A Chinese Tower Becomes a Laboratory for the Future of Heritage

A global experiment in Nanjing explores how technology is reshaping the relationship between people and the past.

NANJING, China, Aug. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- For centuries, the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing was admired as one of the wonders of the medieval world. Built during the Ming dynasty, its glazed exterior and illuminated lanterns made it one of the most remarkable sights encountered by travellers to China. Long before photography or social media, it helped shape how the outside world imagined China.

Today, the challenge is no longer how to rebuild the tower. It is how to make it matter again.

The original tower was destroyed in 1856. Nearly 160 years later, a contemporary interpretation was built on its historic site. Today, the new tower is attracting international attention for a different reason. It has become a testing ground for one of the biggest questions facing museums worldwide: how can cultural heritage remain meaningful in the digital age?

To explore that question, the Great Bao'en Temple Ruins Museum launched the Digital Heritage Global Innovator Contest, an initiative supported by UNESCO that invites young innovators from around the world to rethink how people experience cultural heritage.

This year's brief was unusual. Rather than designing a new exhibition or restoring the monument, participants were asked to rethink a centuries-old ritual: the tower's nightly lighting ceremony. Could a tradition rooted in history become something that visitors actively shape rather than simply watch?

After two months of online collaboration, mentoring and judging, 36 young innovators from nine countries were selected from nearly 700 applicants worldwide to form nine interdisciplinary teams and develop their ideas on site in Nanjing this July.

Since its launch in 2024, the Digital Heritage programme has brought together more than 1,500 young innovators from 22 countries over three annual editions, creating an international network of designers, technologists and heritage practitioners exploring new approaches to preserving and reimagining cultural heritage.

"The Porcelain Tower has long been a symbol of cultural exchange, and its significance has never disappeared," says Wang Wenxi, Director of the Great Bao'en Temple Ruins Museum. "Our role is not only to preserve heritage, but to create opportunities for each generation to engage with it in new ways."

The experiment mirrors a broader shift taking place across the museum world. As artificial intelligence, immersive media and interactive technologies become increasingly accessible, cultural institutions are asking a different question. Preservation alone is no longer enough. Heritage also needs to be experienced, interpreted and, increasingly, participated in.

For Niall Hill, a lecturer at UCL and a member of the Digital Heritage mentoring team, technology is only the final step. "Contestants need to walk through a place, touch it, use their senses and experience it," he says. "Through those experiences, they begin to imagine how those moments might translate into digital experiences, and how people might interact with heritage in entirely new ways."

Among the projects, one proposal stood out. Echoes of a Thousand Lights, created by a team from China, Pakistan and Vietnam, transformed the mythical guardians carved into the tower's glazed archways into interactive companions. Visitors carrying lantern-shaped devices could trigger light and sound responses, allowing the monument to respond as they moved through the space. The project was awarded first prize for its reinterpretation of a historic ritual as a shared public experience.

Other projects approached the question from different cultural perspectives. One installation used participants' heartbeats to synchronise shared light ceremony between strangers. Another reinterpreted the maritime journeys of Zheng He through an interactive digital landscape inspired by the Grain Tree, exploring historical connections between China and the wider world.

The approach is not without its questions. As museums embrace digital technologies, critics have warned that immersive experiences can easily become entertainment, distracting visitors from the history they are intended to reveal.

For organisers in Nanjing, however, technology is not the destination. It is simply another way of helping people build emotional connections with heritage.

The experiment also reflects a broader ambition. Cities with deep historical roots increasingly face the challenge of keeping heritage relevant to younger generations. Nanjing is using its most recognisable cultural landmark as a place to test new forms of public participation, international collaboration and creative experimentation.

Six centuries ago, the lights of the Porcelain Tower helped shape how the world imagined China.

Today, the tower is doing something different. It is helping museums, designers and young innovators imagine what cultural heritage could become.