key" of military defense, but also the witness of multi-ethnic integration. After the opening of the exhibition, it will also be linked with the Panshan Scenic Area and the Dule Temple Fair to launch the "Great Wall Cultural Research Line", so that tourists can continue their understanding of the spirit of the Great Wall through cultural and creative products, digital collections and other derivatives after boarding the monuments. Li Zhe said: "At first glance, I am amazed by the delicacy of the Great Wall's defense system; Again, understand the hardships of the border soldiers; Three brushes, feel the spirit of the Great Wall. The upgrading of the exhibition hall of the Huangyaguan Great Wall Museum is about to be completed, and this "miniature Great Wall" will also show an innovative attitude.