The young people who have worked hard in the Palace Museum (Youth School·Youth Endeavour New Era (26))
This year marks the 600th anniversary of the completion of the Forbidden City and the 95th anniversary of the establishment of the Palace Museum.
Through the hard work and practice of generations, the current Palace Museum has initially established a career development system of "Safe Forbidden City, Academic Forbidden City, Digital Forbidden City, and Vigorous Forbidden City". The ancient Forbidden City is full of youthful vitality.
In the Forbidden City, there are such a group of young people: they can get on the roof, get off the warehouse, repair the cultural relics, organize the exhibition well, do research, and keep up with the times.
They talked to the Forbidden City, guarded the day and night, and accompanied the four seasons.
On a new day, young people in the Forbidden City are busy in their respective positions: Yang Yujie from the Ministry of Culture, Protection and Technology restores porcelain, Yu Wentao from the Painting and Calligraphy Department keeps cultural relics, Wu Wei from the Archaeology Department is busy with archaeological excavations, and Kang Xiaolu from the Information Department plans new media works ...In every ordinary day, there are choices, persistence and responsibility of the younger generation.
Yang Yujie repairs ceramics in the Cultural Relics Hospital
"The restoration of cultural relics is also creative work"
Starting from his home in Chaoyang District, passing through the high-rise China World Trade Center, and taking the busy East Chang'an Avenue, Yang Yujie came to the Palace Museum.
From the reinforced concrete building into the red wall and yellow tiled palace, her heart also calmed down a little bit.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, Yang Yujie appeared punctually in the Ceramic Restoration Room of the Forbidden City Heritage Hospital along the west riverside of the Forbidden City.
Cleaning, glue dispensing, bonding, polishing, refitting...Yang Yujie skillfully started the repair work.
After graduating from the Chinese Academy of Art in 2015, Yang Yujie joined the Cultural Protection Science and Technology Department of the Palace Museum.
Newcomers recruited by the Palace Museum need to be trained on the front line.
She rotated in the courtyard for two months. She did ticket checking, hall security, and tourist guidance; after another three months of rotation within the ministry, she returned to the ceramic restoration post.
There are about 1.86 million cultural relics in the Palace Museum and about 360,000 ceramics. Yang Yujie’s job is to maintain and restore ceramics and cultural relics with colleagues.
Yang Yujie, born in 1987, has soft and slender hands, but when you look closely, you will find that these hands also have several wounds and skin in many places.
This is the "trace" left by the repair of porcelain: because of long-term exposure to chemicals, she has to wash her hands frequently; the porcelain fragments are sharp, and her hands are inevitably scratched by tools.
Doing ceramic restoration does not seem to be a creative work, but Yang Yujie said: “The steps of restoration are not static, but need to adapt to changes. The restoration of cultural relics is also a creative work.” According to the current status, stability, variety and shape of cultural relics, her The repair method will also be adjusted. For example, in the operation of repairing an imitation glazed porcelain, she treats the repair tools in different ways, and tries to achieve the same texture and color as the original porcelain through different pen methods.
A documentary "I repaired cultural relics in the Forbidden City" brought the original cold cultural relics restoration business into the public's field of vision.
In Yang Yujie’s view, “the restoration of cultural relics is still a new business”—the so-called “new” refers to the fact that many restorations of cultural relics in the past are known to be true, but nowadays, restoration of cultural relics is beginning to be understood in the interdisciplinary study It's not so.
"The restoration of cultural relics serves the museum, and its theoretical research, methods and methods are still in the process of gradual exploration and establishment of norms." Yang Yujie said.
Cultural relic restoration is a relatively lonely and impoverished profession.
But in Yang Yujie's view, she gained a lot of things that she couldn't see by repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City.
"Not all restorers have the opportunity to personally repair the precious porcelains that appear in the books. The insights and surprises I gained in my work cannot be bought by money." Yang Yujie said firmly.
In the second drawer of Yang Yujie's restoration table, there is a Mingchenghua three-color duck smoked to be restored.
The duck was broken into 70 pieces, and each piece was carefully cleaned and wiped by Yang Yujie, and then placed in a cotton box.
The restoration of the porcelain duck should not be rushed, it needs to be studied and restored step by step.
"I often imagine the shape of a duck, observe how feathers are decorated, and study color matching. Whenever I look at these tiles, my mood becomes very happy, and the troubles of life seem to disappear." Yang Yujie smiled Talking.
Yu Wentao plans and prepares a special exhibition of calligraphy and painting
"The preservation of cultural relics may seem ordinary, but it is very meaningful"
The afternoon sun shines on the ground, this is the Forbidden City that Yu Wentao is familiar with.
The Forbidden City is a tourist attraction and his working place.
After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2017, Yu Wentao entered the Palace Museum to work.
During his lunch break, he often wandered the courtyard of the Forbidden City.
"Every time I walk here, there is a feeling of dialogue with history." Yu Wentao said.
The Palace of Wenhua is the place where Yu Wentao often visits. It is the venue of one of the exhibitions "The Romance of Eternity-Special Exhibition of Su Shi's Painting and Calligraphy in the Palace Museum", one of the 600-year-old exhibitions of the Forbidden City.
From May last year to September this year, the exhibition was prepared for more than a year.
Born in 1989, as the leader of the exhibition planning group, he must participate in the overall planning and coordination from the selection of cultural relics, outline writing, exhibition arrangement and curation to exhibition format design and exhibition catalog compilation.
"It's the first time to use cultural relics as a carrier to show Su Shi's artistic attainments and personality style." Yu Wentao said.
The Palace Museum has collected Su Shi's calligraphy masterpieces, as well as some important works by Su Shi's teachers and friends, as well as a large number of related art treasures influenced by Su Shi and reflecting his artistic thoughts.
The collections span from the Northern Song Dynasty to modern times. The categories cover calligraphy and painting, rubbings, artifacts, and rare ancient books. The overall quantity, quality and richness of the collections have certain advantages.
How to show Su Shi and connect the exhibition is the first problem that Yu Wentao and his colleagues must solve.
They positioned the exhibition as a reflection of Su Shi's influence. In addition to choosing Su Shi's own works, they also selected works by contemporary and future generations that reflect his influence.
"In order to reflect the extensive influence of Su Shi and the richness of the Forbidden City's collections, only one piece of works by other famous masters in the exhibition was selected for presentation." Yu Wentao said.
During the curatorial process, Yu Wentao perceives Su Shi in a more three-dimensional way.
Yu Wentao especially likes the last painting on display in the exhibition. It is the painting of Su Shi by Li Gonglin by Ming Dynasty painter Zhu Zhifan. The painting was when Su Shi was relegated to Hainan in his later years. He encountered rain while visiting friends and borrowed a hat from farmers. Dressed with wooden clogs, the farmers scrambled to look at it with a smile, but Su Shi took it calmly.
"This shows Su Shi's attitude towards life when he is in adversity." In Yu Wentao's mind, Su Shi is multi-faceted. It is Su Shi who sits in distress and is wearing a high crown. It is also Su Shi who is "a misty rain and Ren Pingsheng". He hopes to show Su Shi through the exhibition. The three-dimensional vividness conveys Su Shi's way of life.
As a member of the Painting and Calligraphy Department of the Palace Museum, preparing for the exhibition is only part of Yu Wentao's work.
Most of the time, he and his colleagues carried out the preservation, display and research of the cultural relics of French books.
They organize catalogs, assist in the collection of calligraphy and calligraphy data, and carry out routine maintenance of cultural relics.
"The preservation of cultural relics may seem ordinary, but it is very meaningful. The exhibition and research of cultural relics are carried out on the basis of day-to-day preservation of cultural relics. These efforts are worthwhile." Yu Wentao said.
Wu Wei enters archaeology from palace repair
"Save as much information as possible during the construction process"
The setting sun hits the gate of the Forbidden City, as if sprinkling a layer of golden on the red wall and yellow tiles.
Wu Wei pedaled an old-fashioned bicycle and headed west out of Shenwumen to the Xisi subway exit. He took Metro Line 4 to the terminal station. This is his daily commute route.
He lives in Tiangongyuan and it is not convenient to go to the Forbidden City to work, but he enjoys himself.
Wu Wei, born in 1988, graduated from the History Department of Nanjing University with a major in archaeology and entered the Palace Museum. He originally wanted to go to the ancient construction department of his professional counterpart, but was assigned to the Engineering Management Office.
After dealing with the construction team, he found out: "This is the place closest to the ancient building!" Surveying, taking pictures, recording, participating in demolition, renovation, restoration... Every day, mixing with brick and wood painters, Wu Wei has a deep understanding of the ancient palace. In the process of building construction and repair, professional ability has been comprehensively tempered.
The renovation of Baoyun Building was the first project Wu Wei participated in.
As the only Western-style building in the Forbidden City during the Republic of China, Baoyun Tower was once the seat of Xian'an Palace.
"Half repaired, we dug the old foundation of Xian'an Palace, so we stopped to conduct archaeological excavations of Baoyun Tower, and gained a deeper understanding of the past and present of Baoyun Tower." Wu Wei introduced.
Because of his outstanding performance in the Baoyun Building project, the 27-year-old Wu Wei became the on-site person in charge of the repair and protection project of the Da Gao Xuan Temple.
Due to being used as an office room for a long time, the Da Gaoxuan Hall fell into disrepair for a long time.
With a team of dozens of design, construction, supervision and research teams, Wu Wei carried out the implementation of various types of work such as tile, wood, oil, and color painting, and comprehensively followed up and was responsible for every link of construction, protection and research.
Wu Wei, who is a major in archaeology, pays attention to the recording and preservation of original information.
He suddenly thought: "If the Great High Profound Hall is the object of archaeological work, and the repairs and alterations in different periods are regarded as the strata in archaeology, then the repair process is similar to the process of archaeological excavation. A comprehensive and detailed extraction is carried out in accordance with the layered and broken relationship in different periods."
The idea was quickly implemented.
Wu Wei led the team to classify and number, photograph, record, draw and preserve the important relics discovered, as small as brick and tile inscriptions, large wooden signs, etc. according to archeological methods.
They not only carried out detailed surveying and information recording of the large wooden components dismantled during the repair, but also made detailed historical information records of the wood base, plaster and other parts that are often overlooked and prone to frequent repairs to maximize Preserve the "authenticity" and "integrity" of the historical information of the building, and explore new methods of protective repairs.
"Ancient buildings are also cultural relics. We must preserve the information as much as possible during the construction process. Although this method is slow, it is very necessary." Wu Wei said.
Today, Wu Wei is a member of the Archaeological Department of the Forbidden City.
As a newly established department of the Forbidden City in recent years, the Archaeology Department of the Forbidden City has achieved good results in the archaeology of the palace architecture of the Forbidden City, the archaeology of the Mingzhongdu site in Fengyang, Anhui, and several foreign archaeological projects.
Going up to roof tiles and going down to underground archeology, Wu Wei's work is like a martial arts master, "going up into the earth" in the Forbidden City.
Kang Xiaolu innovatively plans new media products
"Show everyone the interesting and warm side of the Forbidden City"
After the audience was gone, Kang Xiaolu took the time to collect data in the exhibition hall in order to complete the production of the online panoramic exhibition.
It's already dark, the empty exhibition hall, the exhibits seem to tell a piece of history under the light.
"K" "K"... Kang Xiaolu and her colleagues recorded this scene with a camera.
"Due to time and number of visitors, some audiences could not come, and some audiences were still unfulfilled. In order to better present the exhibition, we moved the exhibition hall online to create an exclusive exhibition experience for the audience." Kang Xiaolu said.
After graduating from the University of Leeds with a postgraduate degree in media industry in 2017, Kang Xiaolu joined the Information Department of the Palace Museum.
She undertook the "Forbidden City 600" APP, "Forbidden City Exhibition" APP, English website editing and other new media work of the Forbidden City, responsible for the page presentation, function design, content editing of the APP, etc.
"Forbidden City 600" is the tenth APP of the Forbidden City and the first APP focusing on the ancient architectural culture of the Forbidden City.
"Forbidden City 600" APP is divided into two modes: day and night. It introduces palace architecture during the day and the history of the palace at night.
"Cultural relics and buildings have not only superficial beauty, but also inner beauty." Kang Xiaolu hopes that this app will enable viewers to learn more about ancient architecture and appreciate the beauty of ancient architecture.
In the Palace Museum, Kang Xiaolu is in a young and active team.
There are 10 people in the digital media group, with an average age of 31, and they have a lot of fantastic ideas.
In autumn, the ginkgo in the Forbidden City is very beautiful, so they planned a slow live broadcast of the ginkgo in the Forbidden City to provide the audience with more perspectives to watch the Forbidden City.
The cats in the Forbidden City are very cute. They launched the "Cat in the Palace" plan on the WeChat public account "Wei Forbidden City" and became a hit.
The "Wei Forbidden City" WeChat official account, the Forbidden City APP, the "Digital Forbidden City" applet... The Forbidden City's new media constantly refreshes people's impression of the Forbidden City, bringing the ancient Forbidden City closer to young people.
"Once, the Forbidden City was cold in the mindset of some people; but new media work can show everyone the interesting and warm side of the Forbidden City, make cultural relics more life-like, and let everyone discover the newness of the Forbidden City. Tradition makes innovation. , Innovation protects tradition." Kang Xiaolu said.
New technologies such as AR and VR have also brought new changes to the museum.
In imagination, Kang Xiaolu felt that the Jin Ou Yonggu Cup might be as big as a wine cup.
It wasn't until the first time she saw the real thing in the Treasure Hall that she discovered that the cup was originally bigger than the palm of her hand.
She felt that the audience might also have similar "misjudgments", so she wanted to make some new attempts in the product.
Kang Xiaolu hopes to work with colleagues to explore AR technology so that viewers who cannot see the actual objects can also perceive the volume of the cultural relics and gain a richer and more authentic experience.
Kang Xiaolu, born in 1992, is a Beijing girl.
When visiting the Forbidden City as a child, she saw red walls with eyes full of eyes. In her impression, the Forbidden City was red.
After working, she discovered that the Forbidden City has many colors, the yellow of glaze, the blue of enamel, the white of the base...The Forbidden City is colorful.
"Very few people can personally experience the four seasons of the Forbidden City, the sun and the moon that accompany the Forbidden City, see the begonia trees in spring, listen to the cicadas screaming at the tops of the trees in summer, watch the persimmons hanging on the branches in autumn, and enjoy the snow and melt in winter."
Layout design: Zhang Danfeng
Our reporter Wang Jue