October 11th was an exciting day for Chinese exhibitors at the
current 54th
Frankfurt
Book Fair. A symposium of "Chinese Culture in Europe" and a
presentation of Chinese books and copyrights were held in the
Concorde Room of Hall 4. This is the first time China has had the
opportunity of displaying its cultural treasures at the annual book
fair.
Five Sinologists were invited to the symposium. They each talked
from different perspectives about Chinese book collections and
Chinese literature research in European countries.
Ms. Dr. Nathalie Monnet, from the Division of Oriental Manuscripts
at the National Library of France, pointed out that the earliest
Chinese books to enter the country's Royal Library (now the
National Library) were from 1668; one of them was a text on
mathematics. As a specialist in Dunhuang studies, Monnet made
particular mention of the thousands of manuscripts her library has
collected from Dunhuang. She and her colleagues are currently
working on a computer catalogue of these manuscripts and are
planning to have them reprinted. The project is expected to be
completed by 2005.
Mr. David Helliwell, director of the Department of Oriental Books
at Oxford University's Bodleian Library, examined the reasons why
Chinese books were collected in the past, present, and in the
intervening centuries. The Bodleian Library opened its doors to
readers on November 8, 1602, almost exactly 400 years ago. Chinese
books have been part of the collection from the very beginning.
Helliwell put forward an important question for the Internet age:
"Will, what is here today still be here tomorrow? If it is not, how
can a scholar be sure they ever really existed?"
After books have been collected, what do people do with them?" Mr.
Dr. Johann-Michael Streffer from the State Library of Berlin,
Germany, posed this question during his speech centring on "finding
a gateway to the great hall of Chinese knowledge" in an effort to
make clear to readers what has been written in these books. He is
anticipating a new way of cataloguing Chinese books which will
assist Westerners search these resources as quickly as
possible.
Ms. Barbara Mittler, who works with the Sinologistic Seminar
section at the Heidelberg University, continued on from Streffer's
topic. She endeavored to explain to readers how many interesting
thoughts and stories are contained within Chinese books. In
addition, she said her seminars also make use of newspapers,
journals, TV programs and even people's real life experiences to
promote the Chinese culture. She presented a slideshow showing the
"new female" image of the 1910s and told stories of a Chinese
character created by famous writer Lu Xun, sending waves of
laughter rippling through the conference room.
"There's no other country in the world which cherishes its
collection of books more than China," Mr. Prof. Dr. Lutz Bieg, from
the East Asia Department of the University of Cologne, began his
speech. He proposed that China and Germany conduct cultural
dialogues as well as political and economic exchanges. He said he
was pleased to find Liao Zhai Zhi Yi (Strange Tales of a
Make-do Studio) on the Internet in both Chinese and German.
After the symposium, China donated the German-edition copyrights of
50 categories of Chinese books to a German publishing house, 167
first-class Chinese books in 100 categories to the library of
Heidelberg University, and 183 foreign language books in 150
categories to the State Library of Berlin.
The activities were sponsored by the General Administration of
Press and Publication of the People's Republic of China, the State
Council Information Office and China International Publishing Group
(CIPG). Mr. Huang Youyi, vice-president of CIPG, presided over the
symposium and the presentation ceremony.
(china.org.cn by staff reporter Li Jinhui, October 14, 2002)