The Precious Ancient Books of Guangxi Ethnic Groups Exhibited at Shanghai Library
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On December 17, “The Cultural Relics of Guangxi – an Exhibition of the Protected Ancient Books of Guangxi Ethnic Groups” sponsored by Shanghai Library, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Library, and Guangxi Ethnic Groups’ Ancient Books Collation Office was held in Catalogue Hall of Shanghai Library. In the afternoon, experts from Shanghai and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region held a discussion on the protection of ancient books.
Guangxi is the home of 11 ethnic groups (i.e., Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Dong, Mulao, Maonan, Jing, Hui, Yi, Shui, and Gelao), especially Zhuang ethnic group. In the long historical course, they have created colorful ethnic cultures and left a great amount of precious books. For historical reasons, most of the ancient books of Guangxi ethnic groups are scattered among local people, and more importantly, they are poorly kept, and therefore are in urgent need of protection. Since the 1950’s, Guangxi provincial government has organized, for many times, experts to systematically collect and sort out the ancient books of 11 local ethnic groups, so that these precious books on ethnic cultures can be known by people. Since 2007 when the Ancient Chinese Books Protection Plan was started, 21 ancient books of Guangxi ethnic groups including Old Peasants and Three Thousand Books have been listed in the catalogue of precious ancient Chinese books, thus greatly popularizing Guangxi ethnic cultures. To better show the ancient books of Guangxi ethnic groups, the sponsors specially held the exhibition, through which, it is hoped to improve people’s awareness of protecting ancient books and strengthen their national self-confidence and pride. Since 2007, Shanghai Library has cooperated with Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Library to share resources. In these years, Shanghai Library held 15 excellent exhibitions at Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Library, including “A Photographic Exhibition of the Western Regions in China” and “An Exhibition of Selected Works of a Photo Contest Featuring Book Lovers”, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Library held at Shanghai Library “A Photographic Exhibition of Guangxi Zhuang Ethnic Group in Black”. This time, the two libraries fully tap and share the excellent cultural resources of Shanghai and Guangxi, and appeal to everybody to pay attention to and treasure cultural heritages. In the future, Shanghai Library will further enhance the cooperation, and bring more cultural feasts to local people. |