UNDER the light of a shadowless lamp, 42-year-old Zhang Hua picks up a scalpel and a pair of tweezers and devotes all her energy to mending a centenarian patient: an antique book from the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The yellowing and moth-eaten book requires over 20 complicated steps to regain its shine. Zhang, with nine years of book repair experience, will complete the repair by keeping a steady hand on the tiller.

“Each ancient book is unique and suffers from different kinds of damages, so I have to consider the solutions case by case,” said Zhang while busy unbinding a book in the antique book repair office of northeast China’s prestigious Jilin University.

Tedious and demanding the work seems to be, but Zhang said it gives her a sort of satisfaction. “It’s a race against time to save the books while it also requires great patience,” she said.

A basic principle of repairing ancient books is trying to keep the book’s original appearance unchanged, which takes a lot of training.

To meet the standard, Zhang has to be erudite and engaged. She follows the techniques of ancient craftsmen to make a paste, select and dye the paper, and bind the book.

Sometimes the books are seriously damaged due to a high level of acidification, so Zhang also uses modern skills of de-acidification and pH paper tests to further protect the books.

“I also work with my colleagues to perform the tasks, but each of us is engrossed in our own part most of the day,” said Zhang.

In China, books written or printed before 1912 featuring classical book-binding styles are classified as antique books. The library of Jilin University houses about 400,000 such classics, a large proportion of which are in dire need of restoration and protection. “We still have a long way to go,” said Zhang.

In 2007, the country started a national project to preserve millions of ancient books. A State-level rare book restoration center was established in the National Library of China for protection and education.

China now has about 50 million antique books, among which the foremost 20 million have been protected, but the book repairing business remains a daunting task, said Zhang Zhiqing, deputy director of the center.

The center also holds annual training programs for book-repair staff of museums and libraries nationwide.

“It might take about 800 years to repair all the damaged ancient books in China given the current number of book repairers,” Zhang said. “I will make it a lifelong career.”

(Xinhua)