Knowledge From North
The recent Chinese Book Fair showed Nepalese people’s growing interest in culture, development and transformation of their northern neighbor China
By KESHAB POUDEL
When Eleventh Nepal Education and Book Fair 2007 was in full swing at South of City Hall, with the collections of tens of thousands of books including more than five dozens of book publishers from Nepal and India, Chinese Book Fair at City Hall, which was relatively less publicized, made a record in terms of selling books and number of visitors.
As the response was so high, the stalls at the Chinese book fair were empty and the exhibition was closed one day before schedule because of lack of books to sell. According to organizers, more than ten thousand people visited the two day exhibition.
“We had not realized that such a large number of people would show up to read Chinese books. We just brought about 4000 books which were sold within two days of fair,” said Qiao Hui Xian, vice manager of China International Book Trading Corporation. “Large number of people have shown interests on books on China. We want to share our culture and tradition with people living in Nepal.”
Organized by China International Book Trading Corporation in association with Nepal World Cultural Net and sponsored by General Administration of Press and Publication of People’s Republic of China, the book fair has shown growing interest in Nepal about China.
In the last one decade, the book reading habit of Nepalese have changed drastically as large number of Nepalese students are now studying in China and many others are willing to go there.
Not only the books on Tao and Confucius, legendary Chinese thinkers, books at the stalls of Chinese Book Fair were also full of messages of Abraham Lincoln to Jefferson on democracy, freedom and rights of the people. The modernized China’s book exhibition showed that they are gradually moving towards more liberal society with right to dissent.
This is what one can remarkably see as distinctive feature at the recent book exhibition. Unlike in the past when the books were more related to Mao and his success story and other such propaganda materials, this time Chinese stalls were full of books on liberal values, Chinese history and values of Tao and Confucius.
The Tibetan stalls were also full of books related to Tibetan Buddhism and monasteries. There were also books about the modernization of Tibet and books on the transformation of Tibet.
In the last few decades, the economic prosperity has brought the transformation of Chinese society from more regimented to open and transparent one. It is common to read many books denouncing Cultural Revolution by Chinese scholars. The book exhibition also showed the rich and long history of Chinese culture and language.
Almost all 4000 books were related to culture, history, literature, traditional medicine, martial arts, short stories, and children’s books in Chinese, English and Tibetan languages.
Inaugurated by Minister for Information and Communication Krishna Bahadur Mahara, the book fair has shown that there is growing interest on China in Nepal. “ China and Nepal have a long history of friendship with mutual respect, understanding and trust, exchanging culture and art. But the citizens of both the countries are eager to know more about each other, and this book fair will help to know more about China, her people and their culture and tradition,” said Chinese ambassador to Nepal Zheng Xianglin.
Although China is known for Mao and some Nepalese Maoist leaders are boasting about the ideology of Mao, the Chinese stalls, interestingly, had only one book on Mao and that was also not related with his ideology - but a book titled ‘Mao Good not a God.’
From books with critical commentary to condemnation of culture revolution, one can see gradual opening of Chinese society and its economic transformation has made great contribution to it.
