How can China's cultural relics skills talents look to the future?

China News Network Taiyuan, March 3 Question: Why are China's cultural relics skilled talents looking to the future?

Written by Gao Yuqing

A 1-meter-long, 1.5-meter-wide workbench is covered with black rubber pads of just the right size, with knives, airbrushes, air pumps, adhesives, paints and other tools and materials. Washing, stitching, patching, glazing... At the competition site, No. 27 contestant Yang Yujie wore a mask and held an airbrush, holding her breath and burying her head in repair, she was "healing" a Qing Dynasty blue-and-white bowl with a gap of nearly a quarter.

As a world-recognized ancient civilization, China has the world's premier precious cultural relics resources. How to protect more than 76,<> immovable cultural relics across the country, as well as more than <> million pieces (sets) of cultural relics in the collection? How can China's cultural relics skills talents look to the future? It starts with a big competition.

The picture shows a metal artifact restorer in the competition. Photo by Wu Junjie

At 3 o'clock on March 25, the finals of the "National Cultural Relics Industry Vocational Skills Competition" kicked off in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. Known as "the most widely participated and largest number of participants in the cultural relics industry so far", the competition attracted 9 cultural relics skilled talents from 27 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China.

Photo by Wu Junjie at the scene of the competition

As a major country in cultural relics resources, China has not yet established a talent training system that matches the abundant cultural relics resources, coordinates with the heavy tasks of cultural relics protection, and meets the requirements of high-quality development of cultural relics. "We have a lot of artifacts that need to be restored, but there are not enough skilled people to match them." Luo Jing, director of the Department of Science, Technology and Education of China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage, said.

In 2018 and 2021, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China held two national cultural relics vocational skills competitions, which built a platform for practitioners in the cultural relics industry to display their skills and exchange skills, and also became an important way to cultivate cultural relics skills talents.

The picture shows a wooden cultural relics restorer in the competition. Photo by Wu Junjie

In order to strengthen the construction of the professional system for cultural relics conservators, in 2021, China officially issued the "Guiding Opinions on Further Strengthening the Personnel Management of Cultural and Museum Institutions", and promulgated the "National Occupational Skill Standards for Cultural Relics Conservators" in the same year, which is of great significance for strengthening the construction of cultural relics restoration and cultural relics restoration talent teams.

Compared to previous editions, this year's competition is higher level and larger. In this regard, Jiang Daoyin, an expert in the restoration of Chinese ancient ceramics who served as the referee of the competition for the third time, was quite impressed. "Overall, the trainees played better than the previous two times." He said that he hopes to push these outstanding talents to the front line through the competition.

The picture shows a clay conservator in a competition. Photo by Wu Junjie

Yang Yujie, 36, represented the Palace Museum in Beijing and has been engaged in the restoration of cultural relics for seven years, participating in the restoration of precious cultural relics such as Neolithic painted pottery and Shang Dynasty white pottery. She said that this is her first time participating in the competition, and she came with a learning mentality, "mainly to learn from seniors and peers and increase restoration experience".

The picture shows the mural color sculpture conservator in the competition. Photo by Gao Yuqing

At the scene of the ceramic cultural relics restoration competition area, a smell of glue came to the nose. Located next door to the metal artifacts restoration competition area, the tools in the hands of the contestants make noise from time to time.

The reporter found that there were many young faces among the contestants, and Li Jiajin from Tongxiang, Zhejiang Province, was one of them. "My father was a bronze restorer, and I grew up with a passion for antiquities restoration." Today, Li Jiajin, who is only 24 years old, has been engaged in cultural relics restoration for five years. He said that the competition will be used as a new starting point to inherit the skills of cultural relics restoration.

The picture shows archaeological diggers in a competition. Photo by Gao Yuqing

Seeing many young people competing, Fan Zaixuan, a judge of the mural color sculpture cultural relics restorer competition and an expert in Chinese mural restoration, was very gratified. In his view, on the one hand, this competition is a skill competition, on the other hand, "it is necessary to arouse the high attention and attention of all walks of life to the restoration of cultural relics, and attract more young people to like this work." ”

"I've done one thing in 72 years", "restore a piece of history", "bring artifacts to life" ... At the opening ceremony of the competition, a promotional video was specially played. In just 4 minutes, the content condenses the professional ethics and professionalism of generations of Chinese cultural relics people who protect objects with their hands and hearts, and they "recall" time with their hands and bring countless damaged and mutilated cultural relics back to life. (End)