Nanjing University's ancient book restoration course fills in 21 seconds

Meng Yihan, a doctoral student at the School of Artificial Intelligence, took the course by chance after seeing a poster in the library. He had expected a relaxing handicraft activity, but soon discovered that restoration required much more precision. One principle particularly impressed him: restorers repair the book, not the missing text. "Only the damaged paper can be restored. We cannot fill in text that has been lost," he said.

For Li Hui, a doctoral student in classical philology, the course changed her understanding of ancient books. After completing it, she stayed on as a student volunteer and gained opportunities to work on genuine books. "Restoration is also a process of practice and experience," she said, recalling how she repeatedly failed to align a book cover before a teacher helped her.

While hand-preservation techniques are carried forward at Nanjing University, the institution is simultaneously bringing modern technology into the mix. Non-contact scanning now allows ancient books to be digitized with less physical handling, while techniques such as acidity testing, paper-fiber analysis, and Raman spectroscopy assist conservation and restoration.

Chen Xuran contributed to this story.