Yayuan Liu is a PhD student at the University of Stirling. Her main interest is in the field of translation studies, specific to tourism translation. Her project has explored the theme of interactivity in museum materials. It used the British Museum as a case study to analyse how the interactive themes are created on the English website and recreated on the Chinese website. It has been argued that the designers of the website assume that the readers from the UK value higher interactivity in the museum. The audience of Chinese tourists, on the other hand, value a lower degree of interactivity and tend to choose passive appreciation activities in museums, which may be related to Confucian values of self-reflective and cultivation. 

There has been an increasing focus on the theme of interactivity in museums (Adams & Moussouri, 2002; Guo et al., 2021), which aims to enhance visitor engagement. As one of the most popular museums in the world (Statista Research Department, 2024), the British Museum has led many of these efforts. However, the preference for the interactivity theme in a museum can vary among individuals. Some people prefer the use of virtual reality (VR) in museums, while others believe that physical interaction with exhibits, such as touching them, is essential for an interactive experience (Adams & Moussouri, 2002). Also, the representation and perception of interactivity in museums can vary greatly across different cultures. Therefore, my project analyses the websites of museums in two different cultural contexts and languages, namely English and Chinese, to examine how the roles of museums are framed in relation to the notion of interactivity to create an appealing destination image. 

The English website of the British Museum constructs an image that the museum delivers an educative leisure experience with a strong focus on interactivity: there are many activities and tourists can enjoy interactive and engaging events. For example, in the exhibition ‘Legion life in the Roman army’ (https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/legion-life-roman-army), which shows life in the Roman army from the soldier’s perspective, there is an activity called ‘try on a Roman soldier’s helmet’, shown in Image 1. It encourages children to engage with hands-on facilities that replicate the life of soldiers, dating back as far as the sixth century BC. The interactive theme is assumed favourably by the designer who may support the idea that tourists from the UK prefer ‘experience-based travel’ rather than ‘destination-based travel’ (Oxford Economics & Amadeus, 2010, p. 28). 

However, the theme of interactivity is not assumed favourably by all cultures. According to Ahmed et al. (2009) and Li (2024), from most Chinese visitors’ perspective, they tend to prefer passive appreciation, with an emotional reverence for artefacts in museums. These preferences can be traced back to broader philosophical roots. Confucian values place a strong emphasis on self-reflection (Li, 2015) and cultivating stillness (Li, 2025). Most people who are from mainland China are more or less influenced by these values; and thus, this group of people tend to prefer looking with quiet contemplation. In contrast, people in the UK are influenced by constructivist learning theories, which view knowledge as actively constructed through experience, not being transmitted, but with mental and bodily action (Hooper-Greenhill, 2000); therefore, they value questioning and hands-on learning. 

Based on such cultural differences, the design of the Chinese website of the British Museum foregrounds passive appreciation with the assumption that it will meet the expectations of the Chinese audience. For example, Image 1, related to the event ‘Legion: life in the Roman army’, shows what visitors can do to interact with the exhibition theme. However, the picture is deleted from the Chinese website of the event exhibition (https://britishmuseum.org.cn/blog/life-in-the-Roman-army), maybe because it is considered unappealing when creating the website. Instead, it displays a bronze helmet, as shown in Image 2. This indicates a passive interaction, because there is no sign of activities that viewers can do, but they are invited to observe and appreciate the item without expecting any responses. 

This form of redesign—characterised by passive appreciation—does not emerge in a vacuum; rather, it more or less follows existing exhibition practices in some Chinese museums that adopt similar display strategies. For example, Image 3 is from the exhibition ‘意大利之源——古罗马文明展’ (The Origins of Italy – Ancient Roman Civilization Exhibition) (https://www.chnmuseum.cn/portals/0/web/zt/202207glmwm/) in the National Museum of China. It is a national-level museum and is responsible for representing and preserving historical and cultural heritage (中国国家博物馆 (the National Museum of China), 2022). This event shares the focus on Roman themes, which is the same as ‘Legion: life in the Roman army’, and thus it provides a basis for comparison. The image occupies a prominent position as the homepage of the event. It presents a partial figure of the statue The Farnese Hercules, focusing on the upper body. The statue avoids a direct address to the viewers, which lacks a relation of affinity with the audience (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2020). This shows the tendency of passive appreciation. 

To sum up, my project has explored the theme of interactivity in museum materials. It used the British Museum as a case study to analyse how the interactive themes are created on the English website and recreated on the Chinese website. It has been argued that the designers of the website assume that the readers from the UK value higher interactivity in the museum. The audience of Chinese tourists, on the other hand, value a lower degree of interactivity and tend to choose passive appreciation activities in museums, which may be related to Confucian values of self-reflective and cultivation.