China will borrow Egyptian techniques used to preserve the
murals in the pyramids to conserve China's ancient books.
"China's ancient books may be destroyed by acidification
within?100 years if repair techniques are not improved," Zhang
Zhiqing, director of the rare book department of the National
Library of China,?said?in an interview last
Wednesday.
Zhang made his remarks at a forum on cooperation between China
and Egypt on ancient book conservation held in Nanjing, the capital
of east China's
Jiangsu Province.
China has a significant number of such books and many are in a
poor condition, Zhang said.?Approximately one-third of them
were in urgent need of repair, he added.
The chemical alum was used in China's traditional method of
repairing and preserving ancient books but that actually caused
acidification, Zhang explained.
Because of the shortcomings of the traditional methods only
those books in most need were repaired. This resulted in a backlog
of books requiring repair, he said.
"We're now borrowing the techniques of Egypt they've used
successfully to repair murals in the pyramids," said Dai Xueyan, an
organizer of the forum.
China will send students to?Egypt to study conservation
techniques and Egyptian experts will be invited to China to train
more people in this field of expertise, Dai said.
"We hope to gain an insight into the most advanced relic repair
techniques available," Dai added.
(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2006)