The Palace Museum in Beijing reveals digitized version of a 10th-century painting Night Revels of Han Xizai on July 16. [Photo provided to China Daily]

On New Year's Eve, the Palace Museum in Beijing, also known as the Forbidden City, announced a long list of special exhibitions for 2020 to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the founding of what was China's imperial palace from 1420 to 1911.

When the COVID-19 pandemic disturbed the original plan, staff at the museum, which is home for over 1.86 million cultural relics, worked around the clock to prepare for the anniversary with digitization approaches.

On Thursday, through an online video on social media, the museum released its latest digitization effort－an ultra-high definition presentation of a milestone of painting in Chinese fine art history.

The masterpiece Night Revels of Han Xizai was recorded in 400 million pixels, enabling it to be displayed in upcoming exhibitions 40 times larger than actual size, according to Wang Hu, a painting researcher at the museum.

"Without the new technology, it would be impossible for visitors to have this close-up and immersive experience while enjoying a painting," he said. "To protect the paintings, even we researchers are not allowed to get too close. Digitization greatly helps our work as well."

Night Revels of Han Xizai, a realistic portrayal of over 40 people, was created by Gu Hongzhong, a 10th-century artist serving the royal family of the Southern Tang Dynasty (937-976) during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. The 3.3-meter-long rolled painting is just 28.7 centimeters wide.

A common explanation is that the high official Han Xizai, who is portrayed in the painting, threw sumptuous parties to show he had no political ambition and quell the emperor's suspicion.

Nevertheless, many scholars believe this national treasure housed in the Palace Museum was a copy of the original made later, during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

The digitized masterpiece will be showcased in the future using virtual reality equipment in the digital gallery of the museum, though no specific timeline is set.

The original piece of this work had been planned to make a rare public appearance in a display at the Meridian Gate Gallery at the museum for the anniversary. However, administrators at the Palace Museum told China Daily a new schedule for its exhibition has not been decided.

Though the Palace Museum reopened in May as the novel coronavirus waned in China, its indoor areas remained closed to contain the virus. Only 8,000 visitors are now allowed in every day, only a tenth of its normal daily quota. The museum is China's most visited, having attracted over 19 million guests last year.

The museum is also to open its new gallery for porcelains this year. According to Lyu Chenglong, a researcher of porcelains at the museum, more than 1,000 artifacts from throughout Chinese history will be displayed, with some key items to be rotated for highlighted display.

On Thursday, via social media, he released an example of a future digital exhibition of porcelains at the gallery, offering three-dimensional close-ups of details. Digital Palace Museum, an upgraded comprehensive platform on WeChat offering a panoramic view of the museum's digitized resources, also went online on Thursday. Visitors can experience a virtual tour of the compound and view key collections in the museum on mobile devices, even while some parts of the museum are still under lock and key.

"The Palace Museum is an inheritor of traditional Chinese culture," said Wang Xudong, director of the Palace Museum. "The unexpected pandemic surely brought unprecedented challenges for us. But we also thus get a chance to fully awaken our digital resources, better mixing the fruits of academic research and the public's needs."

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