Paper Cutting : ( English Transition )


The Old Business is now the New Professional

        Shanghai is a place where is famous for almost owing half of the antique realm in China , there are about 200,000 people collecting antiques , however , the talents of authentication are  not enough.

        Recently, the antique business is now the new professional , a lot of people who desire to become  an authenticator singed up for the antique courses . The training school in Shanghai run by the government was recently allowed to start the antique authentication course which  attracted  many people to sign up and the number of being recruited was more than expected. The degree of popularity  is obvious .

        The " Lan Sing " Career Development  training school located  at Wongpao area ,  started the authentication of antique course on 18 January this year. The duration of the course was about 3 to 4 months , the fee was RMP 2000/- for Grade5 and RMP 2800 /- for Grade  4. According to the principal Mr Cai Lan Zhang told us that there were total of five grades for the antique authentication practitioner , the school for the time being only conducted for grade 5 ( assistant antique authenticator) and grade 4 ( Antique authenticator ). As for grade 3 ( Senior Antique authenticator ), grade 2 (  Antique Professional ) and  grade 1 ( Senior Antique Professional ) were still lack of . The talents of today shanghai were  mostly remain at lower grade, not many of them were eligible for  higher grade.

        Mr Cai Lan Zhang told  that the training school was the first  to conduct the antique   authentication course in the country except  the private teaching . The response of the first recruitment was very good  which resulted in many people asking for  the  2nd course before it would commence to recruit in June.

       As for the trainer, the schools was not lack of  many famous antique authenticator. There are many collectors , researchers , practitioners among 200,000 people of the antique circle in shanghai  .

      The leader from the upper unit of the schools Mr Zhang Yong Zhen told that 3 guidelines for conducting antique authentication courses  were : Firstly , the need to inherit  and promote the Chinese traditional . Secondly , the need to cultivate the successors for the antique business  as culture was also a property which required talents to develop. Thirdly , the need of the development of the school itself.

      According to my understanding , the antique enterprises and shops are  all over  the place in Shanghai, there are about 24 auction companies, 36  official and private Museums and 60 handicraft  shops and  about 6 hundreds to 7 hundreds antique stalls.

     However, the authenticators in Shanghai  are seriously lack of, particularly for the painting. How big is the range of antique? According to the practitioners, the range includes ceramic, calligraphy and painting, jade, coin and snuff bottle, pen holders and other stationary. Mr Cai Lan Chang told that the  students were usually employed by bank, antique market, auction company, custom, prawn shop, jewellery shop or self-employed. The first batch of students, aged range from 18 years old to 64 years old included  both local and foreigner. 

The antique professional must have a pair of sharp eyes for verification, which is equipped with a lot of knowledge derived from the teaching from the famous teacher and the effort he put  in. The school can only to provide the opportunity to see more. The school had brought numerous antiques to serve as teaching materials and also arranged the students to the antique shop and  auction company to learn and encourage them to take part in auction activities. The school co-operated  with Ji Gu Zai, Eastern Auction company etc. to serve as a base for the students  to have their practical learning.

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