VR Museum and Website for Displaced Artifacts from Yuanmingyuan
Interdisciplinary research project at Beijing 101 Middle School. Digitally reconstructed selected artifacts and built a museum accessible through VR equipment, bringing cultural heritage displaced overseas back into public view.
Researched collections and archival materials from dozens of leading museums and cultural institutions worldwide, including the National Museum of Slovenia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Collected and organized images, historical documents, and provenance records for over 100 artifacts lost from Yuanmingyuan (the Old Summer Palace). Cross-referenced artifact images with historical archives to trace their origins and circulation histories and establish links between objects and related visual records. Applied art-historical knowledge to analyze the artifacts visually, documented key information including materials, creators, and dates of creation, and compiled the findings into an integrated database consolidating records across multiple institutions.
I used 3D modeling to reconstruct selected artifacts. A suit of imperial armor commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor demanded precise mesh reconstruction, and I carefully re‑created its oxidation marks within material textures. I ultimately converted these models into a VR digital museum. Visitors enter through the ruined Dashuifa Fountain and look upward at a monumental reproduction of Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies (Nüshi Zhen Tu). During a public event at school, I invited fellow students to wear VR headsets. Some used the controllers to rotate artifacts and examine them from different angles, while others read carefully about the artifacts’ historical origins.
