Shan Jixiang, who was nearly seventy years old, wore his signature black cloth shoes and set off again.
In 2021, he served as the initiator and cultural guide, and completed the recording of the first two seasons of the country's first interactive documentary program "Walking alone for thousands of miles".
Especially in recent months, he has led the "Wanli Youth League" to visit 12 heritage sites in 7 provinces and cities including Henan, Jiangxi, and Fujian with an average recording cycle of one program every two days.
These heritage sites are widely distributed and have their own characteristics. Among them are China's first projects inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1987, as well as the latest World Heritage projects in 2021, and are listed in the Preliminary List of World Heritage and are striving to become a world heritage site. Heritage item.
Every time he goes, he not only visits heritage sites, communicates with local heritage researchers and protectors, tastes local delicacies, and experiences intangible inheritance... In a variety of ways, he will transform the world heritage that carries human creation and ideas, through The screen is brought into the daily life of ordinary people.
At the Beijing Dongcheng Cultural Development Research Institute in the Huangchenggen Ruins Park, Shan Jixiang accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from Xinhua Daily Telegraph.
Talking about his current living situation, he said with a smile: "I have been retired for almost three years. It feels like I haven't retired. I have to get up early every day to go to work, but the place of work has become uncertain."
Today, he is still busy with his work. In addition to initiating and producing "Walking Alone", he also participated in a program about Beijing's urban planning. At the same time, he gave lectures in major colleges and universities, and of course, he also wrote a book.
When talking about his writing plan, he lamented that "I finally have time to organize the material that I wanted to write but didn't have time to write." After retirement, he was able to get rid of his busy daily work and meetings and have more time to write.
In addition to the content related to the Forbidden City, his writing topics also involve cultural heritage protection, urban planning, revitalization of historical buildings and other aspects.
"Over the past few decades, more than 70 books have been written." Shan Jixiang concluded.
After taking office in the Palace Museum that year, he spent 5 months walking through the 9,371 rooms of the 1,200 buildings in the Palace Museum.
There is also data showing that from 2012 to 2018, he gave 1,185 lectures and more than 2,000 hours.
Until now, he still follows a strict schedule every day, betting his passion and diligence on the road of cultural heritage protection.
"On average, he walks 10,000 to 30,000 steps a day." Facing the reporter's question, he roughly estimated his daily itinerary. At least, only 60 meters."
When the second season of "Walking Alone" was coming to an end, Shan Jixiang returned to Beijing and spent 24 hours on the central axis he was most familiar with.
The "Wanli Youth League" is divided into two groups, starting from the two ends of the central axis - Bell and Drum Tower and Yongdingmen, all the way to the south, all the way to the north, and finally meet at Tiananmen Square, accompanied by the sunrise to see the five-star red flag rising.
"We want to tell people through this scene that cultural heritage is closely related to the survival of today's human beings, to our cultural heritage, and to everyone, and contains a very wide range of content." Shan Jixiang said, "So we should put cultural heritage Make it clear about the connection and meaning of everyone's real life. In fact, we may walk in cultural heritage every day and feel the charm of cultural heritage, which is very helpful to real life."
"Cultural heritage is not only historical, but also present, but also to the future"
Reporter: From "Guardian of the Forbidden City" to "Guardian of the World Heritage", after retirement, you went from "travelling every corner of the Forbidden City" to "measuring the Chinese World Heritage with your footsteps". How do you feel about this change?
Why did you choose to promote the protection of the World Heritage in the form of variety shows?
Shan Jixiang: I used to walk tens of thousands of steps every day in the Forbidden City, and I would also communicate with the audience and ask them what they needed, but it was more about checking safety, environmental sanitation and other work; When I go to the heritage site, I also carry a task to advance the work.
Going to many heritage sites now is different. It is through programs that lead the audience to approach these world heritage sites and tell the stories of the heritage sites.
China is one of the countries with the most world heritage sites.
Many heritage sites are familiar to people, and there are also many heritage sites that people can't name; some people have been there, but most people have rarely visited.
In fact, world heritage is the most important and valuable part of our cultural and natural heritage.
But a lot of it has not yet entered into people's lives and has not become people's knowledge, so I think it should be introduced to more people and let people know about it.
I have been engaged in heritage protection, and I have visited various heritage sites many times, and I have a different experience each time I go.
I just want to share these experiences with you through the form of the program.
One is more familiar to everyone, such as West Lake, Suzhou Gardens, Gulangyu Island. What kind of mood or angle should we feel the charm of the world heritage?
For example, West Lake not only has natural beauty, but also cultural landscape.
For example, Suzhou gardens, each garden is different, not a thousand gardens. Every garden owner has put a lot of effort into building it, how to stack mountains and water, how to arrange buildings, how to configure plants, and how to design furniture. Only by thinking, can the garden form the artistic conception of poetry, calligraphy and painting.
The second is lesser-known. Although it is a world heritage site, few people have visited or even heard of it, such as Huashan Rock Paintings, Yuanshangdu Site, Tusi Site, etc.
We wish to present the status and value of such sites.
There are also some cultural heritage widely distributed in a city, how should people visit?
If you want to know the heritage, what kind of route is suitable.
Like the 11 heritage elements of the Dengfeng "Heaven and Earth" historical building complex distributed in the vast area of Songshan Mountain, how to understand a complete "Heaven and Earth" concept?
Like Quanzhou, with the theme of "China's World Marine Commerce and Trade Center in Song and Yuan Dynasties", how to extract this theme from the numerous heritage elements of Quanzhou?
Such content will make people familiar with the world heritage gradually, and will have a deeper understanding of the significance of heritage protection.
Of course, linear cultural heritage such as the Grand Canal, the Silk Road, and the Great Wall need more publicity.
I especially hope to communicate these cultural heritage topics with young people.
But I found that people's life rhythm and living conditions have changed now.
Nowadays, many young people's habits of receiving information are constantly changing, and the tools they use are constantly changing, using digital technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet.
Therefore, video programs, such as "I am repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City", "National Treasure", and "The Forbidden City" have relatively high ratings, especially among young people.
If I were to write a book, I would probably have a total print volume of 50,000 to 60,000 copies. Even if a book could be read by two people, it would only be around 100,000 people.
But a "I am repairing cultural relics in the Forbidden City" was viewed by 90 million people as soon as it was launched, which is not an order of magnitude.
Therefore, it is still necessary to adapt to people's habit of receiving information and do some mass cultural communication.
This may be more suitable for the reality of people receiving information.
Reporter: The first season of "Walking Alone" starts from the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu, and the second season starts from Luoyang and ends with the central axis of Beijing.
How did you consider the selection of heritage sites?
Shan Jixiang: In the first episode of the first season of "Walking Alone", we chose the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu for two reasons. First, the ruins of the ancient city of Liangzhu were the latest of the 55 world heritage sites in China at that time. , that is, the application for the World Heritage has just been successful, and I hope more people can understand.
Second, and more importantly, it is the holy land of 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.
China's 5,000-year civilization has never reached a consensus internationally.
Some people believe that China's 5,000-year civilization is only 3,000 years old.
The 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization is confirmed through the discovery of the ancient city ruins of Liangzhu from 5,300 to 4,300 years ago, including the discovery of large-scale water conservancy projects.
We wanted to tell the story well, so we chose it as the topic for the opening episode.
In the second season, Luoyang was chosen as the first stop, because Luoyang is a very special city.
Luoyang is one of the eastern starting points of the Desert Oasis Silk Road and the starting point of the Grand Canal in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
The only city where the Silk Road and the Grand Canal meet in a desert oasis is Luoyang.
Therefore, all dynasties have built their capitals here, and the cultural connotation is very rich.
We want to use this node as an introduction, so we chose Luoyang to start.
At the end of this season, the central axis of Beijing was chosen.
The central axis is an ancient capital axis of 7.8 kilometers from the Bell and Drum Tower to Yongdingmen.
On the one hand, it is presented as a whole, and on the other hand, it focuses on the largest ancient building space on the central axis. It is divided into two episodes, and the final ending is in Tiananmen Square.
Through such an ending, it shows that cultural heritage is not only historical, but also present, but also to the future.
Reporter: This year, you have been walking on the road for the protection and inheritance of the world heritage.
Looking back on this journey, how do you feel?
Shan Jixiang: The Chinese cultural heritage is extensive, profound and very rich.
Because of the concept of cultural relics, everyone has a different understanding. For example, some collectors think that cultural relics are those antiquities, antiques or antiques.
Archaeologists study the historical information and cultural value of unearthed cultural relics.
Ancient architects study how buildings were constructed throughout history and how they were used wisely.
But in fact, cultural heritage has a very extensive connection with human survival and cultural inheritance, and is closely related to everyone's real life.
Therefore, we especially want to tell you that people may walk in cultural heritage every day, feel the charm of cultural heritage and the great help of cultural heritage to real life.
Through the program, we hope to make the audience feel that the original culture is so rich and profound.
Today is not only limited to the protection of cultural relics, but has entered the era of cultural heritage protection.
This shift is reflected in six areas:
First, heritage is not only cultural, but also natural.
For example, Mount Lu is a cultural landscape heritage, and Mount Wuyi is a dual heritage of culture and nature.
On the one hand, there is a very magnificent mountain-shaped water system, natural environment, and biodiversity; on the other hand, literati from all dynasties come here, and there are many cultural and artistic creations here, such as poetry, calligraphy, painting, music; There are many cultural relics and historical sites left in the three aspects, especially Zhu Xi set up academies in Wuyi Mountain and Lushan Mountain.
Bailudong Academy is also a famous academy and one of the four major academies.
This integrates nature and culture. People not only pay attention to the protection of cultural relics and buildings themselves, but also pay attention to the natural environment.
Second, cultural relics cannot be regarded as pure, static things.
We visited many living heritages, such as Xidi and Hongcun, where people still live, and two ancient villages have become world heritage sites.
Especially in the ancient tea forest in Jingmai Mountain, where the Bulang, Dai, Lahu and Wa people live on this mountain, especially the Bulang and Dai people, the production of Pu-erh tea from generation to generation is a living process of inheritance.
Third, cultural heritage is not only ancient, but also modern and contemporary.
It is not frozen in a historical stage, but passed down from generation to generation.
For example, the Grand Canal and the central axis of Beijing are alive.
The Grand Canal is still shipping, irrigating, and beautifying the city's climate and environment today.
Buildings such as Tiananmen Square, Monument to the People's Heroes, Great Hall of the People, National Museum and other buildings on the central axis are contemporary, but also part of the heritage of the central axis.
Fourth, cultural heritage is not only a point, but also a facet. For example, Quanzhou and Jingmai Mountain are a range.
But it's not just a face, it's a line.
For example, the central axis of Beijing, the Great Wall, the Ancient Tea Horse Road, the Grand Canal, and the Silk Road are cultural routes.
It is not only a route for commodity trade, but also a corridor for cultural exchanges, which not only drives the development of surrounding towns, but also enhances cultural exchanges in history.
Fifth, to protect cultural heritage, we must protect not only those palaces, temples, and monumental buildings, but also the buildings and environments where ordinary people live, live and work.
For example, there are a large number of historical blocks, including Fujian Tulou, Kaiping Diaolou and other vernacular buildings.
And those old business and industrial heritage.
These are the nostalgia of people from generation to generation.
Sixth, it is also what we pay more attention to in the program. Cultural relics protection is the protection of material heritage, but a large number of intangible heritage are displayed in the program. Almost every episode has intangible cultural heritage, the inheritance of traditional crafts, local folk customs, regional cultural heritage.
We would like to tell you that intangible heritage and tangible heritage are an inseparable whole.
Reporter: Please share with us one or two stories related to the protection of cultural heritage during the recording process that you feel the most deeply.
Shan Jixiang: We can feel the efforts and hardships of local cultural relic workers to protect the heritage in every episode.
For example, there is a family of three generations guarding Wudang Mountain; the grandfather who guards the Tusi ruins, and now his children have taken over the work of guarding.
For example, the director of the Lushan Monitoring Center, her family has been on Lushan for four generations and participated in the protection of cultural relics.
For example, in the Dazu Rock Carvings, everyone saw that the Thousand-hand Guanyin was well repaired, but what everyone did not know was the appearance of the Thousand-hand Guanyin before the restoration.
Especially after the Wenchuan earthquake, a large number of fingers of the Thousand-hand Guanyin had diseases, and some even had one or twenty kinds of diseases on one hand. The cultural protection personnel established a file for each hand and spent ten years to carefully repair it. The process is very arduous. Many cultural guards were injured.
There is also Guo Xiangying, the first curator of the Dazu Rock Carving Museum, who is in his 80s this year and has guarded the Beishan Rock Carvings for more than 20 years.
He is not a simple daily care, but a serious study.
Today he is able to tell in detail the story and value of these stone carvings.
He also spent more than two years painting a 23-meter long scroll, clearly recording the conditions of the Beishan Rock Carvings at that time.
It has been displayed in front of world heritage experts and contributed to the application of the Dazu Rock Carvings.
There are many cultural relic workers and local people in each heritage site, and the efforts they have made for these cultural heritages and their love for cultural heritage are deeply felt.
Young people visiting museums is no longer a "visit here", but to enjoy the culture
Reporter: Last year, the World Heritage Conference was held in China for the second time.
In your opinion, what are the achievements and shortcomings of my country's current cultural heritage protection and inheritance?
How can we do a good job in the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage?
Shan Jixiang: The protection of cultural heritage has made great progress in recent years. How to "make the cultural relics collected in the forbidden palace, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the characters written in the ancient books come alive" is an endless task. work, the current gap is relatively large.
Today, our museums have grown from just 200 million to 300 million visitors a year to 560 million.
But I don’t think I can be satisfied with this, because compared with the total population of 1.4 billion, it is calculated that two people enter the museum only once a year on average. This is in line with the visiting data published by some countries. Walking into the museum, the difference is too far.
Therefore, we have to continue to think about how to display more cultural relics in museums, how to tell the stories of cultural relics well, open more places, and more ancient buildings can be rationally used after repairing, rather than "locking" them up and putting them on the shelf.
In my opinion, the more rationally used, the healthier the cultural relics will be; the more closed, the faster they will decay.
Our technology for the restoration and protection of cultural relics today should be combined with the development of modern science and technology, and more new technologies should be applied to the protection and daily maintenance of cultural relics.
For example, the Palace Museum’s establishment of the Palace Museum’s cultural relics hospital is to use a large number of new technologies. Every time a cultural relic is repaired, a diagnosis, a diagnosis report, a restoration plan, and a scientific restoration are required; Retain the historical information of cultural relics to a limited extent and do not change the original state, so that cultural relics can "extend their lifespan" rather than "rejuvenate their youth".
Applying science and technology and scientific concepts to guide restoration, there is still a lot of work to be done today.
Grass-roots cultural relic institutions, whether repairing ancient buildings, cultural relics, scientific research or cultural services, should be strengthened.
Many grass-roots institutions are now unable to meet the needs of cultural relics protection tasks.
For example, a large cultural relics county may have hundreds of cultural relics protection units, but often only a few personnel are established.
It is difficult for these employees to undertake so many protection tasks.
If the institution is sound, more cultural relics protection workers can participate in the protection of cultural relics, so that the cultural relics can be continuously protected.
Reporter: You have repeatedly mentioned the need to "live" cultural relics.
Under your leadership, the Palace Museum has entered the cultural and creative industry, closely meeting the needs of contemporary young people, and creating many "popular models", which has also attracted museums around the world to follow suit.
The creation of cultural and creative IP has become a common phenomenon. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Shan Jixiang: The Palace Museum develops cultural and creative products and encourages cultural creativity in order to infect more audiences, especially those who come to the Palace Museum and those who do not have the opportunity to come to the Palace Museum, and let people know more about the Palace Museum.
That is to say, how to integrate the culture of the Forbidden City into people's real life?
This requires the development of cultural products of digital technology.
For example, a variety of online exhibitions are held through the Internet; various cultural, collection, and architectural content are presented through APP.
For example, "Daily Forbidden City" pushes a piece (set) of information on the collection of the Forbidden City with pictures and texts every day.
For example, some short videos, videos and some activities that people can participate in are produced through digital technology.
On the other hand, for the cultural and creative products of the Palace Museum, the creative inspiration often comes from the observation of people's real life, to discover what people need in their lives, and then combine with the cultural resources of the Palace Museum, so that cultural and creative products can enter people's real life, Because it is not only knowledgeable, but also practical.
By the end of 2018, the Palace Museum had developed 11,900 cultural and creative products, covering all aspects of people's lives.
Accompanied by traditional culture, many people gradually fell in love with the cultural and creative products of the Forbidden City, and also participated in the dissemination of culture, expanding the influence of the Forbidden City.
I feel that a generally accepted experience is that cultural and creative products must highlight the word "creativity", not imitating, copying, or plagiarizing products of a certain category or a certain museum, but must go deep into their own cultural relics warehouse and excavate Little-known historical details behind movable and immovable artifacts.
The second experience is that we must observe people's real life in detail, especially the cultural needs of young people, and connect and combine cultural resources with people's actual needs. Only in this way can good cultural and creative products be produced. Cultural and creative products that people love and are willing to take home.
Reporter: In recent years, various cultural and blog variety shows and performances have emerged one after another, and high-quality programs such as "Tang Palace Night Banquet" and "Only Green" have been frequently searched. How do you understand the "cultural and blog boom" in the cultural field in recent years? "Museum craze"?
Shan Jixiang: With the continuous improvement of material living conditions, people hope to have more enjoyment in culture.
At the same time, the pace of modern life is relatively tight, so people tend to use their spare time, especially the fragmented time such as waiting for a bus or taking the subway to receive information.
The popularity of mobile phones has made tools more convenient.
Therefore, cultural communication must adapt to people's living conditions, and information can be received within three to five minutes, and information can also be received in different locations.
Therefore, new communication methods, including short videos, are gradually becoming popular among people.
In this way, content carriers must also be found. For example, not long ago, Beijing Dongcheng Cultural Development Research Institute held an exhibition called "One Yuan, 'Beginning' and 2022 Beijing Central Axis Special Exhibition", which spread well on the Internet.
This is the "small event big media", which spreads the exhibition content through the media.
The so-called "big media" is that its content is attractive, and it is enough for people to pay attention to the content for more than 10 minutes, and it is impossible to watch it for a long time.
But the 10+ minutes worked really well.
Including our "Walking Alone" is also getting higher and higher ratings, especially attracting young people.
These all show that people choose with their fingers.
There is so much content, so many shows, to choose by trying to attract people.
Keeping the "original intention" is to "choose a career and live a lifetime"
Reporter: You once pointed out in an article that "civilization 'doesn't ask the West or the East', and openness can learn from each other".
Over the years, you have also been committed to the dissemination and promotion of traditional culture.
In your opinion, how should traditional culture "go out"?
How can we tell Chinese stories, especially the stories of traditional Chinese culture, and convey the Chinese voice to the world?
Shan Jixiang: Human cultures are diverse, and all ethnic groups around the world have created splendid and colorful cultures in their respective historical development.
Different cultures and civilizations should be open to mutual learning and common development.
Therefore, we need to enhance mutual understanding. Only through mutual understanding can we achieve mutual benefit and common development.
We need to understand the world and let the world understand us.
So we have to go out and tell the Chinese story to the world.
For example, the Palace Museum holds the "Taihe Forum" every year, which invites experts, scholars and government officials from ancient civilizations around the world to discuss how different cultures can develop together.
Another way to tell China's story to the world is to declare a World Heritage Site.
World Heritage is recognized by UNESCO through strict procedures.
Every World Heritage site has an "Outstanding Universal Value" in the global sense.
Such heritage, whose value transcends nationality and country, becomes the common heritage of all mankind.
In the process of declaring the world heritage, UNESCO will entrust heritage experts to investigate, and will also collectively review at the heritage conference, and only after approval can it be included in the "World Heritage List".
Therefore, if you actively participate in the world heritage cause, you can get the attention of the world and have the opportunity to tell the story of China to the world.
Reporter: After retirement, you still choose to continue to devote yourself to heritage protection. How do you maintain your enthusiasm and diligence in your work, and how do you keep your "original intention"?
Can you share your life experiences with young people today?
Shan Jixiang: Actually, I have a lot of fate with cultural heritage since I was a child.
My father studied literature, especially the study of classical literature. When I was young, my father often took me to visit various historical sites.
Many of these monuments have since become World Heritage Sites.
Later, when I went to study abroad, I learned about the protection of historical and cultural districts.
After returning to China, I worked in the planning department and came into contact with many historical buildings and cultural relics.
Later, he was transferred to work in the cultural relics department and had more opportunities to deal with cultural heritage.
In a person's life, sometimes work will be relatively stable, and sometimes work will often change.
In fact, my work experience has changed more than 10 times. I used to be an architect, engaged in planning and design, and soon I went to urban planning and management, and then transferred to cultural relics protection, and then became a museum curator... The work involves architecture, Urban planning, cultural heritage protection, museums, etc., are actually different fields.
How can these experiences be coherent and integrated, and how can we enter a new field?
My experience is by looking back at my past experiences and analyzing what can be applied in new jobs.
People must constantly adapt to the changing state, study hard, and enter the role as soon as possible, so that they can work fully and confidently in the new position.
Keeping the "original intention" is to "choose a career for the rest of my life". I have always been engaged in work related to cultural heritage, and I will do this throughout my life.
Like the restorers of cultural relics in the Palace Museum, like the staff who worked silently in various heritage sites, like the athletes who won glory for the country at the recent Winter Olympics, they are all the same.
Of course, with the changing times and the needs of the country, you may change your position, but what remains the same is to have an "original intention" that can make your own contribution to social development.
Therefore, if young people want to achieve something, they must keep their "original intentions" and "choose a career and live a lifetime".
(Liu Xiaocao)