Restorers preserve ancient books for posterity

Timeless knowledge is being protected for the future. Chen Meiling reports from Beijing, with Feng Zhiwei in Changsha.

Shi Wenlan said the only thing that interests her is dealing with smelly, moldy, centuries-old books.

"I don't want to drink, I don't want to eat or move. I like sitting alone under the warm lights, mending holes and cutting pages. I'm a boring person, but I'm doing an interesting thing," she said.

In the past 26 years, the 51-year-old restorer of ancient books at the Hunan Library in Changsha, capital of Hunan province, has brought about 100,000 pages of ancient books back to life, sometimes from nothing but flaky remnants. Her work helps to ensure that ancient knowledge can be retained, read and appreciated by people today.

Shi has great faith in her little-known job. "Ancient books are nonrenewable, precious documents and important achievements of Chinese civilization. To restore them is to rescue cultural relics that are dying out," she said.

Books age and decay over time. Though technology－such as accurately controlled temperatures and humidity levels－can be used to slow the process, a number of old books are on the verge of perishing forever, experts said.

At the Hunan library alone, a third of its 680,000 ancient books are in urgent need of restoration, which means each of its eight restorers needs to complete 3,000 pages a year, said Liu Xueping, director of the library's special collection department.

"Still, the pages are deteriorating quickly, which puts great pressure on our work," Liu said.