Fortunes made in rare books
8/6/2005 8:00
Panjiayuan in southeast Beijing is extremely popular with vendors,
scholars, and migrant workers alike due to the rare or antique books sold
there.
It seems that no one cares about the appearance of their booths, and
buyers often find what they want there, and even occasionally come across rare
and lucrative items.
Dozens of migrant workers gather at the entrance to a
large landfill on the outskirts of Beijing early morning every day, awaiting the
arrival of trucks from downtown Beijing.
The discarded papers and books are
recycled into a source of income for migrant workers, who spend hours trying to
dig out as many rare, valuable books as they can. Books formerly owned by
celebrities are especially precious.
Ma zi, a young migrant worker in his
twenties, said there are often fights over the books, since some can be sold at
high prices. He rents a room nearby, a convenient location from which to exploit
the unexpected resource provided by the landfill.
The books recently
collected still stink in the small room where Ma lives with his partners. Books
printed 500 years ago in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), a 1954 edition of the
"Constitution of the People's Republic of China" in traditional Chinese
characters, and books printed during the turmoil of the 1966-1976 Cultural
Revolution, are all treasures for him.
Proud of his collection, he
enthusiastically describes them with a degree of detail surprising from someone
with only a primary school education. "I will take (the books) to Panjiayuan
once I have enough," Ma says, pointing to a pile nearby.
Compared to Ma, Xiao
Liu, a 33-year-old farmer from central Henan Province, is one of the fortunate
few to have a regular booth at the Panjiayuan market. He spends all week on his
motorcycle looking for books and sells them on the weekends.
Liu, who has
been in the trade for 10 years, said that trading rare, antique books requires a
combination of luck and experience.
He clearly lacks neither.
Liu
sometimes gets 2,000 yuan (US$250) in just a single deal, which is about the
average annual income in Beijing.
Serial picture books printed during
Cultural Revolution period are the most valuable, says Lao Shang, a seasoned
book vendor at Panjiayuan, known among his peers as "Teacher Shang."
He
divides people involved in the rare books trade into three types. One group
searches at landfills every day, like Xiao Liu, often toiling in vain. The
second type has more knowledge and buys books from the first type. The third
type includes the so-called big buyers, who often get books at auctions.
He
said the 66-volume picture book series "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," printed
in 1958, sold at 5,000 yuan, while the original price was less than 10
yuan.
Shang's acquaintances range from professors, calligraphers and
researchers, who are also frequent visitors to Panjiayuan.
Ah ying, a famous
writer, said that digging out a good antique book from garbage is something like
discovering a new world. In fact, the word "dig" in Chinese implies both
adventure and interest.
Li hui, a cultural history scholar, once hit "gold"
at the Panjiayuan market. He found a complete set of the Chinese Dramatists
Association files, an invaluable record of history which reflects the political
turbulence of China in the 1959-1969 period.
Old books help nurture the
culture of a society, said Li. "Plenty of details help form the history, and the
process of detailed discoveries is endless. Digging out old books is like
filling in the blanks in history."
Xinhua
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