In Zhujiajiao Water Town, many people have a passion for book collection like Zhou. Among 11,000 families in the community, as much as 8,600 ones, or over 80%, are fond of book collection. In other words, up to 51 families boast of over 1,000 books each. The total volume of book collection is 560,000. In average, every family has as many as 50 or more books, or 16 books per head. So proud in such remarkable folk book collection, the community is applying for the title of "National Folk Book-collection Town". So far, it has passed the preliminary selection in Shanghai. In fact, it's the 1st old town in China that bids for such a title.

A long History of Book Collection

Zhujiajiao Town was already a village in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-265). Thanks to its profound culture, a quite few of scholars and artists were born there. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, 18 scholars became successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations and over 40 scholars at the provincial level. It's no wonder that the old town has a history of book collection.

Times passed but such a hobby doesn't change. Like the culture and tourism, it has become one of the old town's prides.

More Wealth, More books

The town people, affluent with more energy and time, are more dedicated to book collection. According to the statistics in 1990s, the town had 100,000 books in folk collection, 10 times of those collected in the town's library and much more than the total volume in 21 Qingpu libraries. Last year's statistics saw a dramatic increase, with folk book collection reaching 560,000 volumes. Zhou, together with Zhao Jianzhen, another biggest collector in the town, collects 100,000 volumes each.

The custom of book collection has been going on for generations. The children also love books. In the Zhujiajiao Primary School alone, 320 students have 11,341 books, with 35 volumes per head. Among them, 12 children have over 200 books each. Yuan Shenjiong has 702 books, more than any others.

Book First

The townspeople have a real passion for book collection. Mr. Zhou used to consume half a pack of cigarettes but the book collection hobby helped him stay away from smoking. Mr. Jiang is an associate editor of the town's annals and his family loves books very much. It happened before the Spring Festival that Mr. Jiang's son and daughter-in-law went shopping for clothes and gifts for the family. However, instead of department stores, they first went to the second-hand bookstore. When they found the well-known 160-volume set of "Study of Inscriptions on Ancient Bronzes and Stone Tablets" by Wang Chang, Qingpu's celebrity in the Qing Dynasty, they at once spent over RMB9,000 on it for a great gift for Mr. Jiang. Jiang's love for books pays off. His essay "Depending on Old Town's Culture, Developing Tourism" contributes a lot to the development of the town's tourism. His son Jiang Weiguo is good at calligraphy and seal cutting. His grandson Jiang Cheng won the bronze prize in the national children' calligraphy competition when he was only six.

The town's traditional Chinese doctor Yuan Xingjian collected over 30 ancient books, most about Chinese traditional medicine, such as the "Yingyunzhenge" of the Ming Dynasty, the "Zhupiyuzhi" of the Qing Dynasty. By referring to the books, he used the secret recipe handed down from ancestors and successfully cured a case of Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Yang Fengsheng, 75, has 2,000 books, half of which are his own writings including a poem reference book about Sanqu (a type of verse popular in the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, with tonal patterns modeled on tunes drawn from folk music [Chinese opera] a piece with neither action nor dialogue), Xiaoling (a short metre for ci [poems that contains relatively few syllables]). He is the chief editor of the "Chinese Poets Dictionary" and the "Collection of Poems".

Building a Book-collection Street

How to make full use of folk book collection and highlight it as part of the town's tourism? While striving for the title of "National Folk Book-collection Community", the town plans to build a book collection street. Firstly, a real estate developer purchases some houses on the Donghu Street, famous for book collection. Then, 20 reputed book-collection families move there. In such a street, tourists both home and abroad can visit the families, read books and talk about books with them. Visitors can inquire the masters to cut seals or write poems or draw pictures for them. These experiences can surely impress the visitors with the town's culture. The tourists will be glad to bring home the seals, poems or pictures as souvenirs.