Saving books from invaders

Tsien was the person in charge of this duty. He disguised himself as a bookseller and used false labels, risking his life to cheat Japan's watchful eye. All 102 wooden crates, containing more than 2,700 kinds of books, safely reached the US in 1941. The last crate left Shanghai only two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is when Shanghai fully fell under Japanese occupation.

In 1947, Tsien was sent to the US to retrieve the books and bring them back to Beijing. However, the social upheaval of the Chinese Civil War turned his temporary trip into a long stay. He attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a PhD and became the first full-time curator of the university's East Asian Library, making its collection of East Asian books among the best in the US.

All the saved books were transferred to Taiwan in the mid-1960s and are now housed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Tsien continued to appeal for the books' return to NLC, but this was not realized because of political tension between the mainland and Taiwan.

"Mr Tsien always told me his greatest regret was being unable to take the collection to its home in Beijing," Cheng recalls. In his heart, no matter where he was, he always belonged to National Peking Library, Cheng says.

As it's the 70th anniversary honoring victory in World War II, this year will also witness NLC's more exhibitions reflecting Chinese scholars' wartime struggles, according to Lin Shitian, who is in charge of the library's exhibition office.

"Librarians like Tsien also collected abundant historical files during the World War II," he says. "One important duty for a library is to preserve history. Scholars' efforts to protect our written national treasures and fight against invasions in their own ways should not be forgotten."

IF YOU GO

9 am-5 pm, through May 4. First floor of National Library of China (north area), 33 Zhongguancun Nandajie, Haidian district, Beijing.

(China Daily 04/28/2015 page22)