Buddhist scriptures written in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907); landscape and character paintings dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); paintings by contemporary master artists; and a map for various art schools in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region – Jiudianshui Art Museum brings visitors a Chinese art tour with its opening exhibition.

Jiudianshui is different than other art museums in China.

The 1,000-square-meter museum is funded and operated by a gaming firm. It aims to propagate traditional Chinese painting with digitalized formats covering video, virtual reality, animation, game design and high-quality merchandise development.

The Chinese painting community faces challenges due to a lack of understanding and inheritance among young generations. The majority of master Chinese artists are over the age of 60, said Chen Yulin, QuJia Entertainment's president.

QuJia's parent company is FunPlus, the top Chinese game developer in terms of income and traffic in overseas markets. Its titles, such as "State of Survival," have been among the 10 best-selling games in 144 countries and regions. It also sponsors an eSports team based in Shanghai.

Digital formats are displayed on the museum's second floor alongside original masters' Chinese paintings with modern computing graphic technologies, such as flying birds in front of a smoky mountain.

QuJia engineers designed these cutting-edge technologies and have vowed to incorporate "original Chinese culture and art elements" into future games that will be played throughout the world.

Chen also led a team that developed a digital cultural-relics app, covering Chinese cultural-relics data, multimedia, interactive displays and art trading. The app, which has a large demo screen in the museum, has been used to digitalize more than 10,000 cultural treasures through partnerships with about 300 museums around the world including Feitian, or the flying apsaras, found in the frescoes of Dunhuang's Mogao Grottoes.

Visitors can view more than 80 original Chinese treasures in the "Masters Painting and Calligraphy since the Ming Dynasty" exhibition – the museum's debut exhibition – including a Buddhist script that dates back to the Tang Dynasty and paintings of famous artists, such as Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), Ren Bonian (1840-1895) and Liu Haisu (1896-1994).

The ancient paintings are displayed until the end of January.

Jiudianshui, meaning "Nine Point Water," represents the "open to all rivers" spirit of Shanghai.

Exhibition info

Dates: Through March 27

Admission: Free

Venue: Jiudianshui Art Museum

九点水美术馆

Address: Bldg C2, 198 Yizhou Road

宜州路198号C2幢1-2层