On 16 April, the Award Ceremony of National Ancient Books Restoration Skills Competition & Seminar on Ancient Book Restoration was held by the National Library of China (China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books). Rao Quan, Director of the National Library of China (NLC) and Director of China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books, and Zhong Jianbo, Deputy Director of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, attended the activity and delivered a speech respectively. Liu Huiping, President of China Ancient Books Preservation and Conservation Association, tutors of ancient book restoration skills, representatives of award-winning ancient books restoration masters, experts and news media reporters attended the activity. The activity was presided over by Zhang Zhiqing, Deputy Director of the NLC and Deputy Director of China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books.

Rao Quan said that on 22 March, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Zhu Xi Garden in Fujian and pointed out: "we should pay special attention to exploring the essence of China's 5,000 years of civilization, carry forward the excellent traditional culture, combine the essence with the Marx's standpoint, and unswervingly follow the road of socialism with distinct Chinese characteristics", which deeply revealed the internal relationship between Chinese excellent traditional culture and the road of socialism with distinct Chinese characteristics. Our cultural confidence and cultural characteristics came from the continuous Chinese civilization, which had been continued for 5,000 years. The restoration and preservation of ancient books was the basic guarantee work for us to practice and inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture, which was of great significance. Rao Quan emphasized that we would also cooperate with other institutions, bear in mind the original mission of "inheriting civilization and serving the society", promote the continuous development of ancient books restoration and make greater contributions to the preservation and inheritance of Chinese culture.

Zhong Jianbo said that ancient books were valuable spiritual wealth which couldn't be regenerated. It was very important to improve the ability of ancient book restoration and promote the inheritance and development of ancient book restoration skills. In 2008, "mounting and restoration skills (ancient book restoration skills)" was listed in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage Representative Project Directory. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism had always been attaching importance to and supporting the preservation and inheritance of ancient book restoration skills. With the support of the national intangible cultural heritage conservation fund and the joint efforts of the NLC and colleagues in the ancient book restoration industry all over the country, we had cultivated a highly skilled ancient books preservation and conservation team, rescued and restored a large number of ancient books. He hoped that everyone could continue to carry forward the spirit of the times, the spirit of dedication and the spirit of science, and do a good job in the preservation and inheritance of ancient book restoration skills with a high sense of mission and responsibility.

The award-winning list of the national ancient book restoration skills competition and tutor list of the ancient book restoration skills training institutes were announced in the meeting. Rao Quan and Zhong Jianbo awarded the appointment letter to the tutors of ancient book restoration skills in Beijing, and presented awards to the award-winning representatives of ancient book restoration skills competition. The award-winning representatives from the NLC, Shanghai Library, Tianjin Library and other institutions shared the experience of ancient book restoration. The attending tutors and ancient books restoration masters had in-depth discussion and exchange on the transmission of ancient book restoration skills.

In August 2019, China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books launched the "Ancient Book Restoration Skills Competition". It was the first time to hold a nationwide skill competition with the theme of ancient book restoration since the founding of the People's Republic of China, and it was also a great review of the achievements of talent training in ancient book restoration. This competition collected nearly 100 items from 43 institutions of 21 provinces in China. After anonymous evaluation by 16 experts, 5 first prizes, 10 second prizes, 21 third prizes and 43 excellent prizes were selected. At the same time, the award-winning works and precious ancient book restoration works were exhibited together through the National Ancient Book Restoration Skills Competition and Achievement Exhibition. Up to present, more than 30,000 people had visited the exhibition, and ancient book restoration colleagues had also visited the exhibition in group. China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books carried out a series of live activities with a number of media, and the total number of views had reached 1.75 million.

Since the implementation of the Chinese Ancient Book Preservation Plan, China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books had continuously promoted ancient books restoration and talents training. Over the past ten years, 12 national training bases for ancient books preservation talents had been established, and restoration talents had been trained through various manners. Up to present, China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books had held 65 training courses, and 2015 trainees had received training. 32 ancient book restoration skills training institutes had been established, and 32 tutors had been employed. After years of efforts, the number of ancient books restoration personnel in China had increased from less than 100 to nearly 1,000. Under the leadership of all the tutors and the excellent restoration masters, major cooperative restoration projects, such as Tian Lu Lin Lang (transliteration), Gu Jin Tu Shu Ji Cheng (transliteration), and so on, had been launched successively. Over the past ten years, more than 3.6 million pages of ancient books had been restored in the nationwide.

In the future, China National Center for Preservation & Conservation of Ancient Books would continue to cooperate with other institutions to promote ancient books restoration to a new level, and make new and greater contributions to the inheritance and promotion of Chinese excellent traditional culture.