Create more possibilities for cultural relics preservation

I told many people that I was very lucky. Even though I wasn't able to study archaeology, the subject of my interest in college, after graduation I was appointed to the Qingzhou City Museum, where I came into contacts with cultural relics again. I stayed at this position for over half of my life. Though I am approaching retirement, I am still able to find enjoy in the surprises that cultural relics bring me, and can share these pleasant moments with others.

My first encounter with the digitalization of cultural relics had to do with the famous Qingzhou Longxing Temple hoard Buddhist statue. Everyone who viewed the statue in person was in awe of the fineness of the exquisite, vivid sculpture. However, this raised an issue for archaeological mapping: how can we draw these fine artworks successfully and follow the regulations of archaeological mapping? Evidently, this is difficult to achieve with traditional drawing methods.

When we heard by chance that a professional team was using digitalization for grottoes protection, our team went to their working site with doubts in mind. After listening to their explanations, and seeing their work accomplishments, we decided to give it a try. We took two relics to verify the method, and the results were indeed grea. We then decided to carry out digitalization of the relics in our museum for the purpose of protection.

In recent years, our government has continued to pay more attention and provide more funding to cultural relics protection. Therefore, our digitalization of cultural relics went smoothly, and we have now approached our 7th year.

Through the gradual unfolding of the digitalization project, I have expanded my knowledge on digitalization, and I no longer take it as just a supplementary tool for archaeological mapping. This is actually a process which will accurately record the information on cultural relics. It is our fundamental work, and it is an indispensable part of archiving cultural relics. When cultural relics have their full information recorded, this not only extends their lifespan, but can also help carry forward their cultural heritage.

The digitalization of cultural relics can also make a bigger impact. For instance, we can use the technology of 3D printing to print our statues, so that when people draw sketches, their options will no longer be limited to using the Western statue of Michelangelo's David, but can also use statues created by our own artists. This will help more people understand the value of ancient Chinese sculptures, and rebuild the history of Chinese sculptures.

At the same time, using digitalization in the field of cultural relics broadened the space and shortened the time for cultural communication. With our advanced internet today, using virtual display to present cultural relics exhibitions online would make it more convenient for audiences to view our exhibitions, which would may otherwise be costly and have safety risks.

Digitalization provided us with boundless possibilities, especially after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic when audiences can no longer visit exhibitions offline, which further highlighted the urgency and importance of digitalization. We immediately displayed each exhibition hall's full-view exhibitions online, where online and offline exhibitions can bring out the best in each other.

Through actively embracing technologies of digitalization and continuously exploring new methods for cultural communication, we collaborated with different media platforms to hold "Enjoy Relics on The Cloud", "Viewing The Beauty of Longxing on The Cloud" and other online live-streaming events, which have accumulated over 3.5 million viewer-times. Since audiences do not have to enter museum to view the treasures up close, the online reactions have been strong and we reached new viewership records over and over, which opened up a new front for promoting cultural heritages.

Narrator: Wang Ruixia, Curator of Qingzhou City Museum, Shandong Province

Reported by Zhao Qiuli and Feng Fan, Guangming Daily reporter

Translated by Zhang Junye