The Xuan Paper Museum is located in Xuánchéng, it is the only museum in the Jiangnan region with Xuan paper culture as its core. The museum uses immersive scene restoration, intangible cultural heritage skills performances, and digital interactive devices to present Xuan paper’s unique qualities of “light, soft, tough, and moist” in a three-dimensional way. Entering the museum, you can witness ancient papermaking processes such as copying paper, drying paper, and dyeing paper. Craftsmen use bamboo screens as boats and papermaking slurry as ink, condensing thousands of years of wisdom into a square inch. The featured exhibition area “Paper Art Illusion” uses light and shadow technology to allow audiences to intuitively feel the magical changes of Xuan paper in the watercolor effect. The core exhibition is divided into three sections: “Origin of Xuan Paper,” “Craftsman Spirit,” and “Fragrant Waves in the Sea of Arts.” In the “Origin of Xuan Paper” hall, Tang Dynasty’s “Code of Construction” fragments, Song Dynasty’s “Xuanhe Book Spectrum” and other ancient books and objects are displayed together, revealing the development trajectory of Xuan paper “beginning in the Tang Dynasty, flourishing in the Song and Yuan Dynasties.” Next to the Ming Dynasty’s “Huimo Shueyan” display cabinet, Su Shi’s handwritten notes recorded Xuan paper usage insights, attracting visitors to stop and observe. The museum has a special intangible cultural heritage workshop, where visitors can experience the entire process of “mixing pulp, copying paper, and drying,” feeling the “paper’s lifespan of a thousand years” craftsmanship code. As an important carrier of the Chinese Four Treasures of the Study culture, Xuan paper carries Su Shi’s “poetry and painting are essentially the same” artistic concept, and witnesses Zheng Banqiao’s “difficult to express in words” literary spirit. The museum’s multi-dimensional presentation of objects, literature, and skills allows thousand-year paper art to revitalize in the contemporary era, becoming a cultural bridge connecting ancient and modern times.
