The International Museum Day 2018 celebrates a new theme: Hyperlinked Museums: New Approaches, New Publics.To mark this special day and further elaborate on its theme, World Expo Museum organized the first WE TALK forum on May 20, inviting professors from Fudan University and professionals in the global exhibition industry to share their visions about the present and future of museums.

　　WE TALK Forum, May 20

　　WE TALK Forum, May 20

　　Prof. Xu Yingying, doctoral supervisor, Faculty of Philosophy, Fudan University

　　On May 20 at 9:30 am, WE TALK Fudan Philosophy Forum began its first lecture. Under the overall theme of The World of Museums - Present and Future, Prof. Xu Yingjin of Fudan University shared his research project: From Object Display to Event Reproduction - The Time and Space Logic of Museum Revolution.

　　Prof. Xu believeas that there is a close relationship between museums (the static existence) and events (the temporal and spatial form). The display of cultural relics requires imagination, which requires a certain level of compromise between academic research and public entertainment. The commercialization of museum by-products is still weak in China, though. As Prof. Xu noted, the development of Chinese museums is still restricted by the lack of academic research and the separation between history studies and museology.

　　Prof. Zheng Yi, Master's supervisor, Department of Antiquities and Museology, Fudan University

　　Prof. Zheng Yi of Fudan University, an museology expert, shared her views on the topic: Relevance, Resonance & Empathy: Key to Museums, Enterprises and Spectators.

　　At present, China's museums hold more than 20,000 exhibitions each year, including more than 200,000 educational activities, attracting about 700 million visitors.

　　Prof. Zheng argued that relevance is the cornerstone of museums and their display and education functions. Exhibitions and educational projects must be able to stimulate responses and actions, finally causing their mental and behavioral changes.This is a well-linked and step-by-step process towards the virtuous cycle of museum-public communication. Relevance, resonance and empathy are the core of museum-public communication. Public cultural services such as exhibitions and education projects should be able to tell good stories and keep pace with the times so as to approach the public and eventually shape their perceptions and values.

　　WE TALK Forum

　　The afternoon session of WE TALK forum focused on “The Treasures of World Expos: Witnesses to the Process of Human Civilization”.

　　Ms. Qin Ya, World Expo Museum Exhibition Management Department

　　Ms. Qin Ya, World Expo Museum Exhibition Management Department and planner of the exhibition “Expo Heritage: Exhibits Collections from World Expos”, shared her unique experience and understanding of the role of museums. On the topic of “World Expo Treasure - Appreciating World Expos through collections”, Ms. Qin gave a lot of details of real cases and told the audience real stories of World Expos to explain the relationship between World Expo exhibits and the progress of human civilization.

　　Mr. Yu Li, former deputy curator of the World Expo Museum, described the growth of World Expos and multimedia art and analyzed the performance of multimedia in modern World Expos.

　　WE TALK Forum

　　Mr. Yu Li, former deputy curator of the World Expo Museum

　　For over 160 years, World Expos have grown closely along with multimedia arts. Through examples of multimedia creation, Mr. Yu reviewed the history of World Expos and explained the cosmic space-time relationship and the imprint of human civilization.

　　“WE TALK” is a flagship brand of World Expo Museum for public education."WE" is not only the initialism of World Expo, but also refers to an inclusive group of people.

　　Therefore, WE TALK refers to the World Expo forum and a forum for all of us at the same time. World Expo Museum hopes to borrow TED's successful experience in changing the world with the power of thoughts and share innovations in the city and administration as well as relevant technologies, ideas, art and designs brought about by World Expos through WE TALK. Renowned experts and scholars are invited to speak at the forum to share new visions.It will be a new milestone in public education, and it is in line with of the goal of World Expo Museum to become a public museum.

　　World Expo Museum will offer WE TALK lectures on a wide range of topics. For more information, please follow us at the World Expo Museum website (www.expo-museum.org) and our official accounts at Weibo and WeChat.