We face cultural relics face-to-face, at the Palace Museum, Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao | Youth | Palace Museum

Da Wan Observation

In the Forbidden City, we face cultural relics face-to-face

——Young students from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao enter the Forbidden City to experience Chinese culture

Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Wenxiao, Li Wei, and Li Yun

On August 25th, the "Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Youth Palace Museum Internship Program 2023" held its closing ceremony. Starting from July 17th, 38 young students from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have conducted internships at the Palace Museum, experiencing firsthand the protection, restoration, and revitalization of cultural heritage. After six weeks of internship, from tourists to interns, and then to "people from the Forbidden City," the "seeds" of telling Chinese cultural stories well and dedicating themselves to the cultural and museum industry have been planted in their hearts.

Chen Yanbei observed bronze samples in the laboratory using a metallographic microscope. Respondents provide pictures

Origin: Coming to the Forbidden City based on interests

When I saw intern Zhang Zhongqian from Hong Kong at the Palace Museum, she was at the Jiangxue Pavilion in the Imperial Garden, drawing tables and taking photos to record the preservation status of doors and windows.

Zhang Zhongqian studied Architecture and Cultural Relics Protection at the University of Hong Kong for her undergraduate degree. According to her introduction, in the past four years, my studies in university have mainly focused on classroom teaching and group assignments, with few on-site investigation projects. "This internship has given me the opportunity to experience the working environment of frontline workers in cultural relics protection.".

"The reason why I chose this major is because I visited Mount Putuo in Zhejiang, Mount Emei in Sichuan, and Gulangyu in Fujian, known as the 'International Architecture Expo', during my middle school years. I was deeply attracted by the charm of ancient architecture and felt the deep cultural genes hidden within it." Zhang Zhongqian said that even now, she is still very interested in heritage protection related work, so she signed up to participate in this year's' Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Youth Palace Museum Internship Program '.

According to Dong Dan, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Office of the Palace Museum, the "Guangdong Hong Kong and Macao Youth Internship Program at the Palace Museum" began in 2017. Prior to this, a total of 126 Guangdong Hong Kong and Macao youth had internships and exchanges at the Palace Museum.

Intern Chen Yanbei from Macau had heard of the "Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Youth Palace Museum Internship Program" during her high school years. Growing up in Macao, she witnessed that "the Historic Center of Macao" was included in the The World Heritage List. When they went to school, the history teacher took them "to travel in the the Historic Center of Macao, listen to the memory of the old streets, and learn to look at the residents' lives from the 'things'".

After graduating from high school, with a curiosity about cultural heritage and cultural relic protection, Chen Yanbei entered the Department of Archaeology at Nanjing University to study. During my undergraduate studies, I conducted on-site inspections on the stone carvings of the Six Dynasties period, observing the traces of wind and rain erosion on the carvings. I had the idea of learning about cultural relic protection and hoped that these cultural relics carrying historical and cultural memories could be properly protected. After the start of this year's internship plan, she couldn't wait to submit an application form and was successfully selected.

At the opening ceremony on July 17, Wang Xudong, president of the Palace Museum, said that he hoped that young students from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao who participated in the internship would carry out extensive and in-depth exchanges and studies in the Palace Museum, jointly tap the essence of China's five thousand year civilization carried by the Palace Museum, and inherit and carry forward China's excellent traditional culture.

Daily life: Hard work but enjoyable

"When I was researching, I found that due to the diversity of cultural relics materials and production processes, as well as the complexity of diseases, previous researchers could only restore them based on experience. However, this lack of standard constraints in restoration work is not conducive to cultural relics protection. Therefore, the establishment of a cultural relics protection standard system is very necessary. With this understanding, Chen Yanbei chose to intern at the Institute of Cultural Relics Protection Standardization.".

The Institute of Cultural Relics Protection Standardization is a newly established department of the Palace Museum, mainly engaged in the research of cultural relics protection standards and the organization of standard formulation and revision. Here, Chen Yanbei learned that standardization is not something that can be achieved overnight. Every standard for cultural relic protection must have a basis, and a short line of text on the relevant standards for cultural relic protection must be accompanied by detailed annotations. "I cannot help but respect the standardization practitioners of cultural relic protection in the Forbidden City.".

Compared to previous years, the number of departments accepting interns in the Palace Museum has increased to 14 this year. Zhang Zhongqian, along with Liang Xiyue from Guangdong and Zhong Junjie from Macau, interned at the World Heritage Monitoring Department of the Forbidden City.

"Considering that Zhang has relatively little exposure to Ming and Qing official style architecture and needs to supplement basic knowledge while completing work tasks, we have arranged a special investigation of the doors and windows of the Eastern and Western Six Palaces of the Forbidden City for her." According to Niu californ, a staff member of the World Heritage Monitoring Department, the decoration structure, materials, and structural relationships of the eaves of ancient buildings such as doors and windows are relatively simple, and the preservation status and influencing factors of cultural relics are more intuitive, which is a suitable topic for her.

Zhang Zhongqian drew a table at the Jiangxue Pavilion in the Imperial Garden of the Forbidden City to record the shapes of doors and windows. Photo by Li Wei, a journalist from Guangming Daily

At the beginning of her work, the complex architectural terminology was the first obstacle that trapped Zhang Zhongqian. Under the guidance of the teacher, with the outer eaves doors and windows as the starting point, Zhang Zhongqian gained a further understanding of traditional Chinese architectural woodworking knowledge. Combined with reading books and comparing with real objects, she learned about decoration styles such as partition fans, threshold windows, and supporting and picking windows, as well as lattice heart patterns such as step-by-step brocade and double crossing four valonia diamond patterns.

In the subsequent internship, Zhang Zhongqian's work was divided into two parts: field work and internal work. Field work involves drawing tables on site, recording door and window systems, taking photos to record lattice patterns, door and window components, hardware components, etc; After completing the field work, some internal work needs to be carried out, including sorting out the positions of doors and windows, describing the shape, disease, and degree of each door and window. "Although the internship content is tedious and the process is arduous, making a small contribution to the protection of the Forbidden City heritage is already a very meaningful realization of self-worth," said Zhang Zhongqian.

Liang Xiyue. Respondents provide pictures

Liang Xiyue and Zhang Zhongqian had similar internship contents. She was responsible for the census of roof figures on the roof of the palace. "The type of roof, the order of arrangement, and the shape of the horned beasts all represent different levels of order." Standing in front of the Qin'an Hall of the Forbidden City, Liang Xiyue skillfully introduced the horned beasts to the reporter. "The horned beasts on the roof are generally distributed at the end of the vertical or diagonal ridges, and the more horned beasts there are, the higher the level of the building."

Liang Xiyue, who is studying in the Department of Anthropology at Sun Yat sen University, had almost no knowledge of ancient Chinese architecture before her internship, and her initial work was also "flustered". After knowledge tutoring and constant integration with her colleagues, she gradually mastered a set of procedures for taking building information in sequence, sorting out photos according to building numbers, and entering data. "In the third week of internship, I have completed the census of more than 70 buildings' roof figures." Liang Xiyue said that now she has been able to distinguish the shape of hornets at a glance.

During the internship, in addition to practical activities, the Forbidden City also organized interns to visit the "Xiangkai Wanxiang" exhibition at the Meridian Gate, watch virtual reality videos such as "The Palace of the Emperor", visit the Baoyun Building to learn about the early history of the Forbidden City Museum, and students who interned at the Ministry of Propaganda and Education led everyone to visit the central axis of the museum. In order to provide interns with a more intuitive understanding of cultural relic restoration, this year the Palace Museum has specially arranged interns to go to the Repair Skills Department to experience the official style ancient architectural construction techniques of wooden dougong assembly and colored painting of ceiling painting.

Future: The goal of dedicating oneself to cultural heritage is becoming increasingly clear

"Although interns from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao have different life experiences and educational backgrounds, we have many common topics in learning, life, and interests." Liang Xiyue told reporters that through internship exchanges, she has a clearer understanding of her future learning direction.

During the internship, Chen Yanbei exchanged and learned a lot of knowledge about cultural heritage protection with teachers from the Forbidden City and classmates from Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. "As a node city of the the Belt and Road Initiative, my hometown Macao can play an active role in promoting the protection of cultural heritage of countries and regions along the Belt and Road." Chen Yanbei said, "I want to join in and contribute to the protection of human heritage in Macao."

The internship at the Forbidden City deepened Zhang Zhongqian's understanding of cultural heritage protection, giving her a more comprehensive understanding of the cultural heritage protection industry she will soon be involved in. In the future, Zhang Zhongqian hopes to work in the protection of cultural relics at the Hong Kong Palace Museum.

The Hong Kong Palace Museum of Culture has been open for more than a year since July last year, receiving nearly 1.3 million visitors in a year. It has not only become a window to showcase Chinese history and culture, but also provides a stage for many Hong Kong youth to engage in cultural and museum undertakings, and builds a "bridge" for cultural and youth exchanges between Hong Kong and mainland China.

Huang Junyi. Respondents provide pictures

Huang Junyi, a Hong Kong student from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, has been interning at the Propaganda and Education Department of the Palace Museum for the past six weeks, while also serving as a volunteer at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. For her, interning at the Palace Museum would create a sense of familiarity. "When visiting the exhibition room of the Forbidden City, I often see some exhibits that have been borrowed from the Hong Kong Palace Museum of Culture." Huang Junyi told reporters, "Although these exhibits cannot speak, they silently demonstrate the closer cultural connection between the two places."

The way the Ministry of Education plans activities has brought her a lot of inspiration. Huang Junyi gave an example of her participation in the "Bo 'Gu' Tong Jin: Encountering Ancient Writing in the Palace Museum" offline activity - the activity set up check-in points to let the public know about oracle bone inscriptions. "I saw many viewers specially enter the Palace Museum to participate in the activity, collecting stamps at each check-in point. This made me realize that an effective educational activity needs to provide the public with a sense of satisfaction during the participation process, while effectively promoting knowledge and culture.".

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Huang Junyi has always had a strong interest in the cultural and museum industry. After participating in the internship, her goal became clearer: "I will bring these experiences, knowledge, and inspirations back to Hong Kong, and continue to work hard to learn. I hope to have the opportunity to work at the Palace Museum in Hong Kong in the future and continue my story of the Palace Museum."

Guangming Daily