Hunan Textile Cultural Relics Protection And Restoration Talents Become "Urgently Needed"

"The shape of the cultural relics is basically complete, but the lining is decayed and broken." Zhang Linlin, from the Yuanling County Museum in Huaihua City, sighed when she first saw a piece of cultural relics of the Yuan Dynasty in brown silk with a right lapel and short sleeves. After three months of "rescue" she participated in, the cultural relic has been basically restored. Who would have thought that she, who was "Xiaobai" a few months ago, would dare to "use a knife" on cultural relics now.

Hunan has a rich cultural treasure house of textiles unearthed from tombs and costumes of ethnic minorities, and is facing a serious problem of lack of professionals in the protection and restoration of textile cultural relics. What are the current situation and challenges of the protection and restoration of textile cultural relics? How about talent cultivation? The reporter conducted an interview.

The number of unearthed cultural relics is large, and there is a shortage of professional restoration talents

Because of its special region and culture, Hunan Province has a large number of textiles unearthed from tombs and costumes of ethnic minorities, and the number of textile cultural relics collected is among the top in the country. However, only the Hunan Museum has a professional team of cultural relics restoration talents in Hunan Province.

"At present, only the Hunan Museum in Hunan Province has professional textile protection and restoration personnel, and only a handful of protection and restoration personnel have been unable to cope with a large number of protection and restoration tasks." Dong Xianyan, deputy director of the Collection Protection Center of the Hunan Museum (Hunan Provincial Cultural Relics Identification Center), said that because of its large number, it is difficult to use specific figures for statistics, and the restoration of cultural relics takes time and effort, Depending on the degree of difficulty of repair, the repair time can range from three months to one or two years. She said that it is extremely urgent to cultivate a talent team for the protection and restoration of textile cultural relics and improve the professional ability of the protection and restoration of textile cultural relics in Hunan Province.

In order to train more professionals, the three month "2024 Training Course on the Protection and Restoration of Textile Cultural Relics in the Library" ended successfully not long ago. Zhang Linlin was one of the trainees. She told the reporter that during the training, she learned theoretical courses and restoration practice courses such as common fabric structures, common diseases, common cleaning techniques of textile cultural relics, and spent 10 hours a day dedicated to the restoration of cultural relics. She said: "Every step of the restoration process should be careful, from the concept of cultural relics restoration, cultural relics awareness, cultural relics diseases and disease analysis, to the development of protection and restoration plans, as well as the cleaning, protection and reshaping of cultural relics, to needle and thread repair, and finally to packaging."

Cultural relics protection and restoration talents are in demand, and the specialty setting of colleges and universities is constantly optimized

So, how to make good use of the high-quality resources of Hunan's colleges and universities to continuously inject fresh blood into the training of cultural relics restoration talents?

It is understood that Hunan Art Vocational College is the only university in our province that offers the major of cultural relics restoration and protection. "Cultural relics protection and restoration talents are very popular in the industry." Peng Erke, director of the cultural management teaching and research office of the school, said that in recent years, the employment rate of graduates majoring in cultural protection of the school has reached 100%, and the employment rate of counterparts has exceeded 80%. Many of them have entered Hunan provincial and national cultural and museum units to work.

At present, the professional courses of the school mainly offer courses such as ancient ceramic restoration, bronze restoration, painting and calligraphy restoration, actively promote the exploration of "commission training" and "order" talent training mode, and cultivate a large number of professional talents for the cultural and museum industry. Peng Erke said that in the future, the school will further expand the influence of cultural relics protection and restoration, constantly improve the construction of professional core courses, and constantly optimize the cultivation of professional skilled talents in cultural relics restoration and protection.

In the autumn of 2023, Hunan Normal University began to enroll the first batch of undergraduate students in Cultural Relics and Museology, which is the first undergraduate major in cultural relics and museum science in our province and the first undergraduate major in cultural and museum science set up among 211 colleges in central provinces.

"It is imperative to cultivate talents for the protection and restoration of cultural relics, and colleges and universities need to take active action to constantly improve the relevant education system and training mechanism." According to Ding Xinghua, lecturer of the School of History and Culture, the school is currently vigorously cultivating talents for digital protection and utilization of cultural relics, focusing on the digital collection of cultural heritage and intelligent analysis of cultural relics information and other related work, In order to provide guidance and feasible suggestions for the later protection and restoration of cultural relics. It is understood that the college and museums at all levels in the province have jointly built a talent joint training base, built a joint training and exchange platform for outstanding talents in the field of cultural relics work, and gave full play to the complementary advantages of key university think tanks and front-line institutions in cultural relics work.

In the future, Hunan colleges and universities will continue to deepen talent training, constantly explore a more scientific and effective training model, send more outstanding talents to the cause of cultural relics protection and restoration, and jointly promote the development of cultural relics protection and restoration in Hunan Province and even the whole country. (By Liu Zhendong, Huang Sijia, Chen Xinmiao)

(Source: Hunan Provincial People's Government Portal)