Zhao Ling shows how to repair an ancient book. [Photo/Women of China]

Studying Book Restoration

Zhao began working on the circulation desk in Hangzhou Public Library, in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province, in 1988, after she graduated from high school. One year later, Zhao went to Shanghai to study ancient-book restoration at Shanghai Library. She had studied how to recognize the versions of ancient books and how to store and repair ancient books in Shanghai for half a year.

After Zhao returned to Hangzhou, she was named the first, and still only, full-time, ancient-book restorer at the library. As a newcomer to ancient-book restoration, it was hard for her to repair the shabby books with crispy paper. So, an expert in mounting and repairing ancient calligraphy and paintings was invited to the library to teach Zhao how to repair ancient books.

There are three stages in ancient -book restoration — separating, repairing and rebinding the book. However, the process of repairing the book involves more than 10 steps. "As a new hand, the step of making paste was a big problem for me. The glue sold in the shop has chemical components. So, I needed to make paste by myself. The first step is to mix flour with water. The second step is to heat the mixture on the stove. I needed to stir the mixture when it was being heated. Then, I had to put the paste in the refrigerator, after it cooled down. When I repaired a book, I dissolved some paste in the boiled water," says Zhao.