White gowns, 3M masks, rubber gloves, dental descalers, scalpels, sanders, brush pens, scrubbing brushes, acetone, alcohol, color chips, epoxy resin, and mineral pigments, all instruments and appliances are in place for a special surgery. At 9:00 on the morning of May 9th, in a laboratory on the third floor of Qingdao Museum, a seven-member export group made up of experts from the Shandong ProvincialCultural Relics Restoration Center, as well as Qingdao Museum, ended their diagnosis, and began dedicated restoration work. In this bronze ware operating room, only a low buzzing sound is heard to break silence, a touch of alcohol and rust exfoliating metal smell spread in the air. 292 pieces of bronze ware received or are going to receive repair surgery in the ongoing bronze version “Surgeons”.

    The bronze ware restoration project began last August, just after the calligraphy and painting restoration undertaken by Qingdao Museum. According to Zhang Haiyan, a staff in the Cultural Relics Protection Department of Qingdao Museum, there are over 700 pieces of bronze wares belonging to national third or above level cultural relics in their storage, all the 292 pieces of bronze ware “patients” were selected from the storage, among which 66 were national first-level and second -level cultural relics.

    With the approaching of the scheduled deadline in June, repair work has entered an increasingly tough level—the Big Boss Patient is going to enter the field. The larger sized “severe patient” is a copper plate with double dragon-shaped ears, belonging to national first-level relics. One foot of the copper plate has been completely broken, showing a large corrosive hole. Experts told that they must figure out a mature executable program to deal with the most difficult situation, which is also the reason they left its repair to the last stage.

    Right now, Zhang Haiyan is cleaning an animal face designed bronze wine vessel with the machine dental descaler, getting rid of its surface impurities and corrosion. According to Zhang, the bronze rust would cause a large area of virus infection if not promptly cleaned up. “However, it does not mean the cleaner the better”, she added. The cleaning intensity and extent test the meticulousness and patience of the operator. In 2004, she attended the professional bronze cultural relics repair training co-organized by China and Italy in Beijing. Compared with the short-term effective chemical cleaning, she prefers physical cleaning by machines of dental descaler, scalpel and so on, which takes much more time and energy but is better for future preservation.

    After finishing a series of operations such as repairing the outer edge of a bronze container with epoxy resin and slightly polishing, Zhang Qiuyan, colleague of Zhang Haiyan, finally found time to answer the reporter’s questions. She said, “for me, a beginner, the most difficult part is coloring”. Two distinctive shaped color palettes on the table add some artistic atmosphere to the lab. Wang Yanlin from Shandong Provincial Cultural Relics Restoration Center is coloring a nail grain bronze container. He first uses a small-sized brush pen to mix different colored mineral pigment together on the palette, then tests the color on a piece of napkin, then pens on the bronze, just like creating an artistic work. Wang said, “Every piece of bronze has its unique color. You must be good at examining the subtle color difference among different surfaces. Look at this piece, its background color is a little reddish”. Wang’s rich experience won him a lot of admiration from other colleagues. Zhang Haiyan revealed that, “As to coloring, it mainly depends on operator’s personal experience and aesthetic appreciation. If asking for operator’s necessary quality for this, I think, first of all, the operator much love this job, then he or she should have a certain artistic skills and aesthetic taste”. (Li Wei)