Training Professionals

In Shanxi, local protection work has long been plagued by understaffing. A project was launched in 2022 to enroll a total of 600 students for a span of five years, specifically for 117 localities across the province in need of protection professionals.

These students will be offered general education on relics protection during college, free of tuition, and are duty-bound to work for pre-designated employers after graduation.

The 19-year-old Li Jingyi, who hails from Wanrong county, Yuncheng city of Shanxi province, grew up watching the nearby Feiyun Tower, a wooden tower featuring characters of the Yuan (1206-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, a historical and cultural site protected at the national level.

Li, among the first batch of students joining the project, will receive training in archeology, cultural heritage architectures, and museum studies at Shanxi University and return home for work when she finishes college.

"Ancient architectures exude a beauty bestowed by history, I'm fascinated with that, and I'd love to work for the protection of cultural relics in my hometown," she said.

Cultivating Enthusiasts

Located on the outskirts of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi, the tomb of Xu Xianxiu, a high-profile official of the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-557), is considered to have some of the best-preserved murals from the Northern Qi period. The interior walls of the tomb are decorated with paintings covering about 330 square meters.

However, for the sake of preservation, watching the murals on-site is not possible. A museum featuring murals of the Northern Qi Dynasty was built in Taiyuan based on archeological discoveries of the tomb.

Rather than "sitting still," the museum reached out to school students with the help of metaverse technologies. Wearing Virtual Reality goggles, and holding hand-held controllers, students of Taiyuan No. 19 Middle School recently "walked" into the tomb to watch the murals. They were even able to "lift" an unearthed artifact for a close-up gaze.

"With the help of technologies, we are taking the cultural relics to schools, getting students acquainted with them so that they might fall in love with traditional culture," said Wang Jiang, curator of the museum.

Ren Junhua, professor at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (National Academy of Governance), said that modern Chinese civilization is deeply rooted in the fertile ground of traditional Chinese culture.

Greater efforts are needed to study and interpret the traditional culture embedded in those cultural and historical sites, and to boost the popularity of those sites with technological means and likable presentation, Ren added.