On the morning of May 18, the opening ceremony of the Chinese main event of the International Museum Day 2024 was held in the Qin-Han Hall of Shaanxi History Museum. Li Qun, vice minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and Zhao Gang, governor of Shaanxi Provincial People's Government, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches, while Ms. Emma Nardi, president of ICOM, made a video message. Mr. Fang Hongwei, member of the Standing Committee of Shaanxi Provincial Committee and Secretary of Xi'an Municipal Committee, Mr. Tan Xuoxiang, Vice Mayor of Beijing Municipal People's Government, and Mr. Xu Mingfei, Vice Governor of Shaanxi Provincial People's Government attended the opening ceremony. Luo Wenli, Deputy Director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, presided over the opening ceremony.

Li Qun pointed out in his speech that over the past year, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly entered cultural museums and other venues, made a series of important discussions and instructions and instructions. The national culture and museum system conscientiously implement the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, in-depth promotion of the reform and development of museums, China's museum cause to achieve new results. He emphasized that we should carry out Xi Jinping's cultural thought in depth, and earnestly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's series of important expositions and instructions on cultural relics and museums, and put the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee into practice. To optimize the layout of the system, to promote the construction of museums of different regions, levels, attributes and types in a coordinated manner, and to build a museum system that is rich in types, diversified in subject matter, and inclusive and equal. It is necessary to strengthen research and display, focusing on China's million years of human history, 10,000 years of cultural history, and more than 5,000 years of civilization history, displaying the outstanding characteristics of Chinese civilization, and continuously launching high-quality cultural supplies to satisfy the cultural needs of the masses and enhance the spiritual strength of the people. To strengthen the function of education, enhance historical knowledge, artistic aesthetics and popular science education, organically integrate into the national education system, deepen the mechanism of cooperation between libraries and schools, create a place of lifelong education for the people, and forge a strong sense of community among the Chinese nation. To expand openness and exchange, uphold an open and tolerant attitude, take the initiative to learn from and absorb all the excellent civilization achievements created by mankind, and build a modern civilization for the Chinese nation. Promote Chinese culture to go out, present ancient and modern China in a real, three-dimensional and comprehensive way, tell a good Chinese story and spread the Chinese voice.

Zhao Gang pointed out that General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the development of the museum business, has been to the Xi'an Museum, Hanzhong Museum and other cultural and biological units to visit, and made important instructions for strengthening the protection and utilization of cultural relics, and do a good job in the new era of the museum work to point out the direction of progress, provides an important guideline. Shaanxi will take this main event as an opportunity to study and implement Xi Jinping's cultural thought in depth, continue to improve the reasonable layout, distinctive features, fully functional museum system, launch a number of high-quality thematic displays and exhibitions and cultural activities, and do a good job in the museum of public cultural services of high quality. It will increase the protection and inheritance of cultural relics, in-depth implementation of major archaeological research projects, combined with the cultivation of trillion-level cultural and tourism industry clusters, to create more cultural relics cross-border integration platform, promote international exchanges and cooperation, and further expand the influence of Chinese culture.

Since 2009, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and provincial people's governments have jointly organized the Chinese main venue activities for International Museum Day, which has been successfully held for 16 consecutive times. This year's Chinese main venue activities were co-hosted by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the People's Government of Shaanxi Province, and organized by the Shaanxi Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics, the Xi'an Municipal People's Government, the China Association of Museums, and the China Cultural Relics Newspaper, with the assistance of the Shaanxi Historical Museum, and the Administrative Committee of Xixian New District.

At the opening ceremony, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage released the latest data on the development of China's museum industry in 2023, adding 268 new museums for the record throughout the year, bringing the number of museums for the record to 6,833 nationwide, organizing more than 40,000 displays and exhibitions, more than 380,000 educational activities, and hosting audiences for 1.29 billion person-times. Officially launched the 2024 “Reading China in Museums——Promoting Chinese Excellent Traditional Culture and Cultivating Socialist Core Values” thematic exhibition promotion activities, announced the fifth batch of 123 national-level museums, the 21st (2023) “Top 10 National Museum Displays” and the “Top 10 National Museum Exhibitions”, announced the list of “Top Ten National Museum Display and Exhibition Excellence”, held the awarding ceremony of the National Collaborative Research Center for Revolutionary Cultural Relics, opened the Qin-Han Museum of Shaanxi History and unveiled the series of exhibitions on “Qin-Han Civilization”. It also announced that the main venue of the International Museum Day 2025 will be held in Beijing.

In addition to the opening ceremony, the event was complemented by a thematic forum, a youth forum, a curators' forum and an international symposium on Qin-Han civilization. Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, where the main venue is located, also organized a series of distinctive and wonderful display exhibitions, academic seminars, public interaction and cultural heritage promotion activities. Cities all over the country, in accordance with the unified deployment of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, thousands of activities with rich content and diverse forms were carried out around the theme of International Museum Day to build a bridge for interaction between museums and the public.

The opening ceremony was attended by the Central Internet Information Office, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, responsible comrades from provincial cultural relic departments and museums, relevant units of Shaanxi Province and Xi'an Municipality, experts and scholars in the field of museums from France, the United States, Australia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China, and the public.