BEIJING: A Chinese university recently joined hands with a French foundation to protect cultural heritage by strengthening scientific and technological cooperation. It was the latest move of the two countries to cooperate on cultural relics preservation. Under an agreement signed last week by Northwest Normal University in China’s Gansu Province and France’s Foundation for Cultural Heritage Science (Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine), the two parties will foster exchanges and cooperation in higher education and research.
According to Namibia Press Agency, the focus of the collaboration will be on interdisciplinary cultural heritage analysis techniques. This initiative includes establishing a joint laboratory dedicated to cultural heritage preservation methods and instruments. The collaboration aims to support heritage conservation efforts in both countries through relevant research.
“This agreement aims to provide advanced scientific and technological support for cultural heritage conservation, including
the protection of murals and other heritage works,” said Emmanuel Poirault, the general director of the foundation. Lu Zhenjiang, an official from the provincial science and technology department, noted that this agreement would enhance Gansu’s research capabilities in cave art and relic conservation, building on previous collaborations with France.
As 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and France, numerous exchanges and activities in various fields have taken place. Between 2019 and 2024, Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in northwest China and France’s Foundation for Cultural Heritage Science conducted scientific studies on conserving wooden remains and earth sites. In May, a cooperation agreement was officially signed to conduct joint research on restoration techniques for protecting wooden materials at the mausoleum site and Notre Dame Cathedral.
Beyond restoration, China and France are working together on the digitalization of their heritages. In March, Chin
a’s Dunhuang Academy and France’s Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts signed a memorandum of understanding to create a digital resource library in the Library Cave of the millennium-old Mogao Grottoes. This collaboration aims to carry out systematic research, restoration, and protection of cultural relics in the Mogao Grottoes, alongside international academic seminars on cultural relics research, protection, and digital humanities.
In 2020, the Chinese academy and the French museum launched a project to globally share the Dunhuang relics discovered in the grottoes digitally. Technologies such as digitalization of relics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality were employed in the project, further solidifying the cross-national collaborative efforts in cultural heritage preservation.
