Aaron Lee, Chih-Yuan Justin Lu, Valerie Huang, Edward Lu, Daniel Ho, Stanley Shang

Our definition of a community is the Chinese artworks in local Taiwanese museums. Through the traces of art left by those before us, we can better understand the past. In the change of times and the passage of history, in the era without mobile phones and the internet, beautifully written words and paintings with stories are quietly preserved. They tell us tales about our past, and the one who preserves and restores these stories is our protagonist- Artifact Restorers.

Art is the universal way people express ideas and thoughts. From prehistoric cave paintings to ancient scriptures to modern movies all play such a function. Since Mengtian invented the Chinese brush, our culture has been recorded on silk paper. Unlike slates or wooden boards, silk paper will wear out due to humidity and temperature. We want to let more people understand the culture behind each painting through adequate restoration and conservation processes and the care restorers show to artifacts.

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:more than 6

Our biggest struggle was to understand the historical backgrounds. In China’s 5000 years of history, from the Shang dynasty to the Qing dynasty, countless artifacts and cultural relics have been passed down. Every painting, every sculpture, every brush stroke is the wisdom of our elders. We know too little about our past, about our ancestors. Oftentimes during interviews, we struggle to understand the history behind certain artwork. But because of these difficulties we faced, we are even more eager to spread the knowledge we gained through this process with more people.

Before we did any research on this topic, we did not know how much hard work it took to become a restorer. Nor did we know how difficult it was to preserve the culture behind each artifact. And because of this, we realized how important it was to see the story behind each artwork, and how we should appreciate the efforts restorers place in order to pass down these stories.

Besides the artistic cultivation and aesthetic inspiration in the field of Chinese literature and the Chinese painting knowledge and skills learned in the seventh and eighth grades in school, we also incorporated information gathering, interview skills, data analysis, and the use of text, images, and graphics we learned in IT class to conduct the research and present our web page. Through the information research and teamwork skills, we have practiced when we were in elementary school, it became easier for us to raise better and critical questions for the interviews, which really helped us conduct the interviews with a restorer and a conservator within the limited times more effectively. And Restorer Hong Shunxing, Chief of the Registration and Restoration Dept. of National Palace Museum, and his team members shared some hardships and difficulties they encountered in their careers. Their persistence and enthusiasm are also the values stressed in our school and nation, which we should all learn from them. In addition, the concept of sustainable development is heavily mentioned and valued, we are really amazed and appreciated to learn that not just the natural resources are preserved and protected in Taiwan, our cultural relics are also carefully conserved and restored by the hands of these professional artifact restorers. Through our webpage, more people can learn about artifact restorers and appreciate Chinese fine art in the museums. In this case, I believe we also fulfill our duties of passing on Chinese culture to other people in Taiwan and the rest of the world.

First, we used Google Forms to conduct a survey and analyzed the data to understand the public's perception of artifact restorers. With the interviewer's consent, we used a voice recorder and a digital camera to record the restorer's words which helped our future data sorting. We used LINE to talk to experts. We also used the telephone, Slack, and Email to contact each other, make interview appointments, and share interview reports and research data between team members. Finally, the image editing software GIMP and Photopea are used. Besides, the code editing software, Visual Studio Code, is used to edit HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, and jQuery to make our project better.

Our team first got in touch with the restorer by phone and email for the following interviews; then by personally visiting and interviewing the restorers in the National Palace Museum and National Taiwan Museum. We designed the questionnaire, hoping to understand more about the public's awareness of artifact restoration. Our team hopes to let more people know about the work content and importance of the restorers through this project and website, and furthermore to let people notice that someone works extremely hard behind the beautiful paintings.

Through this project, we look forward to understanding more about the behind-the-scenes workers of any museum -- artifact restorers. We hope that this website we create will let more people around the world understand the rigor and the importance of artifact restorers. It is not difficult to see artifacts on television or in magazines, but not many people actually have a deep understanding of the heroes behind artifacts. We are grateful that CyberFair enabled us to research and learn about what keeps ancient cultures alive -- artifact restorers. This is what sets us apart from others. Our website can act as a hub of information for the complex job that artifact restorers have to go through every day. We encourage all people to cherish every artifact that went through a cumbersome process and such a complex work for artifact restorers. We also welcome people from all over the world to experience and learn about the National Palace Museum and our extensive culture. This project allowed us to interview artifact restorers face-to-face and learn about the sacred process of artifact restoration. In addition, we set up a survey to interact with our community, generating feedback on the level of understanding about artifact restoration as well as promoting artifact conversation. To conclude, CyberFair provided us an excellent learning opportunity.

The main reason our website turned out the way it is now is because of the contributions, advice, and help given by many people. Most credit should be given to the parents and teachers who helped us and lead us since day one. Our hardworking parents dedicated their time to help us the best they can, including scheduling appointments and classes, giving valuable comments and of course, emotional support. Furthermore, our teachers gave us plenty of advice and aided us along the way. They helped us develop and draft out our thoughts, changing ideas to actual work. We are especially grateful to our instructors, Ms. Sharon Huang and Mr. Chin for the hard work they invested to make our project better. We also sought help from people around us. We asked our friends and families about ways we could improve our web page and whether our content could be easily understood. Even the smallest advice given to us helped us improve and make our website more polished. Moreover, we sent out surveys and questionnaires via the Internet, as you can see in Link 1 and 2. Without these people willing to take a few minutes of their precious time, we would not be able to collect the data we have now. Not enough words can be used to describe how thankful we are, and our project could not be complete without them. From teachers to parents to friends, even the smallest of actions and suggestions made a difference to our project. And here, we, The Inheritors, thank all of you.

After our research and interview, did we realize that unlike the artworks of the West, Chinese calligraphy and paintings are all expressed on rice paper, so the restoration of these artifacts requires much more delicate and painstaking methods? But the most exciting and unforgettable experience would be the time when Dr. Hong introduced and described the restoration processes to us, which is just like having a conversation with the artist himself. When he showed us the actual interior of the artworks, we realized that it is quite different from the exterior! Dr. Hong shared with us that, once, he took half a year to restore an artwork called Jing Chun Tu by Castiglione. When he carefully cut open the backside of the artwork, he discovered a great secret! He discovered that Castiglione first colored the backside of the painting, just like so in the Jing Chun Tu, where he put white powder behind the red rooster in the painting. This kind of painting skill would let the whole painting seem more vibrant, and prevent paint from flaking off. This is a message that cannot be received from only looking at the front side of the painting!