Feature: China's woodblock printing, tea culture attracts visitors at New Delhi book fair

Close to the entrance of China's pavilion at New Delhi World Book Fair inside Pragati Maidan, visitors have gathered around a desk to watch an ancient printing technique and publishing culture.

Li Ying was busy smearing red ink on an engraved sandal woodblock. Hurriedly she lifts a leaf of ivory colored foolscap paper (xuan paper) from a ream of sheets and adjusts it over the block. Once satisfied, she picks up a roller and gently presses the paper to allow the inscriptions to be cast on it. She lifts the paper to reveal a freshly printed image of Buddha expounding something to his disciples.

Li Ying smilingly hands it over to the visitors one by one, much to their delight.

She allows the inquisitive visitors to try their hands on a somewhat smaller blocks on her desk. Intermittently while she takes out prints from her block, she keeps on instructing those replicating the technique.

"It is a unique way to make prints and I will keep this as a souvenir in my home," Ashish, a visitor said. "The image of Buddha along with her disciples is really thought provoking."

Like Ashish, Paromita Singh watched the technique and asked for a print for herself to take home.

"I had made my mind to visit the stall, as China had been named the guest of honor this year," Singh said. "I was sure there would be something interesting and different there."

Li Ying, a researcher from the China Printing Museum is part of a visiting delegation and demonstrates on-the-spot printing techniques as part of an interaction-based installation.

She told Xinhua she has handed out more than 200 prints of woodblock printing of Sakyamuni preaching, to visitors during the first three hours after the festival began on Saturday.

"This is a very old printing technique and dates back to 868 A.D. and the illustration is a perfect representation of the great printing techniques of the Tang Dynasty," she said. "It is very meaningful to people here in India because it is about Buddhism."

A few steps past the printing demonstration, visitors are led to a space meant for showcasing Chinese tea culture.

The organizers dressed in beautiful attire enthrall the audience with the art of the tea dance featuring the making of tea and the offering of the cups on a tray. The visitors sip the small cups and take the small tea packets home as gifts.

"The tea culture is a key part of traditional Chinese culture and the exhibition is an effort to show our culture using tea as a symbol," said Wang Xufeng, dean of the Tea Culture School in Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University.

Wang has written a book on tea called, The stories of tea, tracing origins of the world's popular drink.

"We know India is a country of milk and sugar and the people have the culture of mixing milk and sugar to their tea. Indian tea is heavier in taste if taken black, so we are here to showcase our tea and ask people to taste it."

At the tea exhibition stall, the organizers have brought six kinds of tea for the Indian visitors.

"We have only brought six kinds of tea here. The green tea, the black tea, the white tea, the yellow tea, the dark tea and the Oolong tea," Tu Youying, director of the Department of Tea Science at the College of Agriculture & Biotechnology, Zhejiang University said.

The fair will continue until Jan. 17 much to the delight of book lovers.

"It is really good to have a taste of real Chinese tea. Frankly speaking, it has refreshed my taste buds," Amit Malhotra said. "I am definitely going to spread the word about this tea exhibition to my friends."

This year, the guest of honor is China, which has set up a beautifully designed pavilion spread over 1,200 square meters in hall number 7 to showcase Chinese books translated into English.

More than 250 Chinese delegates including publishers and authors are participating in the book fair. Around 5,000 Chinese books will be showcased in the nine-day-long fair and books translated from the Chinese language into English and Hindi are conspicuously on display.

Some 30 countries from around the world including Egypt, Germany, Nepal, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia are taking part in the fair, besides international agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The fair, touted as "Asia's largest book fair," last year attracted around 1 million visitors. However, this year the expectations are higher and organizers look forward to seeing an increase in daily footfall.

Around Delhi, billboards and posters about the book fair are dotting the roads and markets. Even posters have been pasted on the back of auto rickshaws to spread the word about the fair. Endit