Wenrun Village remains new for a long time – Visiting the century-old rural library in Heshun, Yunnan – Xinhuanet Client

Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, April 23Title: Wenrun Village remains new for a long time—Visiting the century-old rural library in Heshun, Yunnan

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Cailin

The gate of Heshun Library taken on April 21. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Zhao Hui)

Crossing the Shuanghong Bridge at the entrance of Heshun Ancient Town, climbing up the steps made of volcanic stones, and passing through a three-bay gate with cornices on the top of the mountain, you will see a two-story building that combines Chinese and Western styles. This is the Heshun Library in Heshun Town, Tengchong City, Yunnan Province.

This rural library is a national key cultural relic protection unit. At present, the library has about 130,000 volumes of books, including many precious ancient books.

Heshun is located on the southwest border. A hundred years ago, a newspaper sent from Shanghai would take several months to arrive here. In 1924, the sage Heshun, who advocated reading for wisdom, discussed opening a book reading and newspaper club to sense external information. Reading Newspaper Club developed step by step and became the world-famous Heshun Library.

It is understood that at that time, local books and newspapers were purchased from Shanghai, transported by sea to Yangon, Myanmar, and then transferred to river ships or trains to Bhamo, Myanmar. Then they were transported by car to the China-Myanmar border, and finally carried by horse caravans to Heshun. Although the journey was nearly ten thousand miles , but it saves nearly half the time than taking the domestic route.

The main building of Heshun Library taken on April 21. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Zhao Hui)

“Books come from the clouds and spread across the world, and when they are reported overseas, they spread among the masses.” This is a couplet on the main building of Heshun Library. This couplet hides “ingenuity”. The first four characters of the upper and lower couplets are read alternately, which means “books and newspapers come from outside Yunhai”. This is a true description of the origin of the early collections of Heshun Library.

The tradition of farming and reading among Heshun people has been passed down from generation to generation, making the ancient town famous as a “hometown of culture”.

The reporter learned that in this border town of less than 8,000 people, nearly 3,000 people have applied for library cards at the library. “I applied for a library card at Heshun Library when I was 9 years old.” Cun Yu, director of Heshun Library, said that three generations of their family have worked in the library, and their great-grandfather was one of the founders of Heshun Library.

“Heshun Library is a place where we seek knowledge and study.” Cun Qinghua, 69, is a retired teacher from Heshun Town Central Primary School and a native of Heshun. “In the past, when looking for books, we had to use handwritten catalog search cards. Now we use electronic search, and the book resources are much richer.” After retirement, Cun is still a frequent visitor to the Tsinghua library and likes to read newspapers in the public reading room on the first floor.

Photographed on April 21, readers browse books and newspapers in Heshun Library. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Zhao Hui)

Zhang Lifei, a staff member of Heshun Library, said that since 2015, the library has launched digital equipment such as Goethe machine, information retrieval machine, and waterfall e-book lending machine. In addition to having functions such as e-book downloading, ancient book retrieval, and information query, it can also The display content is regularly updated, such as introducing activities related to traditional festivals, as well as Heshun’s humanities and history, etc., which is well received by readers and tourists.

The reporter learned that Heshun Library does not just stop at borrowing books, but also opens a “Heshun Lecture Hall” and a “Children’s Home”. From time to time, the museum will invite well-known experts, scholars, and outstanding lecturers to Heshun to give on-site lectures. The lectures have a wide range of content, covering the history of the Anti-Japanese War in Western Yunnan, traditional cultural knowledge, inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, family traditions and family mottos, and health science knowledge. Residents and tourists All can participate. At present, Heshun Lecture Hall has held 25 sessions, with nearly 10,000 people attending the lectures. The “Children’s Home” regularly carries out educational activities such as reading promotion, calligraphy and painting art training, behavioral habits development, and traditional Chinese culture promotion to create a healthy and upward growth environment for local children, which is very popular among parents and children.

Almost every tourist who comes to Tengchong, the “extreme land”, and enters the ancient town of Heshun will visit this rural library to experience the rich, simple and timeless Heshun culture. According to statistics, the number of people entering the museum in 2023 will exceed 750,000.