Lin Yingchun(Linda), who has been announced as the foundation Conservator for Asian Art in this month stands in the Gallery of Chinese art of the Newark Museum. [Photo by HONG XIAO / FOR CHINA DAILY]

With a strong conservation background and extensive experience working in China, Chinese-American archeologist Lin "Linda" Yingchun has joined the Newark Museum as the foundation conservator for Asian Art.

"Linda's expertise will enhance and better preserve our significant collection of over 30,000 works from Asia," said Katherine Anne Paul, curator of Arts of Asia at the Newark Museum.

As New Jersey's largest art museum, the Newark Museum has a collection of fine art from Asia considered among the best in the US.

Among the museum's objects from Asia, about 8,000 are from China, encompassing ceramics, textiles, enamels, lacquer wares and bronzes dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE).

Born and educated in Taiwan with a youthful interest in the arts, Lin came to the US for college in 1998. She started out studying comparative literature at UC Irvine, but changed her line of study to art conservation of archeological and ethnographic materials for a master's degree at UCLA.

"I realized my interest was so broad and combined so many things, and conservation is a great combination of so many things that I'm interested in," said Lin, who believes that as a discipline, arts in conservation is a combination of history, fine art, personal creation, investigation, handwork and artistic skills, all of which made her obsessed with it.

"There are very scientific approaches to conservation as well," Lin added. "In order to know how something was made, in order to know the reason why it's deteriorating and to find the best way to take care of it for future generations...I think it's just a field that really speaks to my personality and my curiosity in general."

In graduate school, Lin got a chance to go to Xi'an, one of the oldest cities in China, with one of her classmates who was from there. She worked as an intern at Shaanxi Archaeological Institute gaining first-hand knowledge of China's rich archaeology.

"I saw the amount of amazing things that are uncovered whenever there is construction and whenever there is just a lot things going on, especially in that province. That was a very important experience for me to understand the reality of Chinese archeology," said Lin.

Lin has also worked with the Seattle Art Museum, the De Young Museum of San Francisco and the Athenian Agora excavations in Greece. She said that among the countries with an ancient history and active archaeology projects, China is probably the one that has impressed her most.

Three years ago, a fellowship opportunity at the Metropolitan Museum of Art brought her to New York City, where she conducted a year-long provenance, condition and conservation study of the museum's Asian amber collection.

Because of her cultural background and linguistic skills, Lin became more and more interested in Asian art while working at Met.