About

Cultural heritages are the flux of the wisdom and affect of those who come before us, vividly demonstrating particular lifestyles and values of different groups in their time-space with architecture, objects, crafts, and cultures. Cultural heritages witness historical memory and identities, as well as the diversity of human civilizations. The conservation of cultural heritage thus is essential both from the national and global perspectives. Relying on the sensational relics of historical trades and cultural exchange in the Han and Tang Dynasties, the contemporary “Belt and Road (B&R)” seeks mutual understandings and reciprocal development in business, technologies, and cultures of all entities involved. Among this calling, the research, conservation, inheritance, and communication of cultural heritages of the Belt and Road regions demand to establish its own discourse. As a discipline, heritage conservation in China should reflect its own history and the current time-space, participating in the global research of cultural heritage conservation with China’s perspective.

China-Portugal Joint Laboratory of Cultural Heritage Conservation supported by the Belt and Road Initiative (JRBLI) is one of the nineteen B&R Joint Laboratories granted by the national Ministry of Science and Technology in Sep, 2020 (the second round), as a strategic platform for the technological innovation on the national level. JRBLI is based in Soochow University in China, and co-established by the City University of Macau and the University of Évora in Portugal. With the principle of “sharing, responding, enabling, leading,” JLBRI aims to serve the needs for communication, collaboration, and development among B&R regions, providing a comprehensive platform for research and industrial entities interested in cultural heritage history and theories, cultural heritage conservation technology, digital conservation of cultural heritage, and the international education and communication of cultural heritage conservation.

JRBLI is supervised by an academic committee, organized by a directorial team, consisting of six research institutes, three branches of bases, a journal, and a general office. The size and composition of the team is expected to be expanded internationally in two to three years.

JRBLI defines itself as an open international platform for cooperation that connects global research and teaching institutions, industrial partners, and governmental entities. With these joint forces, we envision JRBLI as the center of innovative research in the B&R region cultural heritage conservation, and a motivator for new talents in this area.

Ad astra per aspera.