Shan Jixiang: From "Gatekeeper of the Forbidden City" to "World Heritage Watchman"

▲Shan Jixiang was interviewed by Xinhua Daily Telegraph. Photo by Wu Yi

Shan Jixiang, who is nearly seventy years old, wearing his signature black cloth shoes, set off again.

In 2021, he served as the initiator and cultural guide, completing the recording of the first two seasons of the country's first World Heritage revealed interactive documentary program "Ten Thousand Miles to Ride". Especially in recent months, with an average recording cycle of one program every two days, he has led the "Wanli Youth Group" to visit 12 heritage sites in 7 provinces and cities such as Henan, Jiangxi and Fujian. These sites are widely distributed and have their own characteristics, including the first projects inscribed on the World Heritage List in China in 1987, the latest World Heritage projects in 2021, and projects listed in the Preliminary List of World Heritage and striving to become World Heritage Sites.

In addition to visiting the heritage sites, he communicates with local heritage researchers and conservators, tastes local cuisine, and experiences non-genetic inheritance... In many different ways, the World Heritage Site, which carries human creation and thought, will be brought into the daily life of ordinary people through the screen.

At the Dongcheng Cultural Development Research Institute in Beijing in the Huangchenggen Ruins Park, Shan Jixiang was interviewed by a reporter from Xinhua Daily Telegraph. Talking about the current state of life, he laughed and said: "I have been retired for almost three years. It felt like I hadn't retired, and I had to get up early every day to go to work, but the place to go to work became uncertain. ”

Today, he is still busy with his work, in addition to initiating and producing "Ten Thousand Miles of Single Riding", he also participated in a program about Beijing's urban planning, and at the same time toured major universities to give lectures, of course, he also wrote books.

Talking about his writing plans, he laments that "he finally had time to sort out material that he wanted to write but didn't have time to write," and that he was able to get away from his busy routine and meetings and have more time to write. In addition to the content related to the Forbidden City, his writing topics also involve cultural heritage protection, urban planning, and revitalization of historical buildings. "Over the decades, I have written more than 70 books." Shan Jixiang concluded.

After taking up his new post at the Palace Museum, he spent five months traveling through 9,371 rooms in 1,200 buildings in the Forbidden City. There are also data that from 2012 to 2018, he gave 1185 lectures, more than 2000 hours. Until now, he has followed a strict schedule every day, and has invested his enthusiasm and diligence on the road to cultural heritage protection.

"On average, you have to walk 10,000 to 30,000 steps a day." In the face of reporters' questions, he roughly estimated his daily itinerary, and did not forget to "cutely" ridicule himself that "the day of being the torchbearer of the Winter Olympics walked the least, only 60 meters.".

Towards the end of the second season of "Ten Thousand Miles and One Ride", Shan Jixiang returned to Beijing and spent 24 hours on the central axis he was most familiar with. The soldiers of the "Wanli Youth League" divided into two routes, starting from the two ends of the central axis- the Bell and Drum Tower and the Yongding Gate, all the way to the south and all the way north, and finally met in Tiananmen Square, accompanied by the sunrise to see the five-star red flag rising.

"Through this scene, we want to tell people that cultural heritage is closely related to the survival of human beings today, to our cultural heritage, and to everyone, and contains a very wide range of contents." Shan Jixiang said, "Therefore, we must clearly explain the connection and significance of cultural heritage and everyone's real life." In fact, every day we may walk in the cultural heritage and feel the charm of the cultural heritage, which is of great help to real life. ”

"Cultural heritage is not only historical, but also present, but also moving towards the future"

Reporter: From "gatekeeper of the Forbidden City" to "Watchman of the World Heritage", after retirement, you went from "walking through every corner of the Forbidden City" to "measuring the Chinese World Heritage with your feet", how did you feel about this change? Why did you choose to use variety shows to promote the protection of world heritage?

Shan Jixiang: In the past, in the Forbidden City, I had to walk tens of thousands of steps a day, and I would also communicate with the audience and ask them what they needed, but more importantly, it was to check safety, environmental sanitation and other work; including working in the cultural relics department before, going to various heritage sites, and also carrying tasks to promote the work. Now going to many heritage sites is different, through the program to lead the audience to these world heritage sites, telling the story of the heritage sites.

China is one of the countries with the most World Heritage Sites. Many heritage sites are well known, and there are many heritage sites that people can't name; some, people have been there, but most, people rarely go. In fact, World Heritage is the most important and valuable part of our cultural and natural heritage. But a lot of it hasn't entered people's lives yet, it's not become people's knowledge, so I think it should be introduced to more people and let people understand.

I have always been engaged in heritage conservation, and I have been to various heritage sites a lot, and I have a different experience every time I go. I just want to share these experiences with you through the form of the program.

One is more familiar to everyone, like the West Lake, Suzhou Garden, Gulangyu Island, what kind of mood should we feel, or from what angle to feel the charm of the World Heritage? For example, the West Lake not only has natural beauty, but more importantly, cultural landscapes. For example, Suzhou gardens, each garden is different, not a thousand gardens, each garden owner has poured a lot of effort into creating, how to stack mountains and water, the layout of buildings, the configuration of plants, how to design furniture, have some thinking, in order to make the garden form a poetry, book, painting artistic conception.

The second is a little-known, although it is a World Heritage Site, but few people have ever visited or even heard of it, such as Huashan rock paintings, Yuan Shangdu ruins, Toast ruins and so on. We would like to introduce the status and value of such heritage sites.

There are also some cultural heritages that are widely distributed in a city, how should people visit? If you want to know about the heritage, what kind of route is appropriate. Like the 11 heritage elements of the Dengfeng "Heaven and Earth" historical building complex distributed in the vast area of Songshan Mountain, how to understand a complete concept of "Heaven and Earth"? Like Quanzhou, with the theme of "World Marine Trade Center of Song and Yuan China", how to extract this theme from the many heritage elements of Quanzhou? Such content will make people slowly familiar with world heritage and have a deeper understanding of the significance of heritage protection. Of course, linear cultural heritage such as the Grand Canal, the Silk Road, and the Great Wall need more publicity.

I especially want to share these cultural heritage topics with young people. But I find that the pace of people's lives and the state of life have changed now. Many young people's habits of receiving information are constantly changing, and the tools they use are constantly changing, using digital technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet. Therefore, video programs, such as "I repair cultural relics in the Forbidden City", "National Treasures", and "Shangxin Forbidden City", have relatively high ratings, especially the proportion of young people watching them is relatively high. If I write a book, the total print volume of a book may be 50,000 or 60,000 copies, even if a book may be read by two people, after all, it is only about 100,000 people. However, a "I repair cultural relics in the Forbidden City", which was viewed by 90 million people as soon as it was launched, is not an order of magnitude. Therefore, it is still necessary to adapt to people's habits of accepting information and do some mass cultural dissemination. This may be more appropriate to the reality of people's acceptance of information.

Reporter: The first season of "Ten Thousand Miles of Single Riding" departed from the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City, and the second season departed from Luoyang and ended on the central axis of Beijing. How do you consider the choice of heritage site?

Shan Jixiang: In the first episode of the first season of "Ten Thousand Miles of Walking Alone", we chose the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City, which has two meanings, the first, when the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City were the latest of the 55 World Heritage Sites in China, it was just successfully applied for heritage, and I hope more people can understand. The second, and more important, is the holy land of China's 5,000-year-old civilization. China's 5,000-year-old civilization has not reached a consensus in the international community. Some argue that China's 5,000-year civilization is empirical for only 3,000 years. Through the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City dating back to 5300 to 4300 years ago, including the discovery of large-scale water conservancy projects, the 5000-year history of Chinese civilization has been empirically confirmed. We wanted to tell this story well, so we chose the title of the first episode of the opening chapter.

The second season chose Luoyang as the first stop, because Luoyang is a very special city. Luoyang was one of the eastern starting points of the Desert Oasis Silk Road and the starting point of the Sui-Tang Grand Canal. The only desert oasis where the Silk Road and grand canal meet is Luoyang. Therefore, successive dynasties have built capitals here, and the cultural connotation is very rich. We wanted to use this node as an introduction, so we chose Luoyang to start. At the end of the season, the central axis of Beijing was chosen. The central axis is a 7.8 km axis of the ancient capital from the Bell and Drum Tower to the Yongding Gate. On the one hand, the overall presentation, on the other hand, focuses on the largest ancient architectural space on the central axis, which is divided into two episodes and ends in Tiananmen Square. By concluding in this way, it shows that cultural heritage is not only historical, but also present, but also moving towards the future.

Reporter: This year, you have been walking on the road for the protection and inheritance of world heritage. Looking back on this journey, how do you feel?

Shan Jixiang: The Chinese cultural heritage is broad and profound, very rich. Because of the concept of cultural relics, everyone has a different understanding, for example, some collectors believe that cultural relics are those antiquities, antiques or antiques. Archaeologists study the historical information and cultural values of excavated cultural relics. Ancient architects study the process by which buildings were built historically and how they were used rationally. But in fact, cultural heritage has a very extensive relationship with human survival and cultural inheritance, and it is closely related to everyone's real life. Therefore, we especially want to tell you that people may walk in cultural heritage every day, feel the charm of cultural heritage and the great help of cultural heritage to real life.

Through the program, we hope to let the audience feel that the original culture is so colorful and profound. Today, it is not limited to the protection of cultural relics, but has entered the era of cultural heritage protection. This transformation manifests itself in six ways:

First, heritage is not only cultural, but also natural. For example, Lushan Mountain is a cultural landscape heritage, and Wuyi Mountain is a cultural and natural heritage. On the one hand, there are both very magnificent Yamagata water systems, natural environments, and biodiversity; on the other hand, there are literati from past generations who have come here, and there are many cultural and artistic creations here, such as poetry, calligraphy, painting, and music; on the third hand, there are many cultural relics and monuments, especially like Zhu Xi, who has set up academies in Wuyishan and Lushan. White Deer Cave Academy is also a famous academy and one of the four major academies. This brings together nature and culture, and people pay attention not only to the protection of the cultural relics building itself, but also to the natural environment.

Second, cultural relics cannot be regarded as pure, static things. We visited many living heritage sites, such as Xidi and Hongcun, where people still live, and the two ancient villages have become World Heritage Sites. Especially like the ancient tea forest of Jingmai Mountain, the Brown, Dai, Lahu and Wa people live on this mountain, especially the Brown and Dai ethnic groups, which have produced Pu'er tea for generations, which is a living inheritance process.

Third, cultural heritage is not only ancient, but also modern and contemporary. It is not frozen in a historical stage, but passed down from generation to generation. For example, the Grand Canal and the central axis of Beijing are alive. The Grand Canal is still shipping, irrigating, and beautifying the city's climate and environment today. Buildings such as Tiananmen Square, the Monument to the People's Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, and the National Museum on the central axis are contemporary, but they are also part of the central axis heritage.

Fourth, cultural heritage is not only a point, but also a surface, such as Quanzhou and Jingmai Mountain are a range. But it's not just a face, it's also a line. For example, the central axis of Beijing, the Great Wall, the Tea Horse Ancient Road, the Grand Canal, and the Silk Road are cultural routes. It is not only a route for commodity trade, but also a corridor for cultural exchanges, which not only drives the development of surrounding towns, but also enhances cultural exchanges in history.

Fifth, the protection of cultural heritage is not only to protect those palaces, temples and monumental buildings, but also to protect the buildings and environments in which ordinary people live, live and work. For example, a large number of historical districts, including Fujian Tulou, Kaiping Diaolou and other vernacular buildings. There are also those commercial and industrial heritage. These are all pinned on people's nostalgia for generations.

Sixth, and what we pay more attention to in the program, cultural relics protection is to protect the material heritage, but a large number of intangible heritage is displayed in the program, and almost every episode has the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, traditional crafts, local folklore, and regional culture. We wish to tell you that intangible heritage and tangible heritage are inherently an indivisible whole.

Reporter: Please share with us one or two of the stories related to the protection of cultural heritage during the recording process, and you feel the most deeply.

Shan Jixiang: In each episode, we can feel the efforts and hardships of local cultural relics workers to protect heritage. For example, there is a family of three generations guarding the Wudang Mountains; the grandfather who guards the ruins of The Toast, now his children have taken over the work of guarding. For example, the director of the Lushan Monitoring Center, her family of four generations in Lushan, involved in the protection of cultural relics.

For example, in the Dazu Stone Carving, everyone sees that the Thousand Hands Kannon is very well repaired, but what everyone does not know is the appearance of the Thousand Hands Kannon before it was repaired. Especially after the Wenchuan earthquake, a large number of fingers of the Thousand Hands Guanyin have diseases, and some hands even have one or twenty kinds of diseases, and the cultural security personnel have established files for each hand and carefully repaired them with ten years, the process is very difficult, and many cultural security personnel have been injured.

There is also the first director of the Dazu Rock Carving Museum, Guo Xiangying, who is more than 80 years old this year and has guarded the Beishan stone carvings for more than 20 years. He is not simply a daily caregiver, but a serious study. Today he is able to tell in detail the story and value of these stone carvings. He also spent more than 2 years painting a 23-meter-long scroll to clearly record the situation of the Beishan stone carvings at that time. It has been exhibited in front of World Heritage experts and contributed to the application for the Dazu stone carvings.

There are many heritage workers and local people in each heritage site, and the efforts made to these cultural heritages and the love they have shown for them are very touching.

Young people visiting museums is no longer a "visit here", but to enjoy the culture

Reporter: Last year, the World Heritage Conference was held in China for the second time. In your opinion, what are the achievements and shortcomings in the current work of protecting and inheriting cultural heritage in the mainland? How can we do a good job in the protection and inheritance of cultural heritage?

Shan Jixiang: In recent years, the protection of cultural heritage has developed greatly, and how to "make the cultural relics collected in the Forbidden Palace, the heritage displayed on the vast land, and the words written in ancient books come alive" is an endless work, and the current gap is relatively large. Today, our museum has expanded from only 200 to 300 million visits a year to 500 million or 600 million. But I don't think we can be satisfied with this, because compared with the total population of 1.4 billion people, it is an average of two people who only enter the museum once a year, which is too far from the visit data released by some countries, one person enters the museum two or three times a year. Therefore, we must continue to think about how museums can display more cultural relics, how to tell the story of cultural relics, open more places, and more ancient buildings are rationally used after repair, rather than "locking" them up and putting them on the shelf. I think that the more rationally used, the healthier the cultural relics will be; the more closed they are, the faster they will decay.

Today's restoration and protection technology for cultural relics should be combined with the development of modern science and technology, and more new technologies should be applied to the protection and daily maintenance of cultural relics. For example, the establishment of the Palace Museum Cultural Relics Hospital is to use a large number of new technologies, each restoration of a cultural relics must first be diagnosed, a diagnostic report, a restoration plan, and then scientific restoration; rather than repairing it as new as possible, to maximize the preservation of the historical information of cultural relics, do not change the original state, so that cultural relics can "prolong life", rather than "rejuvenation". Apply science and technology, scientific concepts to guide restoration, and there is still a lot of work to be done today.

Grassroots cultural relics institutions, whether they are repairing ancient buildings, cultural relics restoration, scientific research or cultural services, should be strengthened. Many grass-roots institutions are now unable to meet the needs of cultural relics protection tasks. For example, a large cultural relics county may have hundreds of cultural relics protection units, but often only a few staffing. It is difficult for these employees to take on so many protective tasks. If the institution is sound, more cultural relics protection workers can participate in the protection of cultural relics, so that cultural relics can be continuously protected.

Reporter: You have repeatedly mentioned that you want to make cultural relics "alive". Under your leadership, the Palace Museum has entered the cultural and creative industry, closely following the needs of contemporary young people, creating a lot of "explosive models", and also causing museums around the world to follow suit. Creating cultural and creative IP has become a common phenomenon, how do you think about this phenomenon?

Shan Jixiang: The Palace Museum's research and development of cultural and creative products and encouragement of cultural creativity is to infect more audiences, especially those who come to the Forbidden City and those who do not have the opportunity to come to the Palace Museum, so that people can better understand the Palace Museum. That is to say, how to integrate the culture of the Forbidden City into people's real lives? This requires the development of cultural products of digital technology. For example, a variety of online exhibitions are held through the Internet; various cultural, collectible, and architectural content is presented through APP. For example, the "Daily Forbidden City" pushes a piece (set) of pictures and texts of the Forbidden City collection information every day. For example, through digital technology, some short videos, images and some activities that people can participate in.

On the other hand, the cultural and creative products of the Palace Museum often come from the observation of people's real lives, excavate what people need in their lives, and then combine with the cultural resources of the Palace Museum, so that cultural and creative products can enter people's real lives, because it is not only informative, but also practical. By the end of 2018, the Palace Museum has developed 11,900 kinds of cultural and creative products, which cover all aspects of people's lives. Accompanied by traditional culture, many people slowly love the cultural and creative products of the Forbidden City, and also participate in the dissemination of culture, expanding the influence of the Forbidden City.

I feel that a generally acceptable experience is that cultural and creative products must highlight the word "creativity", not to imitate, copy, or copy a category or a museum's products, but to go deep into their own cultural relics warehouses and dig into the little-known historical details behind movable and immovable cultural relics. The second experience is that we must observe people's real lives in detail, especially the cultural needs of young people, and connect and combine cultural resources with people's actual needs, so that we can produce good cultural and creative products, and only then will we produce cultural and creative products that people love and are willing to take home.

Reporter: In recent years, various cultural and cultural variety shows and performances have emerged in an endless stream, and high-quality programs such as "Tang Palace Night Banquet" and "Only This Green" have frequently appeared on hot searches.

Shan Jixiang: With the continuous improvement of material living conditions, people hope to have more enjoyment in terms of culture. At the same time, the pace of modern life is relatively tense, so people tend to use their free time, especially the fragmented time of waiting for a car and taking the subway to receive information. The popularity of mobile phones has made tools more convenient. Therefore, cultural communication must adapt to people's living conditions, and information can be received within three or five minutes, and information can be received in different places. Therefore, new communication methods, including short videos, are gradually becoming popular with people. For example, not long ago, the Dongcheng Cultural Development Research Institute in Beijing held an exhibition called "One Yuan 'Zhong' Beginning - 2022 Beijing Central Axis Special Exhibition", which spread well on the Internet. This is the "small activities and big media", through the media to spread the exhibition content. The so-called "big media" is that its content is attractive, and people's attention to these contents is enough for more than 10 minutes, and it is impossible to watch it for a long time. But the effect of these 10 minutes is very good. Including our "Ten Thousand Miles To Ride Alone" is also getting higher and higher ratings, especially attracting young people. These all show that people choose through their fingers. Now there is too much content, too many programs, and it is necessary to try to attract people to choose.

Keeping the "original intention" is to "choose a career and live a lifetime"

Reporter: You once wrote an article pointing out that "civilization 'does not ask questions about the west and the east', and only when it is open can we learn from each other." Over the years, you have also been committed to the dissemination and promotion of traditional culture. In your opinion, how should traditional culture "go out"? How can we tell the Story of China, especially the story of traditional Chinese culture, and convey China's voice to the world?

Shan Jixiang: Human culture is diverse, and all ethnic groups in the world have created brilliant and colorful cultures in their own historical development. Different cultures and civilizations should be open to mutual learning and common development. Therefore, we must enhance mutual understanding, and only through mutual understanding can we achieve mutual benefit and common development. We have to understand the world, but we also want the world to know us. Therefore, we must go out and tell the Chinese story to the world. For example, the Palace Museum holds the "Taihe Forum" every year, which invites experts, scholars and government officials from ancient civilizations around the world to discuss how different cultures can develop together.

Another way to tell the story of China to the world is to declare it a World Heritage Site. World Heritage sites are recognized by UNESCO through a rigorous process. Each World Heritage Site has a "prominent universal value" in the sense of the whole world. Such a heritage, the value transcends the nation and the country, and becomes the common heritage of all mankind. In the process of declaring a World Heritage Site, UNESCO will entrust heritage experts to visit and will also collectively deliberate at the Heritage Assembly before it can be inscribed on the World Heritage List. Therefore, active participation in the cause of World Heritage can get the attention of the whole world and have the opportunity to tell the story of China to the world.

Reporter: After retirement, you still choose to continue to devote yourself to heritage protection, how do you maintain your enthusiasm and diligence for your work, and how do you keep your "original intention"? Can you share your life experience with today's young people?

Shan Jixiang: Actually, I have been very close to cultural heritage since I was a child. My father studied literature, especially classical literature, and when I was young, my father often took me on tour of various monuments. Many of these monuments later became World Heritage Sites. Later, I went abroad to study, and I studied the protection of historical and cultural neighborhoods. After returning to China, he worked in the planning department and came into contact with many historical buildings and cultural relics. Later, he was transferred to the cultural relics department, and there were more opportunities to deal with cultural heritage.

In a person's life, sometimes the work will be relatively stable, and sometimes the work will often change. My work experience has actually changed more than 10 times, I was an architect, engaged in planning and design, soon I went to urban planning management, then transferred to cultural relics protection, and then became a museum director... The work involves architecture, urban planning, cultural heritage protection, museums, etc., which are actually different fields. How can these experiences be integrated and integrated, and how can we enter a whole new field? My experience is to look back at my past experiences and analyze what can be applied in new jobs. People should constantly adapt to the changing state, study hard, and strive to enter the role as soon as possible, so that they can work fully and confidently in their new positions.

Keeping the "original intention" is to "choose a career and live a lifetime", I have been engaged in work related to cultural heritage, and I will do this in my life. Like the conservators of cultural relics at the Palace Museum, like the staff who quietly paid in various heritage sites, like the athletes who won glory for the country at the recent Winter Olympics, they are also like this. Of course, with the change of the times, with the needs of the country you may change the position, but what remains unchanged is to have a "original intention" that can make their own contributions to social development. Therefore, if young people want to achieve something, they must keep their "original intention" and "choose a career and live a lifetime". (Liu Xiaocao)

Source: Xinhua Daily Telegraph