Comments on: Why My Local Chinese Library is an Oasis in the Desert

By: Krytes

Krytes — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:13:25 +0000

I’m in Baoding, Hebei province. It’s a small city about an hour and a half southwest of Beijing. On the bright side, the bookstores are large, well-lit, have foam mats on the floor so that you can sit and read, and are full of incredibly cheap books.
Which city are you in?

By: Robert Vance

Robert Vance — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:52:09 +0000

That’s a shame. Can you tell us what part of China you are in? I was kind of expecting to see something like that when I went to visit this library but I was very pleasantly surprised.

By: Krytes

Krytes — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:16:47 +0000

I went to my city’s only library in hopes of finding something like that. Alas, our library consists of a small, dingy two-story building in which there is ONE small room devoted to books and magazines (the other rooms host art classes). It was (closed on a Monday afternoon), but through the doors I could see several tables with hard wooden chairs, three small racks of magazines, and a tiny half-height bookshelf full of shabby-looking books. Not an inviting place to read. I’ve seen elementary schools with much better-equipped libraries.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:43:28 +0000

I’ve just finished reading an amazing biography through Chinese history by Yuan-Tsung Chen called Return to Middle Kingdom, which spans three generations of her family living in (and outside of) China where they lived through three separate revolutions. If you liked Wild Swans you will definitely enjoy this one.

Her portraits of the historical figures of the time are unforgettable. I was particularly taken with the first appearance in the book of Mao Zedong as a young, lanky, thirty year old man. The book spans around a century and a half of Chinese history and shows the emergence of the modern China in full detail. The most compelling parts though are during the late 19th and early 20th century, when China was going through so much political change. With all that War and revolution the story still manages to fit in the humanity of the people as well as romance (for those who like that sort of thing)

By: Demerzel

Demerzel — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:11:25 +0000

The library in Shanghai was beautiful, similar aspect of design, although I know a few of the Chinese came in because it was heavily air conditioned on hot days.

As a son of a librarian, I avoided libraries just cause I would want to avoid where my mom worked, and I could just ask my mom to get the books for me rather than having to go there and find it myself.

In any case, the libraries around here are okay, with some being really good and up-to-date. Of course, part of that stems from how much the city/gov’t is willing to invest in public works/infrastructure, which, as a developed nation goes, is rather small to focus on maintaining the lifestyle rather than expanding it.