The preservation of Chinese cultural relics is developing
positively, however, sustainable development hinges largely on
human resource development. China will therefore begin training and
granting accreditation to cultural relics preservation personnel in
2003.
Shan Jixiang, director of the State Administration of Cultural
Heritage, made the announcement in Beijing on Saturday during a
national meeting for personnel.
Currently, he said, some local governments use cultural relics
administrations as repositories for incompetent employees, which
works to the detriment of cultural relic preservation. China
currently has 70,000 persons working in the field, of whom only 12
percent had attended higher education institutions.
In
December 2000, at the Temple of Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC) in Qufu
city of east China's Shandong
Province, local personnel splashed water and used abrasive
materials to clean the ancient architecture, which led to the
damage of 22 cultural relic sites to varying extent.
Confucius, who lived during the late Spring and Autumn Period (770
BC - 476 BC) of ancient China, was said to have lectured 3,000
disciples while seated at the rostrum inside the Temple of
Confucius, which was placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in
1995.
Shan said that destructive actions such as this still go on in
China.
China should grant accreditation for the distinct aspects of
cultural relics preservation, including the leadership of
archeological teams, restoration, sales, auctions and preservation.
Since there are some problems with the reconstruction of historic
Chinese, China should also establish a special license for relic
protection projects which could be further categorized into
planning, implementing and supervising.
The science of cultural relics is a multi-disciplinary field for
which China has provided inadequate training, he noted. Excellent,
specialized young professionals should be assigned to key posts and
wide-scale training should commence immediately.
He
went on to say that Chinese colleges and universities, as well as
scientific research institutes, should prepare professionals in
cultural relics protection. In addition, he added China will soon
establish four research centers, namely, the theoretical research
center, the technological protection center, the information center
and the ancient architectural maintenance center.
According to Shan, teaching materials will be ready in the first
half of 2003.
(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2002)