The Value of Persistence and the Inheritance of Culture

A silk road cut the endless desert in half, but it was a significant connection between ancient east and west. The combination and collision of cultures brought people from different cultural backgrounds and regions together. These cultures were static as the yellow sands in the deserts, which were intact from ancient times to the present.    

A fortunate internship to the Dunhuang Research Institute of Fine Arts helped me to reveal that the preservation of culture was inseparable from human persistent inherence. Dunhuang, Gansu Province, is a northwestern city of China. It was a desert oasis and a vital town on the Silk Road in ancient times. What I was interested in not only Dunhuang’s unique landform, also the magnificent murals. Dunhuang Mural was famous for its rich designs of buddhas, deities, ghosts, animals, landscapes, architectures and few decorative patterns which attract my interest. Mr Han was a professor in Dunhuang Research Institute of Fine Arts who works on replicating the mural in equal proportions. His mastery of facsimile skills left a deep impression in my mind. I had learned that the most important part of pencil manuscript was the murals’ reading processes. When I understood the initial intention deeply from the original murals, the strength of hand drawing could be controllable in my hand, which means that each line will reach to their purposeful directions. Inheritance of Dunhuang Mural was not only revealed by the unique technique of facsimile, but also provided Dunhuang’s culture to a new generation of people.

During the one month of studying in Dunhuang Research Institute of Fine Art, mural replicating not only requires a high precision of facsimile for me but also challenges my perseverance. Following Mr Han’s direction, replicating the basic pattern became my daily obligatory cause.    To achieve the maximum reduction on the linear structure and color’s value, dozens of practice drafts piled up one layer after another, which just like the sand in the desert, simp but this cycle repeats itself ad infinitum. However, I lost the motivation of painting under the primitive conditions. The heavy coat was no longer to resist the coldness and wet environment in the cave as the coming of autumn. Moreover, the most basic living conditions were also limited. The salty and undrinkable water had to mix with strong tea to keep the taste down. It was hard to image such people like Mr Han work in that difficult environment more than twenty years. By an accident view to the backyard of the art institute which was an endless desert. My vision followed the movement of the sand to the distant place. I suddenly realized that the mural replicating is similar with an ascetics monk who wonders in the desert with respectful and honor to the goal.

The journey seemed long and lonely to seek our pursuit. However, our contribution on the arts preserve were the most precious culture in this endless desert. At that moment, I truly realized the value of persistence and the inheritance of a culture. The persistence of researchers in Dunhuang Research Institute of Fine Arts devoted their whole lives on the replicating the murals, who forget the worldly prosperity and only keeps their initial passant and enthusiasm for this cultural inherence. The value of the persistence on cultural inheritance influences me till nowadays.