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Restoration crucial to preserving cultural heritage

Whether or not to restore cultural sites damaged in the 921 quake was the topic of a conference yesterday attended by experts from local universities and specialists in cultural preservation from Japan.

The preservation of cultural sites is not a difficult question, according to the Japanese specialists. The problem lies in deciding what should be restored or reconstructed and what should not.

"I'm personally and professionally for restoration," said Murakami Yasumichi, conservation architect from Japan's Hyogo prefecture board of education.

"Restoration is not only cheaper but also faster. What's more important is that restoring has a more sentimental meaning. Taking care of cultural assets is like looking after an elderly person. It needs day-to-day tender loving care."

Yesterday's conference was sponsored by the Yaoshan Cultural Foundation (°]1Ϊk?H¼Ö?s?å±°òª÷·|) and the Taiwan Railway Administration (¥xÆWÅK¸ôº2z§½).

One focus of the conference was a one-story train station in Chichi built during the Japanese colonial period. Chichi was the epicenter of the quake and the station was badly damaged.

"We hope that the restoration of the Chichi train station can serve as a role model for other historic sites also damaged in the earthquake," said Chiu Ju-Hua (¥C|pµØ), the executive director of Yaoshan.

Adachi Yuji, a professor at Kobe University, said conservation of cultural property usually faces three major problems: time, people and money.

"After the Kobe earthquake, we had a lot of people volunteer to help, so human resources were not a big issue," he said. "However, time and money were."

"There is no problem for us to provide you with information on restoration techniques," Yuji said. "The question is whether you want to rebuild or restore. It is a question which requires a lot of careful thinking, because once cultural property is gone, it's gone forever."

Nantou County lawmaker Chen Chen-Sheng (3¯®¶2±) said he also supports the idea of restoration.

"After talking with the managing director of the Taiwan Railway Administration both of us agreed that we're for the restoration of Chichi station and pledge to do whatever we can within our power to fulfill that goal," Chen said.

Professor Hsu Yu-Chien (®}¸Î°·), of Hua Fan University's (µØ±ë?j¾Ç) architecture department, has conducted a personal inspection of the Chichi station. He said earthquake-proof enhancement should be taken into account when restoring the station.

He said that the 921 earthquake left the entire Chichi station with a 30-degree tilt to the left because the building's structural support was damaged and could no longer support the weight of the roof.
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