About Exhibits

The Side Gate

The side gate is the ship's main entrance. When on deck, visitors can experience an amazing view and hear the sounds of the sea.
Audio effects, such as crashing waves and seagulls, and the scent of sea spray fill the air to produce an immersive experience.

The "Bon Voyage!" Projection Wall

Tong-an ships were originally used as merchant ships. However, due to their ease of operation, they gradually became used by the navy during the late Qianlong Era. During the Jiaqing Reign, the Qing Court began using large Tong-an ships to suppress pirates and maintain naval superiority. After William Pitt Amherst's arrival in China, Emperor Jiaqing rebuilt the naval base in Tianjin with Tong-an ships.

The exhibit "Bon Voyage!" uses animation elements styled from antique paintings to bring to life the historical development of the Tong-an ships.

Cross-over Dialogue: Holographic Projection

Holographic projection is one of today's most advanced methods for projection. It uses a fine silk screen or a high reflectance transparent film to enable viewers to see the foreground projection more clearly.

"Cross-over Dialogue" lets virtualised moving images of Emperor Jiaqing, Commander General Li Changgeng, and the pirate Cai Qian tell their stories so audiences can learn about them and their time.

1. Interaction：

1. When someone approaches, the names of three historical figures appear: Emperor Jiaqing, Commander General Li Changgeng, and the pirates Cai Qian. By gesturing, the viewer can select an interlocutor.

2. Once selected, the historical figure wakes up to tell his story.

Deconstructing the Tong-an Ship

This laser-detector-controlled interactive installation allows the viewer to disassemble and then reassemble the ship, letting viewers quickly discover the major working parts of Chinese warships.

Tong-an Ship Scale Model

The Tong-an ships were sea vessels that emerged during the middle part of the Qing Dynasty. Not only were they widely used by civilians but they were also used by pirates and the government. They eventually became the most important force in the Qing Navy. Prior to the arrival of steamships, Tong-an ships best represented traditional Chinese sailboats. The NPM's collection of Diagram of the Tong-an Ship Ji and Diagram of Tong-an Ship No. 1 are important pictorial records. Not only were the ships in the diagrams the biggest among the Tong-an ship family, they were also class 1 and class 2 warships, which were the most heavily armed. The highly detailed outline sketch and colouring of the two Tong-an ships and the corresponding official memoranda attached make them not only a rare artifact in naval history but also a product representing a field of study that is yet to be explored by Taiwanese and naval historians.

After NPM's project team provided historical data, it hired senior ship model craftsman Mr Zeng Shuming to help build the Tong-an ship model.

See Through Space and Time

This 9-view stereographic animation explains the components of a Tong-an ship by using a 47" naked-eye 3D display. Viewers do not need to wear 3D glasses to see the show.

The Navigation Chart Interactive Tabletop

The Coastal Defense Diagram of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces and the Complete Map of Seven Coastal Provinces are the two most typical coastal defense charts of their ages. However, over 10 metres in length each, they are too lengthy to be fully displayed in a museum room.
The NPM created interactive table using multiple-resolution display and multi-touch control in order to highlight selected areas from any chart. The viewer can zoom in or out of any area of interest from the two charts for detailed viewing. The system may also explain the charts to the viewer.

The Augmented Reality Clothes Changing System

Qing officials used to wear uniforms with decorations assigned strictly according to their ranking. You can tell an officer's rank by seeing his chest and back patches. When a visitor enters the sensor area, an officer's decorated uniform will be randomly displayed and put upon him. The ranking of that uniform will be displayed on the panel and the viewer's picture wearing that virtual uniform will be uploaded to our Facebook page for download.

Breaking Waves

"Breaking Waves" is a fully immersive interactive Tong-an ship simulator based on the CAVE (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) architecture. It shows viewers the main components of the Tong-an ship, and enables viewers to sail the ship, fire the guns, and chase the pirates in its interaction zone under the system's instructions.

Cloud Gallery

Thanks to cloud technology, we can see the NPM's current exhibits and certain rarely seen masterpieces without actually visiting the target site.
The Cloud Gallery displays the art using a massive screen comprised of six 46" monitors.　To change items, the NPM can update the server remotely.

Paint and Sail your Tong-an Ship

Created by CityU's School of Creative Media, this interactive installation invites children to digitally paint and colour a Tong-an ship on a tablet. When finished, they can send their ships out to sail on a vast digital South China Sea.