More talent needed

With a growing emphasis on cultural heritage work, a lack of talent has become a major concern attracting the attention of some NPC deputies.

Hang Kan, a deputy to the 14th NPC, who is also director of the Yungang Research Institute in Datong, Shanxi province, suggested that cultural heritage courses be better arranged at universities and efforts increased to cultivate more people who will support the protection of cultural heritage in China.

According to Deng, the cultural heritage official, among all the 760,000 immovable cultural heritage sites, more than 400,000 are architecture. However, only 737 professionals are engaged in the protection and research of ancient architecture in China, which means there is only one professional per more than 550 sites.

To tackle the problem, cultural heritage authorities and institutes at the national, provincial and lower levels have increased the number of positions with stable social security and health insurance to attract more people.

"China has so many sites, archaeological programs and museums, but only several thousand qualified archaeologists and less than 200,000 museum professionals. There is a huge demand in this area," said Pan.

"Moreover, a person's growth in this area is slow and accumulative. They may find it difficult to see their progress in just several years' work. Only after decades can they become experts. As a result, this arrangement leaves room for their growth," he added.

He pointed out that since interdisciplinary research is required in cultural heritage work, people specializing in different areas are needed.

"Generally speaking, cultural heritage majors now have more opportunities. Most of them can find a job suited to their training at universities. But their income still needs to be raised, or such jobs are less appealing compared to other professions like teaching."

Pan said the lack of talent is especially outstanding in grassroots areas, where a large number of cultural heritage sites are actually located. But few graduates want to work in these places.

He highlighted a program being carried out in Shanxi to cultivate cultural relics professionals from 2022 to 2027, which provides students with free education and requires them to work in city, regional, county and lower-level cultural relics protection institutes in the province after graduation. The expert hoped more measures could be taken to tackle this problem.

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