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This article was published in China Women magazine

This year, the cultural tourism market is extremely hot, and Chengdu Jinsha National Archaeological Site Park is a popular check-in spot. Tourists come from all directions to search for the historical memory of the city of Chengdu in the magnificent ancient ruins. It was Wang Jie and her team who designed the protection for this site.

Wang Jie is the head of the scientific research department of China Railway Cultural Protection Science and Technology Co., Ltd., the head of the Sichuan Province May 1st Women's Innovation Studio "China Railway Research Institute Wang Jie Innovation Studio", won the first Zhan Tianyou Railway Science and Technology Award Oriental Yuhong Material Special Award, and the National Railway Advanced Female Worker

The Chengdu Plain is vast and fertile. It has been a prosperous place throughout the dynasties. It has a large number of cultural relics and historical sites, providing a stage for cultural relic protectors to display their ambitions.

Since moving from the arid and windy northwest to the hot and humid southwest in 2020, Wang Jie has been chasing after cultural relics, constantly facing new challenges while fighting north and south. But she enjoys this process because "cultural relic protection is a practical discipline, and only by seeing more can you know more."

The Jinsha Ruins are a large capital of the ancient Shu Kingdom excavated in 2001. It is home to important relics such as the foundations of palace buildings, sacrificial activity sites, and cemeteries. Currently, the sacrificial pit ruins have shown signs of weathering and are in urgent need of protection.

However, cultural relic protection is a systematic project, which requires on-site investigation in the early stage and indoor analysis in the later stage. Only after a lot of research can a reliable plan be come up with to minimize the impact of the environment on cultural relics. Wang Jie is busy both on-site and in the laboratory for this purpose.

Cultural relic protection is not an ordinary construction project, and it cannot be simply "following the map". Chengdu is hot and humid, and cultural relics exposed to the air are prone to microbial diseases. Last year, when Wang Jie took over the construction project of the Chengdu Donghuamen Archaeological Site, he found that there were a large number of microorganisms attached to the relics. Some microorganisms secrete acidic substances, corroding the surface of the relics, making the original text or patterns blurred, so the microorganisms need to be killed.

How to kill? What medicine to use? What is the concentration? Will it affect the cultural relics themselves? Before the plan is determined, the microbial population must be identified, tested, and evaluated. After the killing, the cultural relics must be followed up for protection, because the killing of microorganisms has a time limit, and improper protection will cause them to reproduce again.

Wang Jie is conducting research on the observation and control of microbial diseases of sandstone cultural relics in humid areas

Removing pollutants from the surface of brick cultural relics is not a one-time effort. Most of the information on cultural relics is on the surface, which has become extremely fragile due to its age. We need to first understand the structure and properties of the surface materials. "We use microscopes or scanning electron microscopes to analyze the composition and properties of pollutants. Are they minerals or salts? Are they harmful or harmless? Some salts contain sodium ions and calcium ions. When they encounter sulfate ions in the environment, they will produce sulfates with expansion force, causing damage to cultural relics."

Identify the "root cause" and then "prescribe the remedy", selectively adopt technological means such as steam cleaning and laser cleaning to "protect" the cultural relics, so that they can decompose pollutants and avoid protective damage to the cultural relics.

Wang Jie has a vivid metaphor for this: "beautifying" cultural relics. "In a beauty salon, the beautician will first check your skin type, dry or oily? Are your pores large? Do you have acne or pimples? Then, they will do skin care for you based on the results of the inspection. The same is true for cultural relic protection, which can only be done 'one-on-one', and there is no one-size-fits-all approach."

Since most of the projects the team is responsible for are immovable cultural relics, Wang Jie's laboratory is usually built on the construction site, and she conducts research while working on it. This is how she produced many of her scientific research projects and achievements.

For Wang Jie, entering the cultural heritage protection industry was a bit of an accident. In 2011, after graduating from Wuhan University with a master's degree in materials science, she submitted her resume to China Railway Northwest Research Institute Co., Ltd., but after joining the company, she found that she was assigned to the company's Cultural Relics Protection Engineering Technology Center.

The Northwest Institute of Science has always focused on special geological roadbeds and geological disaster prevention and control. Could it be that it also does cultural relic protection? Wang Jie was very surprised and worried that his profession would be marginalized.

Later she learned that as early as 1992, the Northwest Institute of Science had successfully applied professional technologies such as geotechnical engineering and structural engineering to the reinforcement and protection of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. "In fact, the cultural heritage protection major is another 'trump card' of the Northwest Institute."

At that time, the center was participating in a national cultural heritage research project related to materials science, and Wang Jie's joining was just in time. Originally, the leader wanted to arrange her to work in the office and be responsible for some theoretical literature research, but after meeting her, he changed his mind and thought that this girl was "simple and smart", so he tentatively asked her if she could endure hardships, because most of the front-line projects were on construction sites. Wang Jie didn't even think about it and replied with one word: "Yes!"

In the second year of my employment, opportunities and challenges came together - the center undertook the largest ancient site protection project since its establishment: the protection of Jiayuguan Pass. The biggest difficulty was to break through the bottleneck of materials for the protection of earthen sites.

In the northwest, most of the earthen sites have "big bellies and small feet". "Some earth walls are thick in the middle and thin at the base, which are very unstable. This is the result of long-term erosion by surface water, capillary water and salt. If not protected, they will easily weather and collapse."

Soil is not resistant to water. If there is a material that does not change the appearance of the soil but can improve the microstructure of the soil and enhance its water resistance, it can effectively solve the problem of "small feet" caused by foundation erosion.

Wang Jie began to tackle the problem, "First make version 1.0, if it doesn't work, then improve it, then 2.0, 3.0, 4.0..." After countless on-site adjustments, he experienced frustration, joy, and frustration. Two years later, he successfully developed an inorganic reinforcing agent that can improve the crack resistance and impermeability of rammed earth structures. "Add it to the soil and tamp it to the base of the wall, and it will play an effective reinforcing role."

But it is not easy to use a new material for cultural relics protection. In addition to having a successful precedent, it also needs to pass multiple levels of review. Since then, people often see Wang Jie carrying the "soil block" at large and small project review meetings to demonstrate the magic of the "soil block": ordinary soil blocks quickly turn into mud when put into water, but her "soil block" is like a stone and does not melt when it comes into contact with water. She wants the experts to see and touch this "soil block" with their own eyes and hands to prove to everyone: there is no problem with our technology!

Five years later, the new material was finally recognized and granted a national invention patent. The successful completion of the protection of the ancient ruins of Jiayuguan Pass also provided a successful model for similar earthen ruins restoration projects in the future.

Having found her way, Wang Jie began to venture into a wider field of cultural heritage protection. In 2020, she led her team into the southwest region, responsible for a series of projects on the protection of grottoes in Sichuan and Chongqing.

Due to their age and environmental influences, some of the stone cultural relics in the grottoes have superficial cracks and hollows. For this reason, she developed a "superficial restoration material and technology for stone cultural relics" and used methods such as bonding and grouting to achieve the fine restoration of the cultural relics.

Regardless of bonding or grouting, the materials used are "personalized formulas" - according to the material of the cultural relics and the degree of damage, different "skin types" are suitable for different "skin care products".

The longer Wang Jie works in the field of cultural relic protection, the more he feels that he has made the right choice. "Materials science is closely related to cultural relic protection. From a materials perspective, cultural relic protection is about studying and protecting ancient materials so that they can be preserved as long and authentically as possible. This is also a unique feature of cultural relic protection."

Cultural relic protection involves the study of cultural relic materials and cultural relic diseases, and is an interdisciplinary subject that incorporates some cutting-edge technologies. "For example, drone technology can accurately reflect the plane, facade, morphology, and color of the site, and is a good helper for survey and design; digital technology can make cultural relics into three-dimensional models, which can provide researchers and visitors with intuitive references and experiences."

Cultural relics are ancient, and technology is new. When the two meet, cultural relics come alive. And "making cultural relics come alive" is one of the purposes of cultural relic protection. For this reason, Wang Jie led the team to apply for a key project: "Research on the Demonstration of Overall Protection of Cultural Relics and Innovative Utilization of Cultural and Tourism Integration under the Background of Urban Renewal". It is hoped that this will promote the revitalization and utilization of cultural relics and establish a connection between reality and history.

As an expert, Wang Jie has repeatedly made a name for herself in the industry. As a woman, she often encounters embarrassment. Most cultural heritage construction sites are outdoors. When she first started working, she was the only woman on the site, and going to the toilet was an embarrassing experience. "But people are flexible, and we need to learn to adapt to various environments. Once we get used to it, it will be fine."

When she came out as a "female general", she would attract skeptical eyes. When the 2020 Sichuan-Chongqing Grottoes Protection Series Project was launched, the other party saw "a woman" and "distrust" was immediately written on their faces. Wang Jie did not explain, but just worked hard and let the results speak for themselves. As a result, those who questioned her have now become voluntary propagandists for China Railway Cultural Protection.

Because she broke the precedent of having no female researchers in the front line of cultural heritage protection in China Railway, Wang Jie was called the "Mulan" of the front line of cultural heritage protection. But she said she dared not accept such praise: "There are many outstanding women in cultural heritage protection in China, such as Dean Fan Jinshi of Dunhuang's Daughter and Teacher Chen Huili, the 'Royal Stone Doctor' in Chongqing, who are all predecessors I admire. Compared with them, I am just an ordinary young man, and I still have a lot to learn and do in the future."