BEIJING -- Inside a futuristic exhibition center in Beijing, a two-armed robot is busy making sugar paintings. Its smooth and delicate movements attract a crowd of visitors.

The robot is acting as a "craftsperson" of this traditional folk art of Beijing, which is an intangible cultural heritage of China. But the machine also serves as both a witness to and reference point for the growing convergence of fields of knowledge with vastly different origins, a convergence that challenges the limitations of time and geography.

At the seventh International Symposium on Cultural Heritage Conservation by Digitization held at the center, hundreds of experts and practitioners from home and abroad are considering the relationship between cultural heritage and new technologies.

BOOSTING CULTURAL INHERITANCE

For many, the promotion of traditional culture is one of the areas in which technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) can play a significant role.

"AI is a booster of cultural inheritance," said Guo Chunchao, leader of Tencent Hunyuan Text to 3D, an AI model developed by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

The AI large language model technology has significantly improved the efficiency of information retrieval and modeling, accelerating the digitization of cultural heritage, he said.

His point was echoed by Yu Minjing, associate professor at the College of Intelligence and Computing of Tianjin University, who led her team to utilize VR technology to perform a molten-iron fireworks show and produce the traditional Hanfu.

With AI, the inheritance of traditional culture can overcome the limitations of space and geography, which enables a wider and more high-quality spread of traditional crafts that could only be passed on orally in the past, she said.

The integration of AI technology with VR, 3D and other technologies has helped create cloud roaming experiences, attracting young people to traditional culture, Guo said, adding that the lower creative threshold brought by AI has also brought about abundant multimedia materials related to traditional culture, which has further driven the global spread of Chinese civilization.

Konstantinos Konstantinidis, CEO of Greek digital heritage company PostScriptum, said at the symposium that he was impressed by China's efforts at revitalizing cultural heritage using both hardware and software, and he believes that for European countries, China's ideas are worth extracting.

HUMAN-ORIENTED CONSERVATION

However, some experts warned that while technology is important for preservation, it's even more important to think about the people in the process.

Renata Sansone, COO of Italy's Civita Mostre e Musei S.p.A, noted that some archaeological sites are very difficult for everybody to understand, but the use of technologies like reaction reconstruction may make a difference in engaging the public.

Her view was shared by several Chinese experts. For Yu Minjing, the process of cultural heritage preservation and inheritance requires adhering to a people-oriented approach, and the level of acceptance by users is a deciding factor for the effectiveness of cultural heritage protection.

How to optimize the feedback methods in the interaction process and enhance user experience is an ongoing and crucial issue for the development of cultural heritage preservation, she said.

For some other practitioners, enhancing the public's participation in preservation has proved effective.

Zhang Jianshuo, a member of the ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites) China Scientific Committee of Cultural Landscapes, has led his team in utilizing digital technology to develop a cloud database to explore a collaborative inspection model for professionals and the public to participate in the protection of the Grand Canal cultural heritage.

From October 2022 to October 2023, nearly 5,000 images were uploaded and over 50 issues were reported to the database by 29 volunteers and four professional engineers.

The work of volunteers not only alleviates the workload of cultural heritage inspection, but also enhances public awareness of heritage preservation, Zhang said.

On another note, "technologies sometimes cannot solve everything, and we also need policies and legislation, as well as inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional coordination," said Ona Vileikis, secretary general of CIPA Heritage Documentation, one of the International Scientific Committees of ICOMOS and a co-organizer of the symposium.

Tencent's Guo Chunchao holds a similar view, calling for closer cooperation among academia, industry and the cultural sector, with their respective strengths leveraged to jointly promote the digitization of cultural heritage preservation.