For a long time, major museums in Malaysia have been important tourist destinations for both domestic and international visitors, and have been a significant growth point for Malaysia's tourism industry. The outbreak of the epidemic has caused countries all over the world to block their borders, making it difficult for transnational personnel to move; Malaysia's domestic restrictions continue to be introduced, and working from home has become mainstream. In this situation, Malaysia's tourism industry has suffered a heavy blow, and the cultural and museum industry, which is highly tied to it, has not been spared.

From 2020 to 2021, Malaysia's cultural and museum industry has encountered a "Waterloo" in its development history. Major museums have been forced to close multiple times, resulting in a sharp decline in visitor numbers, a significant reduction in offline exhibitions and various promotional and educational activities, and obstacles to external exchanges and cooperation. Faced with the impact of the epidemic, many museums have shifted their focus from "offline" to "online", fully leveraging the advantages of modern information technology to minimize the impact of the epidemic. Given the particularity of the cultural and museum industry itself, although online activities can to some extent reduce the impact of the epidemic, the effect will inevitably be greatly reduced. At the same time, the impact of the epidemic has to some extent exposed some hidden problems behind Malaysia's cultural and museum industry, which need to be further addressed by relevant management agencies and major museums themselves in their future development.

Overview of the Development of Malaysia's Cultural and Creative Industry

Museums are the most important institutions for collecting, protecting, restoring, and displaying a country's or ethnic cultural heritage. They not only shoulder the responsibility of cultural inheritance, but also serve as important windows for providing historical and cultural education to the general public. The cultural and museum industry in Malaysia can be traced back to the British colonial period, and the Perak Museum, founded in 1883, was the first museum in Malaysian history. The museum is located in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia, and its establishment was initially proposed by Sir Hugh Low.

Sir Hugh Lowe was the fourth British governor of Perak and a renowned naturalist. In order to gain a better understanding of the local society, economy, culture, and way of life in the Malay Peninsula for the convenience of colonial rule, under the direction of Sir Hugh Law, Leonard Wray Junior, who was then the Director of the Lalu Mountain Management Agency, was responsible for collecting all materials related to history, society, economy, ethnology, geology, botany, and zoology. Leonard also became the first curator of the Perak Museum.

In 1888, Raja Charles Brooke, the second white man from Sarawak, established the Sarawak Museum in Kuching. In 1906, the Selangor Museum was established. The museum was almost destroyed by an air force bomb attack on March 10, 1945, towards the end of World War II, until the establishment of the Federation of Malaysia and its reconstruction on the original site.

After Malaysia's independence, the cultural and museum industry developed rapidly, with the number of museums rapidly expanding from three during the colonial period to 236. According to different regulatory authorities, Malaysian museums can be divided into four types: federal museums under Jabatan Muzium Malaysia, state museums under various state museum bureaus, public institution museums under other government agencies or institutions, and private museums under non-governmental organizations. Some people also divide Malaysian museums into comprehensive museums (mainly focusing on historical and cultural exhibits), themed museums (such as archaeology, forests, rice, art, technology, etc.), royal corridors (mainly featuring imperial collections), and memorial halls (focusing on the display of specific figures or events) based on the types of exhibits displayed in museums themselves and their functions.

In addition, Malaysia also has a special group of museums, which are established by public universities on their respective campuses as auxiliary means for teaching and research. According to statistics from the Jawatankuasa Muzium dan Galeri Universiti Awam Malaysia (MyMUSE), as of 2019, 15 out of 20 public universities in Malaysia have established their own or affiliated museums. Among them, the University of Malaya started the earliest. In 1954, the University of Malaya received a bronze Buddha head from Thailand's Qing Dynasty donated by Kun KraSSri Nimanamhasminda, which became a symbol of the establishment of the Muzium Seni Asia Museum of Asian Civilization at the University of Malaya. In terms of the number of museums in universities, the National University of Malaysia has an advantage, with a total of 17 museums under its jurisdiction, more than double that of the second ranked University of Malaya (8) (see Table 1).

表1 截至2019年马来西亚公立高校下属的博物馆数量情况

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Table 1: The number of museums under public universities in Malaysia as of 2019

Among the numerous museums in Malaysia, the 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Board (see Table 2) have relatively sufficient funding, more professional personnel, and more scientific and reasonable management, thus developing relatively quickly. They play a prominent role in driving Malaysia's tourism industry, as well as in education, scientific research, cultural relic protection and restoration.

The Malaysian Museums Board is a federal government agency under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia. Under the leadership of this department, the Malaysian Museums Board is committed to improving the professionalization level of the cultural and museum industry, consolidating scientific research, education, collection protection and exhibition, and expanding international cooperation. Together with its 22 federal museums, it actively carries out the collection and protection of national historical, cultural, and natural collections. While managing the 22 federal museums under its jurisdiction, the Malaysian Museums Board provides professional advice to state, institutional, and private museums to jointly promote the development of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry.

表2 马来西亚博物馆局下辖的22个联邦博物馆名单

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Table 2 List of 22 Federal Museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Board

II. Impact of the COVID-19 on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry

The occurrence of the COVID-19 has undoubtedly had a tremendous impact on countries and industries all over the world, and the cultural and museum industry is no exception. In May 2020, according to survey data from UNESCO and the International Council of Museums (ICOM), 85000 museums were closed after the outbreak of the pandemic, accounting for nearly 90% of the total number of museums worldwide. Moreover, nearly 13% of museums worldwide may permanently close. The cultural and museum industry in Malaysia has also suffered a huge impact. According to various data released by the Malaysian Museums Board, this impact is comprehensive and highly challenging.

On March 16, 2020, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahidol announced through a live television broadcast that Malaysia has implemented the "Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan" (PKP), which prohibits all movements and gatherings of the domestic population, including religious, sports, social, and cultural activities. 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Authority have announced temporary closure until June 16, 2020 when they will reopen to the public. Since then, due to the fluctuating domestic epidemic situation in Malaysia, museums have been open and closed intermittently, and the impact of the epidemic continues. Overall, the impact of the epidemic on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is mainly reflected in three aspects: a sharp decline in the number of visitors, a significant reduction in offline exhibitions and various promotional and educational activities, and obstacles to external exchanges and cooperation.

（1） The number of visitors has sharply decreased

Malaysia has abundant tourism resources, and the tourism industry is one of the important sources of national income, which is crucial for Malaysia's economic development. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, there were tens of millions of tourists from around the world visiting Malaysia every year, and the driving effect on Malaysia's shopping, dining, accommodation, leisure, entertainment, employment and other aspects cannot be underestimated. For example, in 2019, its tourism revenue accounted for 15.9% of the gross domestic product. In addition, data released by the Malaysian National Bureau of Statistics shows that the total number of tourists entering Malaysia has exceeded 20 million annually since 2008, reaching a historical high of 27.4 million in 2014 and 26.1 million in 2019. However, the outbreak of the epidemic has led to a sharp decrease in the number of tourists visiting Malaysia, and the surrounding tourism industries have also been greatly affected. In 2020, there were 4.3 million inbound tourists from Malaysia, a year-on-year decrease of 83.4%. Based on historical statistics, this is the most severe impact on Malaysia's tourism industry in history. The most direct impact on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is undoubtedly the sharp decline in visitor numbers.

Taking the statistics of the Malaysian Museums Authority as an example, from 2016 to 2019, the total number of visitors (including outreach/events) to the 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Authority was 2.7 million to 3.2 million per year. At the beginning of 2020, the epidemic directly led to a cliff like decline in the number of museum visitors that year, from 2782578 in 2019 to 563851 in 2020, with a decline rate of as high as 79.7% (see Table 3). Although the Malaysian Museum Authority has not yet released visitor data for major museums in 2021, the Director of the Authority stated that the total number of visitors to the 22 museums under the Malaysian Museum Authority in 2021 was 359265. Compared to 2020, it has decreased by approximately 36.3%.

表3 2016～2020年马来西亚博物馆局下辖的22个联邦博物馆访客（包括外展/活动）数量情况

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Table 3: Number of visitors (including outreach/events) to 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Board from 2016 to 2020

From a nationality perspective, Malaysian residents are the main visitors to major museums. This is partly due to the inherent location advantage of local residents, and partly because museums themselves have educational functions, which can continuously attract local primary and secondary schools to carry out group visits and learning activities. However, under the epidemic, the government's "action restriction orders" have followed one after another, with museums closing, students replacing offline teaching with online courses, and members of society working from home. For Malaysia's cultural and museum industry, this is tantamount to "pulling out the plug".

In addition to Malaysian visitors, foreign tourists are also frequent visitors to museums. Taking the National Museum of Malaysia as an example, in 2019, the total number of overseas visitors was 156262; In 2020, affected by the epidemic, countries all over the world have blocked their borders, and the flow of transnational personnel is extremely difficult. In this case, the total number of foreign visitors to the Malaysian National Museum is only 31265. According to statistics from the Malaysian Museum Authority, from 2016 to 2020, China was the country with the highest number of overseas visitors to the National Museum of Malaysia. Although Malaysia announced the reopening of its borders on April 1, 2022, the likelihood of a large number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia in the short term is relatively low based on the current situation. The impact of the epidemic on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry, especially on the number of visitors, is difficult to eliminate in the short term.

（2） Offline exhibitions and various promotional and educational activities have significantly decreased

The continuous impact of the COVID-19 on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is reflected in the dramatic reduction of offline exhibitions and various publicity and education activities, and many planned activities have to be temporarily postponed or directly cancelled due to the epidemic. Although many museums and their related management agencies try to hold promotional activities online instead of offline to reduce the impact of the epidemic, the effectiveness of online activities is inevitably greatly reduced compared to offline activities.

Taking the Malaysian Museums Board as an example, in 2018, the relevant departments of the board held a total of 12 exhibition events. In 2019, they held a total of 8 events, but in 2020, the number dropped sharply to 2 events. On January 11, 2020, the "2020 Malaysia Museums Board Major Exhibition and 2020 Malaysia Tourism Year Concert" was held at the National Theatre of Malaysia. The event aims to promote the major exhibitions and other projects planned by the Malaysia Museums Board in 2020, in order to attract more domestic and foreign tourists. However, two months later, due to the impact of the epidemic, most of the originally planned exhibition activities were forced to be cancelled, and only two exhibition activities were successfully held, namely the "Global Epidemic Exhibition: Pandemics, Epidemics and Community Diseases" (Pameran Wabak Sedunia: Pandemik, Epidemik dan Endemik) held in the atrium of the National Museum from December 21, 2020 to March 31, 2021, and the "Golden Power Exhibition" (Pameran Kuasa Emas) held in Hall 1 of the Malaysian Museum Authority from December 21, 2020 to June 21, 2021.

In addition, compared to 2019, there was a significant reduction in offline events held by the 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Board in 2020. The impact of the epidemic on offline activities related to museums is evident, both in terms of the total number of events and the number of events in individual museums, with the most significant impact on the National Museum of Malaysia. In 2019, the National Museum of Malaysia held 6 exhibitions, 11 "Treasure Hunt Activities" (Aktiviti Mencari Harta Karun), 18 "Exploring the National Museum Activities" (Aktiviti Lembaran Kerja, Lihat&Cari dan Terokai Muzium Negara), and 12 other events. In 2020, which was shrouded in the epidemic, the National Museum of Malaysia only held 3 exhibitions and 2 fitness activities, and planned other similar promotional and educational activities, all of which were forced to be cancelled due to the epidemic (see Table 4).

表4 2019～2020年马来西亚博物馆局下辖的22个联邦博物馆举办的线下活动数量情况

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Table 4: The number of offline events held by 22 federal museums under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Museums Board from 2019 to 2020

（3） External communication and cooperation are hindered

The impact of the COVID-19 on Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is also reflected in foreign exchanges and cooperation. Before the outbreak of the epidemic, the Malaysian Museums Board and major museums actively cooperated with educational, scientific research, cultural and other institutions internally, fully leveraging the role of museums in scientific research, education, cultural protection and inheritance; Actively participate in international conferences and courses to enhance the professional level of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry. The COVID-19 not only makes exchanges between domestic institutions difficult, but also affects international exchanges and cooperation. Although online communication has become the norm, it inevitably has certain limitations. For example, joint exhibition activities cannot be held online and can only be postponed or postponed.

Universities have always been important partners for Malaysian cultural and museum institutions, which is also an important manifestation of the role played by cultural and museum institutions in the field of scientific research. In 2019, the Malaysian Museum Authority received and approved 70 research applications from 21 universities. The occurrence of the COVID-19 has made it impossible for many researchers to carry out field research, which has also led to the nearly halving of research applications submitted by Malaysian university researchers (including students) to the Malaysian Museum Bureau in 2020. The Malaysian Museum Bureau only received 39 applications from 14 universities. In addition, the "Inspiring Students, Innovating Museums" (IPIM) project, jointly launched by the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the Malaysian Museum Board under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has been temporarily put on hold due to the impact of the pandemic.

The "Inspiration from Students, Innovation in Museums" project aims to encourage primary and secondary school students to visit museums, cultivate their interest in history subjects, and deepen their understanding of national history and culture. This is not only a change in educational teaching methods, but also a support for the "National Philosophy of Education" (Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsan) policy. As early as May 2015, the Malaysian Ministry of Education and the Department of Museums collaborated to launch a pilot project for this project (Projek Rintis IPIM). On April 3, 2019, the project was officially launched. On the same day that the project was launched, the Malaysian Museum Authority held a one month exhibition titled "Student Inspiration, Museum Innovation" (Pameran Ispirasi Pelajar, Inovasi Muzium) at the National Museum Exhibition Hall to further introduce the detailed content of the project to all parties. The exhibition attracted a total of 74693 visitors. From July 15th to 20th of the same year, the Malaysian Museum Authority held the "Student Inspiration, Museum Innovation" exhibition at the Sabah Museum, promoting the project to the East Malaysia region. The exhibition once again attracted 96217 visitors.

After preliminary promotion and preparation, 2020 is considered the peak year of the "Student Inspiration, Museum Innovation" project, and the application channel for participation has been opened for the first time. However, the "action restriction order" that came into effect on March 18, 2020, as well as the ban on extracurricular educational activities, meant that the project was temporarily suspended, and the two applications received by the National Museum and the Sarawak Museum earlier this year had to be rejected.

In addition to the obstacles in communication and cooperation with domestic institutions, the connections between Malaysian cultural and museum institutions and other countries have also been greatly affected by the pandemic. Taking mutual visits as an example, in 2019, the Malaysian Museum Bureau received a total of 7 official visits from foreign guests (see Table 5), effectively expanding the exchanges and cooperation between Malaysian cultural and museum institutions and relevant foreign institutions. In 2020, the Malaysian Museum Authority only received two foreign visitors, namely the representative of the Egyptian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on January 24, 2020 and the representative of the Venezuelan Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on February 6, 2020. According to the visit time, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia in March 2020, the visit activities have been completely suspended.

表5 2019年马来西亚博物馆局接待外宾来访情况

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Table 5: Reception of Foreign Visitors by the Malaysian Museum Authority in 2019

In addition, there is a sharp contrast in the number of international conferences and courses attended by Malaysian cultural and museum institutions. In 2019, personnel from the Malaysian Museum Authority participated in a total of 20 international conferences and courses, visiting countries including China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Egypt, and Kazakhstan. In 2020, the number of international conferences and courses attended by personnel from the Malaysian Museum Authority decreased sharply to 4. Among these only 4 conferences, 3 were held in February 2020, and the remaining 1 was held online after the outbreak of the epidemic. Although online methods have provided communication channels and spaces to some extent, reducing the impact of the epidemic, exhibition activities cannot be held online. For example, since 2019, the Malaysian Museum Authority has repeatedly discussed with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to jointly hold a Pharaoh Culture Exhibition, but the plan was ultimately temporarily shelved due to the impact of the pandemic.

The problems faced by the development of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry

The Malaysian cultural and museum industry is highly linked to the tourism industry, which is evident both from the role positioning of Malaysian cultural and museum institutions themselves and from their actual actions. On the one hand, Malaysian cultural and museum institutions are making efforts to attract visitors by organizing various special exhibitions and promotional activities, especially in the face of the urgent need for the recovery of Malaysia's tourism industry after experiencing the impact of the epidemic. Relevant institutions led by the Malaysian Museums Board are actively promoting special activities, such as the "Kempen Kembali ke Muzium" event, in order to contribute to the recovery of the domestic tourism industry; On the other hand, the impact of the epidemic has led to a sharp decline in the number of visitors, and the cultural and museum industry, which is highly tied to the tourism industry, is inevitably greatly affected. The impact of this epidemic has also exposed the problem of insufficient resilience in Malaysia's cultural and museum industry. Therefore, while maintaining a positive complementarity with the tourism industry, Malaysia's cultural and museum industry should also maintain diversified development to enhance its risk resistance and industrial resilience. Specifically, the current development of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry mainly faces the following problems, including insufficient digital level, relatively single promotion methods and content, and lack of creativity in cultural and creative products.

（1） Insufficient digitalization level

The 21st century is undoubtedly an era of informatization and digitization, where the application of digital technology is ubiquitous and indispensable in various fields, including the cultural and museum industry. Overall, the digitalization of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is characterized by a late start, low level, and limited application scope, and there is still room for further expansion of application scope and improvement of level. Taking museum collection management systems as an example, generally speaking, the construction of such systems is consistent with the continuous development of museums and the increasing number of collections. The construction of the Museum Unified System for Conservation, Registration, Research and Exhibition by the Malaysian Museum Authority began in 2015.

According to statistics from the Malaysian Museum Authority, since its construction and implementation, the aforementioned system has collected a total of 39800 pieces of collection information (see Table 6), accounting for approximately 9% of the total recorded collections by the Malaysian Museum Authority. Looking at the world as a whole, the application of digital technology in the cultural field can be traced back to the 1990s in various countries, such as museums in the United States and the Louvre Museum in France. The digitization of Chinese cultural relics can also be traced back to 20 years ago. As of 2021, the digitalization of surveyed cultural relics in China accounted for 44.11%, of which the digitalization of precious cultural relics collections accounted for 67.82%. In foreign countries, the digitalization level of the Louvre Museum in France is as high as 75%, and the digitalization rate of cultural relics in the British Museum is also close to 50%. Therefore, in terms of digitizing collections, Malaysian cultural and museum institutions still have a long way to go.

表6 马来西亚博物馆藏品管理系统收录藏品信息数量情况

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Table 6 Quantity of Collection Information Recorded in the Collection Management System of Malaysian Museums

Of course, it is undeniable that while the epidemic has impacted the Malaysian cultural and museum industry, it has accelerated the pace of Malaysian cultural and museum institutions embracing the Internet and modern information technology to a certain extent. For example, since 2021, the Malaysian Museum Authority has accelerated the application of virtual reality (VR) technology, with typical measures including digitizing each temporary exhibition offline and presenting it to the public in the form of a 360 ° virtual panorama, and carrying out virtual museum construction. As of March 2022, the Malaysian Museum Authority has launched seven virtual exhibitions on its official website under the "360 ° Panoramic Virtual Gallery" section, such as the "Golden Power Exhibition", "Negara Kota yang Hilang", and "Pameran Wayang Kulit Nusantara Shadow Play Exhibition". Moreover, starting from 2022, the National Museum Board of Malaysia has also started to apply augmented reality (AR) technology. On March 24, 2022, the "National Museum AR" (Muzium Negara AR) mobile application was officially launched. Visitors can obtain information about the 28 selected collections provided by the National Museum through 2D or 3D augmented reality technology in the exhibition hall to obtain a better travel experience. This technology will also be expanded to the Perak Museum in 2022 and further applied to other museums in the future.

（2） The promotion method and content are relatively single

To promote Malaysia's historical and cultural heritage, enhance national pride, and cultivate patriotism among the people, Malaysian cultural and museum institutions have also made significant efforts in publicity. From the perspective of promotional methods, mass media and social platforms are the main channels for Malaysian cultural and museum institutions to promote themselves; From the perspective of promotional content, various platforms tend to promote the main activities and projects organized and planned by Malaysian cultural institutions, while there are relatively few introductions that truly focus on historical culture and cultural relics themselves. The content is relatively single, making it difficult to maintain public interest and attention to promotional content in the long run.

Mass media has been a commonly used promotional method by Malaysian cultural and museum institutions for a long time, mainly including television, radio, newspapers, etc. Taking 2019 and 2020 as examples, there were a total of 18 promotional programs related to the Malaysian Museums Board and its affiliated federal museums broadcasted on major television channels in Malaysia in 2019, and a total of 14 in 2020; There were a total of 20 related radio programs in 2019 and 10 in 2020; In 2019, major newspapers published a total of 33 promotional reports on cultural and museum institutions, and in 2020, there were a total of 17 reports. However, according to the detailed program schedule and report content released by the Malaysian Museum Bureau, the above promotion is still mainly focused on promoting the upcoming exhibition activities of the museum, and its role is more reflected in letting the public understand the dynamics of the museum. There are relatively few programs that directly introduce historical relics, such as the series of promotional videos launched by the Palace Museum of China, such as "National Treasures", "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Palace Museum", and "If National Treasures Can Speak".

The social media platforms commonly used by Malaysian cultural and cultural institutions include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. According to the statistics of the Malaysian Museum Bureau, after the outbreak of the epidemic, the number of fans on its official social media accounts has increased. The number of Facebook fans increased from 16760 in 2019 to 27639 in 2020, and the number of photo wall fans increased from 2216 in 2019 to 4293 in 2020. The number of oil pipe subscribers is relatively small, with only 24 in 2019 and 125 in 2020. Overall, both in terms of the number of fans and feedback from netizens on the official accounts of cultural and museum institutions, the coverage and influence of these social platforms are relatively limited, and the promotional effect is not satisfactory.

In fact, the promotion methods of cultural and museum institutions are not limited to mass media and social platforms. Daring to cross boundaries may bring unexpected joy. Taking the Palace Museum of China as an example, while actively managing its own social media accounts and utilizing mass media to promote itself, it actively collaborates and integrates with cultural industries such as film, television, variety shows, and games. Popular programs such as "National Treasures," "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Palace Museum," and "If National Treasures Can Speak" are excellent examples. The mobile games "Virtual Forbidden City" and "Emperor's Day" exclusively developed and launched by the Palace Museum of China, as well as the mobile game "Everyday Love Elimination" (Palace Museum Special Edition) jointly launched with Tencent, are also successful attempts to diversify their promotional methods and content.

（3） Lack of creativity in cultural and creative products

In recent years, the development and marketing of cultural and creative products in museums have developed rapidly, and many museums have set up cultural and creative product research and development departments to keep up with the pace of the times. The development of cultural and creative products can provide financial support for the development of the cultural and museum industry. More importantly, as a model of combining traditional historical culture with modern popular culture, cultural and creative products are increasingly favored by young people today and have become an effective carrier for spreading traditional culture. However, looking at the performance of Malaysian cultural and creative institutions in terms of cultural and creative products, they exhibit characteristics such as insufficient investment, lack of creativity, and scarcity of brands.

Firstly, in terms of organizational structure, the Malaysian Museums Board mainly includes the Policy and Development Department, Collection Management Department, Conservation Management Department, Management Services Department, Research and Archiving Department, and Exhibition and Development Department. Currently, there is no dedicated department for cultural and creative product design, research and development, or marketing. From this, it can also be seen that the current focus of the Malaysian Museum Authority is still on the collection, protection, restoration, research, and exhibition of collections, and sufficient manpower, material resources, or financial resources have not been invested in the development of cultural and creative products. This is also the root cause of the lack of creativity in cultural and creative products of Malaysian cultural and museum institutions.

Secondly, aside from the issue of insufficient investment, from the perspective of Malaysia's museum cultural and creative products themselves, the main factors restricting their effectiveness are the lack of diversity in product types, insufficient cultural expression, and lack of creativity. Taking the National Museum of Malaysia's cultural and creative goods store as an example, most of its products include T-shirts, baseball caps, refrigerator stickers, canvas bags, postcards, and ballpoint pens. Compared with ordinary products, these products do not have any competitive advantages in terms of workmanship, design, or price. The only thing that attracts buyers is the cultural elements they contain. However, the cultural and creative products of Malaysian museums have not truly integrated their excellent traditional cultural elements, and their "cultural and creative" is just a simple overlay of the "National Museum" logo, emblem, or other cultural relic patterns and products. The lack of creativity directly leads to a decrease in the attractiveness of cultural and creative products, and using it as a propaganda carrier for national history and culture is even more unrealistic. On the other hand, the Palace Museum in China, which has been very successful in the research and development of cultural and creative products, not only has a wide variety of cultural and creative products, from various stationery, clothing accessories, home furnishings, tea ceremony utensils to Palace Museum cosmetics, but also has full creativity and exquisite craftsmanship. It can be said that its products not only have a strong historical and cultural heritage, but also conform to modern aesthetics and trends. Obviously, there is still significant room for improvement in the research and promotion of cultural and creative products by Malaysian cultural and museum institutions.

Summary and Prospect

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, countries and industries around the world have actively considered coping strategies while suffering from its impact. As Malaysia's cultural and museum industry highly linked to the tourism industry, it has suffered heavy losses under the impact of the epidemic, with a sharp decline in visitor numbers, a significant reduction in offline exhibitions and various promotional and educational activities, and obstacles to external exchanges and cooperation. In the face of the impact, the cultural and museum institutions led by the Malaysian Museum Bureau actively seek for "vitality". While making full use of Internet technology to carry out online publicity and exchange activities, they also focus on digital technology. However, the overall digitalization level of Malaysia's cultural and museum industry is still relatively low and in its early stages. In addition, the relatively single promotion methods and content, as well as the lack of creativity in cultural and creative products, are also issues that cannot be ignored.

On April 1, 2022, Malaysia reopened its doors to welcome foreign tourists, which is of great significance for the cultural and museum industry that is highly tied to the tourism industry. The major decision by the Malaysian government to reopen its borders may not allow its cultural and museum industry to recover in the short term, but it is just around the corner. However, after struggling with the COVID-19, it also makes people think about how Malaysia's cultural and museum industry should enhance its industrial resilience and risk resistance in the future development. Perhaps embracing new technologies and moving towards more diverse directions is the right thing to do.