China's first comprehensive family letter culture monograph, "Paper Short and Long: The Cultural Value and Rescue Strategy of Chinese Books", was published by the People's Publishing House recently. On the morning of December 12, the author Zhang Ding brought this new book to the Yonghe Book Garden in Beijing's Dongcheng District to share the theme of "paper short love long" family letter sharing.
Zhang Ding is a research librarian, deputy director and director of the Family Letter Culture Research Center of the Family Letter Culture Research Center of Chinese Min University. He initiated and presided over the national rescue of folk family letters project in 2005, and has been committed to the collection, collation and research of folk family letters for many years, planning and launching two permanent exhibitions of family letters and 12 temporary exhibitions.
Talking about the background of the publication of this new book, Zhang Ding said that this book is not only the project result of the National Social Science Fund he presided over, but also the summary and reflection of his work on the rescue of family letters for more than a decade. Just 17 years ago, he began to associate with his family letters because he heard a radio program. In April 2005, under the active initiative of a group of cultural celebrities such as Fei Xiaotong, Ji Xianlin and Ren Jiyu, and with the strong support of the National Museum and the Chinese Association of Nationalities, the "Rescue of Folk Family Letters Project" was launched in Beijing.
Over the past 17 years, Zhang Ding has presided over the work of the project secretariat, and the Jiashu Cultural Research Center has the honor to settle in Renmin University in 2009 and obtain a platform for career development. In 2013, he successfully applied for the key project of the National Social Science Fund and received funding, and since then he has begun the rescue process of family letters while practicing and studying.
This book is the first to theoretically study the family letter as a whole cultural concept, and proposes a new model for cultural value judgment of the family letter, that is, the family letter has comprehensive cultural values such as cultural heritage value, historical value, ethical value, educational value, artistic value, and era value.
This book also believes that the family letter is not only a social memory archive, but also an important carrier of social memory, which epitomizes the social memory of the people. Folk family letters are endangered archival documents, most of which are scattered among the people and urgently need to be rescued. This book systematically summarizes the practice of the Chinese folk family letter rescue project, and puts forward 8 policy suggestions for doing a good job in the rescue and inheritance of family letters, which is of guiding significance for relevant units to carry out family letter activities.
The author Zhang Ding told the guests about the background of the book's publication
At the new book sharing meeting on the same day, several highly respected donors of family letters also came, including Liu Guoqiang, a donor of family letters from both sides of the strait, Zhou Xiberry, a donor of academicians' family letters, and Feng Shuangping, a donor of heroic family letters.
Xie Xiang, vice president of the Capital Women Journalists Association, told the story behind the family letter she donated. Her mother loved to read and write letters, keeping more than a thousand letters from their family. On the mother's 70th birthday, the four daughters discussed that it was most appropriate to give the mother a set of family letters from their own home, so several people divided their labor and cooperated, and entered more than 1700 family letters saved by their mothers into the computer, compiled into a beautiful 5-volume collection of family letters, and named them "Mulan Family Letters" after their mothers. My mother was very happy to receive this set of gifts.
Xie Xiang also combined her personal experience to emphasize the importance of family letters to education, she said that at the important life junctures such as their sisters' schooling, joining the army, studying for examinations, working, and getting married, their mother sent guidance and suggestions in a timely manner through a family letter, so that they were deeply taught and took many detours.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhang Enjie
Editor/Bow Lifang