Life Desk :China Also Brings Replicas Of Oracle Bones, Sanskrit Texts To Book Fair The Chinese have been reading and writing for a long time-they even invented paper-and China is the main guest country at the World Book Fair that started on Saturday .China has sent over 200 publishers, writers and scholars. Part of that delegation is Wang Xufeng, a professor at the Zhe Jiang Agriculture and Forest University , and an expert on China’s “tea culture.” She even has a book on it and is demonstrating tea-making and pouring (in hall 7). Tea isn’t another breakfast beverage for the Chinese. “Tea drinking is not just for the body but also for the soul. Drinking it is a physical act but also helps in the flowering of the spirit,” she says. It is offered with worship.The Chinese exhibition also includes replicas of the Oracle Bones-the original are from 1600 BC-with text on them. It also explains the development of the Chinese characters (they were first created by “tying knots, engraving and pictography”) and printing. There’s also Wang Zhen’s wooden revolving typesetting system.The National Manuscripts Mission has also put on display over a dozen manuscripts-all original-in different languages as part of The Cultural Heritage of India exhibition, some of which are borrowed from private owners. There’s Aara’ish-i-Mahfil by Sher Ali, from 1825 that’s part of a private collection. There are also copies of Samaveda, Mahabharata, Ramayana and Vyakarana Mahabhasya-all Sanskrit written in Odiya script-that are 150-200 years old. “None of this is original,” says G P Panda of NMM meaning, none of them is the first copy of the text. But yellowed, moth-eaten and in some cases completely wrapped-the Mahabha rata, for instance-as they we re, these drew a lot of attention. The activities on this will include a performance by a Sanskrit band and a Sanskrit play . The Vividh Bharat pavillion also has a large number of Indian publishers.Other international participants include Poland, Singapore, Pakistan, Iran, Spain France and Saudi Arabia Shehzad Alam, Indian distri butor for Pakistani books in Urdu and English says books by Mumtaz Mufti and Abdul lah Husain are popular in India. “We send books to Kashmir, Maharashtra, UP and Bangalore. They are very popular here,” says Alam. Saudi Arabia’s stall features almost entirely non-ficton works.The possiblity of online buying or ebooks clearly hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm for book fairs. The trade publishing halls–8 to 11–we re very busy . Ashdeep Kaur taking a breather outside the packed stall of a major publisher, says “You don’t get such variety at one place.” She is in Delhi on work-her family are from Patiala-and surrounded by half a dozen bags of books. “My husband teaches at Punjab University and all this will go into our personal collection. He and my son are still inside. – TNN
