Inside the Forbidden City, within a lab-like workshop, restorers are undertaking a meticulous effort to preserve the sprawling palace’s historical treasures.
A fragment of glazed roof tile, bearing a mysterious dark patch, undergoes analysis in a state-of-the-art X-ray diffraction machine.
The resulting images, projected onto computer screens, hold clues to the discoloration’s origin.
“We want to learn what the black material is,” explains Kang Baoqiang, one of the Forbidden City’s restorers.
“Whether it’s atmospheric sediment or the result of substantial change from within.”
Understanding the nature of the discoloration is crucial for developing effective preservation strategies.
This scientific approach is just one facet of the team’s work. Around 150 specialists blend cutting-edge technology with traditional restoration techniques to safeguard the museum’s vast collection of more than 1.8 million relics.
From scroll paintings and calligraphy to bronzes and ceramics, the team meticulously cleans, repairs, and revives these artifacts.
Their work also extends to ornate antique clocks, gifts from early European visitors to China’s emperors.
These intricate timepieces, now historical relics themselves, receive the same meticulous care as the palace’s more traditional treasures.
Elsewhere in the workshop, the delicate work of textile restoration unfolds. Two restorers painstakingly patch holes in a panel of patterned green silk, adorned with the Chinese character for “longevity”.
Using a technique called “inpainting”, they carefully add color, ensuring the repairs blend seamlessly with the original fabric.
The piece is believed to have been a birthday gift to Empress Dowager Cixi, the power behind the throne in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Much of the work is laborious and monotonous, and takes months to complete.
“I don’t have the big dreams of protecting traditional cultural heritage that people talk about,” says Wang Nan, one of the restorers.
“I simply enjoy the sense of achievement when an antique piece is fixed.”
Now a major tourist site in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City is the name that was given to the sprawling compound by foreigners in imperial times because entry was forbidden to most outsiders. It is formally known as the Palace Museum.
Many of its treasures were hurriedly taken away during World War II to keep them from falling into the hands of the invading Japanese army.
During a civil war that brought the Communist Party to power in 1949, the defeated Nationalists took many of the most prized pieces to Taiwan, where they are now housed in the National Palace Museum.
Beijing’s Palace Museum has since rebuilt its collection.
Restoration techniques have also evolved, said Qu Feng, head of the museum’s Conservation Department, though the old ways remain the foundation of the work.
When we preserve an antique piece, we “protect the cultural values it carries,” Qu said. “And that is our ultimate goal.”
