Too Many Things To Be Repaired, But Too Few People Can Repair Them

"Thousands of years of civilization, there are too many things to be repaired, but too few people can repair them," said Jiang Daoyin, a master of ancient porcelain restoration. In China, there are about 110,000 people working in the cultural heritage restoration industry. Even if all the staffs are on duty, it will take at least 150 years to repair 50 pieces per person per year.

（The Conservation Department of Victoria and Albert Museum）

In addition, there are some phenomena in the industry, such as low level of education, lack of professional technical strength, slow professional knowledge updating, team accomplishment and business ability. At present, in the relevant education culture field, the inheritance of this discipline is mainly completed by two lines. The first is vocational and technical training. It also varies in subject concept, curriculum system, and training level. The second is the "mentoring system" in museums. However, China's undergraduate and graduate students are very deficient in the theoretical exploration of cultural heritage conservation management and inheritance mode. It is worth noting that there is a similar gap in the age structure of the conservation and restoration team, which is carried by the old master, while young people need more experience to exercise.

(Mentoring System in China)

As we know that Italy's professional restoration technology has reached a world-class level. Every school in this major has different focus. Some schools focus on restoration of cultural relics, some focus on building restoration, and others focus on instrument repair. But the degree of difficulty of this major is so great that few Chinese students could graduate from it easily. Most of the time, we still follow the apprenticeship system.

In 2016, China produced a documentary entitled "Masters in the Forbidden City". If the camera can capture the smell, you will be able to smell the pungent smell while watching it. Young college graduates who have just been assigned to the woodblock, lacquerware, and painting groups are the first to learn the art of modulating adhesives. They need to learn to make pig's blood mix lime, paste, fish glue and follow the professional paint farmers to pick up the paint on the mountain. Most of them graduated from prestigious universities. When they first came to work, they didn't realize that in a post-industrial age, they had entered a pre-industrial hand workshop. How to make an ambitious college graduate to endure loneliness, to take a solid inheritance of the craft, and to grind their impetuous is a difficult problem.

(Masters in the Forbidden City)

(Masters in the Forbidden City: Inheriting Craftsmanship in Modern Day)

The protection of cultural relics needs to have a good environment, but more importantly, workers’ protection consciousness of cultural relic should be cultivated. The professional cultural relic restorer is full of mystery in the eyes of many people, which shows that there is still a shortage of talents to cultivate in this aspect.

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