Ancient book repairperson brings life to ancient books

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Writing brush, sprinkling can, utility knife, needles and strings, these are the tools the 24-year-old Xia Tianni uses to do her everyday work. As an ancient book repairperson, Xia saves and fixes old books at Shandong Normal University in Ji’nan, east China’s Shandong Province.

Ancient book repairing is a delicate work. Xia said the work is not to refurbish the books but to make them look as old as they were. She has to find papers that have a similar color to the original pages and use specially made glue. It might take days for her to fix just one page.

Xia Tianni preparing to repair ancient books / VCG photo

“The best compliment we could have is this book looks as if it has never been mended,” said Xia.

Xia said there are way too few people committed to repairing ancient books. Before her job, Xia majored in identification and repair of cultural relics at Shandong University of Art and Design. However, only two out of 36 people from her class chose major related works after graduation.

“With this number of people doing our work, it is really hard to come up with a standard for ancient book repairing,” said Xia. “It can be really difficult sometimes trying to fix books from early 20th century.”

Ancient books in Shandong Normal University that need repairing / VCG photo

Wang Bin, who is 56 years old, is the other ancient book repairperson at Shandong Normal University. He will be retiring in four years and is worried no more young people would take this route in the future.

“I took on this job because my masters retired,” said Wang. “After I retire, I am afraid no one will take on this job anymore.”

Xia Tianni working in Shandong Normal University library / VCG photo

But Wang does not need to worry because Xia enjoys her work and is willing to share it with others. She said it allows her to learn from history and appreciate the works by her predecessors.