Interview by Madeline, photo by Lee E'jun, Translation by Leo

大家之言

Interview by Madeline, photo by Lee E'jun, Translation by Leo

In October, the Palace Museum decided to remove all steel structures and temporary structures (14,800 sqm) within the complex as part of its grand “Safety Palace” project initiated in 2013. It means that no other architecture except the ancient buildings will have a place within the walls of the Forbidden City. This also ref l ects the central government’s strong will to protect the intactness of the former imperial palace.

今年10月，故宮博物院決定開(kāi)啟“平安故宮”工程，預(yù)計(jì)將院內(nèi)原有共計(jì)14800平方米的彩鋼房建筑和臨時(shí)建筑全部拆除。

這不僅意味著紫禁城內(nèi)將只有古代建筑，同時(shí)也代表了國(guó)家開(kāi)始重視古建保護(hù)的決心。

Dai Zhijian戴志堅(jiān)

At present, a major obstacle to the protection of ancient architecture is the practices of local tourism authorities, who are in charge of the ancient buildings. They seem to be more interested in developing and managing them as cash cows. A second problem lies in the lack of expertise and skills of some ancient building conservation teams and in the existing defective bidding and procurement processes, which have given rise to corruption.

Local governments should organize professional conservation teams to focus on preserving the rural character, integrity and originality of ancient buildings without overdoing the conservation work. Take Fujian Tulou (or earthen houses) as an example. Instead of modelling after an urban garden and building pavilions and other structures near them, efforts should be made to make them stay the way they are in a rural setting. The restoration of earthen houses, as with other ancient buildings, should be based on original materials, original craftsmanship and original practices.

I strongly urge that the following should be done∶ a return to the traditional way of making bricks in kilns; and a strengthening of the training of craftsmen to revive traditional craftsmanship on the edge of extinction such as wood, brick and stone carving, ash sculpture, clay sculpture and ceramic inlaying.

目前古建筑保護(hù)的一大障礙是地方政府將古建筑下放給旅游局，利用古建筑來(lái)開(kāi)發(fā)景區(qū)賺錢(qián)。其次，不少古建筑維修隊(duì)伍魚(yú)龍混雜，現(xiàn)有招投標(biāo)機(jī)制有缺陷，產(chǎn)生了腐敗現(xiàn)象，存在買標(biāo)、賣標(biāo)現(xiàn)象。

各個(gè)地方政府應(yīng)該組成專業(yè)的維修隊(duì)伍，注重保護(hù)土樓建筑維修的鄉(xiāng)土性、田園性、原真性，不做過(guò)分的維修。

舉福建土樓為例，其周邊不該模仿城市園林并修建亭臺(tái)樓閣，而應(yīng)該保持原本農(nóng)村的樣子。土樓乃至古建筑維修，都應(yīng)講究“三原”：原材料、原工藝、原做法。

我強(qiáng)烈呼吁：恢復(fù)原生態(tài)的磚瓦窯，生產(chǎn)合格的傳統(tǒng)建筑產(chǎn)品；加強(qiáng)工匠隊(duì)伍的培訓(xùn)，搶救面臨消失的傳統(tǒng)工藝，如三雕（木雕、磚雕、石雕），三塑（灰塑、泥塑、嵌瓷）等。

Liu Su柳肅Professor & doctoral supervisor at Hunan University School of Architecture湖南大學(xué)建筑學(xué)院教授、博士生導(dǎo)師

I agree with the idea behind the project. Though the temporary buildings to be removed are not next to any palace or hall, their very existence may spoil the view of the ancient complex. Architecture in every part of the complex should remain purely classical in style.

As China's economy continues to grow and our standard of living keeps improving, Chinese people's awareness of ancient building protection as well as our ability to protect heritage will only increase over time. At the same time, people's attitude towards traditional culture will also change. They will increasingly embrace it. More people will keep an eye on ancient building conservation work by making their voices heard via media or the internet.

我贊同“平安故宮”計(jì)劃。雖然要拆除的臨時(shí)建筑都不在主要殿堂旁邊，但是還是會(huì)影響古建筑風(fēng)貌。故宮是一個(gè)整體，它的每個(gè)角落都應(yīng)該是古典建筑的形式。

在未來(lái)，我國(guó)會(huì)逐漸開(kāi)始加深對(duì)古建保護(hù)的意識(shí)。因?yàn)楫?dāng)國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展到一定程度，我們保護(hù)文物的能力也逐漸增強(qiáng)。同時(shí)，民眾的道德觀念也開(kāi)始改變，對(duì)傳統(tǒng)文化開(kāi)始重視。越來(lái)越多人開(kāi)始協(xié)助監(jiān)督古建筑保護(hù)，并通過(guò)網(wǎng)絡(luò)和媒體傳達(dá)呼聲。

Shan Jixiang

單霽翔

Director of the Palace Museum

故宮博物院院長(zhǎng)

“Cultural heritage” is a relatively new term in China as the country is only decades into cultural heritage protection. The history of architectural heritage conservation is even shorter. Mr. Liang Sicheng, the father of modern Chinese architecture, began the study of heritage buildings in the 1930s, but was not able to initiate protection work due to various limits. Even if protection work did begin years later, they were limited to restoration. In recent years, the central government has increased funding for cultural heritage protection and related technology development. However, an abundance of funds should never mean that they could be squandered or that projects should be rushed out. Every conservation worker in the cultural heritage sector should have a down-to-earth attitude towards each and every cultural heritage item or site, and truly embrace the idea of “respecting history and science”. (From web)

“文物”一詞在中國(guó)尚屬年輕，文物保護(hù)開(kāi)始得較晚，文物建筑的保護(hù)剛剛開(kāi)始了幾十年。梁思成先生上世紀(jì)30年代就開(kāi)始了文物建筑的研究，但限于各種條件，保護(hù)工作尚未展開(kāi)，歷史上的文物建筑僅是修繕工程，還未上升到文化工程，給保護(hù)工作留下不少遺憾。近年來(lái)，國(guó)家加大了對(duì)文物保護(hù)工作資金和技術(shù)上的投入，但充盈的“錢(qián)袋”換來(lái)的不應(yīng)是保護(hù)項(xiàng)目中的浮夸與粗制濫造。去除浮躁，以沉穩(wěn)之心面對(duì)每一件文物，是我們每一個(gè)文保工作者所應(yīng)具有的工作態(tài)度；應(yīng)讓“尊重歷史、崇尚科學(xué)”的保護(hù)理念深入到每一個(gè)文保工作者心中。（摘自網(wǎng)絡(luò)）