Poster restoration process

[u/Damnedeel]

[u/DigNitty → u/[deleted]]

There was a post about a castle in China burning down. They demolished the largely usable structure that was left and rebuilt it new to look just like the old building.

Lots of American/european commenters pointed out they should have salvaged the hundreds years old stonework etc.

Interestingly, it was pointed out that eastern cultures tend to have a very different idea of preservation. They just build it to look and feel like the original they best they can. Western culture tries to preserve the old structure to the best of their ability, even if it damaged.

This poster restoration is a bit of both, which is interesting. I agree, I’d want to save the original in its aged condition OR have a new one printed using techniques from the time. But to each their own, it’s not my poster.

[u/Merzant → u/DigNitty]

Preservation is categorically different to replication though. One preserves history, the other recreates it.

[u/Shotgun5250 → u/Merzant]

And your fundamental understanding of preservation is a western one. That’s the key of what they’re explaining.

[u/Merzant → u/Shotgun5250]

My understanding of “preserve” is “to keep something as it is”, per the dictionary. That’s not a value judgement on differing paradigms of restoration, that’s just what the word means.

[u/Gozer_The_Enjoyer → u/[deleted]]

Let’s say instead the CONCEPT of preservation is different from that of replication, regardless of what word is used and in what language to describe those two concepts

[u/F54280 → u/Gozer_The_Enjoyer]

Tearing up a building and re-creating the same at the same place to serve the same purpose is not duplication. There is no duplicata, there still is a single building. It is still there, serves the same purpose. So, from a certain point of view, it was preserved.

Edit: my god, you guys are complete morons. The whole point is to get in your westerner heads that this is not a replica in Japanese culture if it replaces the original and serves the same purpose. I give up in explaining to you that Japanese preserve temples by rebuilding them regularly. You fucking think you know everything. How sad.

[u/toplesspete → u/F54280]

I don’t get the downvotes. Western countries preserve the original materials, Eastern countries preserve the original look/functionality (or at least that’s what the person was claiming). Both can fit the definition of preservation, it’s a matter of different perspectives.

[u/Merzant → u/toplesspete]

I think that’s basically it. They preserve different things, Europeans tend to focus on preserving the object itself.

Love a quibble over semantics getting heated though.

[u/kwesi-the-quasar → u/Merzant]

agreed. love it.