Beijing's Palace Museum has stirred discord among the social media masses with its new marketing campaign featuring whimsical portraits of Chinese emperors and other historical figures striking modern-day poses.
The once stoic emperors and poets now flash "V" signs, sport sunglasses or cutely cradle their smiling faces as part of the Sina Weibo campaign kicked off in November aiming to push the museum's latest line of souvenirs on its Taobao store.
Chinanews.com reports that the museum, widely known as the Forbidden City, has taken in more than 700 million yuan ($109 million) during the first half of 2015 with their new product line, boasting more than 7,000 different souvenir items such as custom jewelry priced up to 468 yuan.
Despite its commercial success, the series was met with mixed reviews on social media. Some argued that spoofing historical figures is inappropriate, calling the pictures "toxic."
However, many applauded the designs. "These pictures are so adorable. I'm using them as my phone's wallpaper," wrote a Net user.
Looking to cash in on the Forbidden City's success, other museums across China are following suit. The Du Fu Thatched Cottage Museum in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, for example, sells smartphone cases and mouse pads bearing the likeness of its namesake Tang Dynasty poet (618-907).
北京故宮博物院新的營銷運動引發了社會媒體的普遍輿論。它把中國古代帝王和別的汗青人物的畫像計劃出了現今新潮的姿態，沖破傳統的嚴正看法，發明了古靈精怪的人物形態特點。
曾不茍言笑，一本正經的天子、墨客們，如今卻擺著閃亮的“V”字鉸剪手，戴著時興的太陽鏡，大概用手托起可愛的笑容----這是都是11月在新浪微博上啟動的故宮營銷運動的一部門，旨在傾銷“故宮淘寶店”最新的懷念品系列。
中國消息網報導稱，故宮博物院，也便是家喻戶曉的紫禁城，跟著它的最新系列產物裏7000多種懷念品的推出，好比高達468元一件的定制珠寶飾品，僅2015年上半年就收入了7億多國民幣(約1.09億美金)。
只管它在貿易上得到了勝利，社會媒體對它的評價卻批駁紛歧。有些人責備辱弄汗青人物是不合適的，稱這些圖片是“有毒的”。
但是，它們照樣得到了很多人的贊成。某網友表現，“這些圖片太可愛了，我把它們設為了我的電話壁紙。”。
看到故宮博物院這類營銷模式獲得了勝利，海內一些別的的博物館也紛紜效仿。好比，處於四川成都的杜甫草堂，發賣著與唐代有名墨客杜甫(618年-907年)同名的智妙手機套和鼠標墊。
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