Grabbing history by the roots

In 2022, the Shanxi Cultural Relics Bureau announced it would launch a new major and entrust Shanxi University to train 600 cultural relics professionals for 117 counties, regions and cities in Shanxi from 2022 to 2030.

This initiative aims to address the shortage of grassroots cultural relics protectors in the province. The government pays for the students' cultivation. After they graduate, they will be offered positions at cultural relics protection institutions in their hometowns to work for at least five years.

"In this way, we can ensure to the greatest extent possible that they can take up these positions after graduation. Given their familial ties and social networks in the area, students are inclined to stay there," says Wang Xiaojuan, deputy dean of the School of Archaeology and Museology of Shanxi University.

This summer, the students were placed with the fourth national census on cultural relics, which kicked off in November last year. Following a two-day training session in early July, they began fieldwork in their respective hometowns.

Li became involved in the ongoing initiatives in Yanhu district in July. As a pioneering region for the national census, the district initiated its census operations as early as March.