Human Library gets people talking

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(Xinhua) 17:28, October 31, 2013

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"Everyone is a book," is the slogan of a most peculiar library in the southern Chinese city of Nanning. Here, everyone is literally labeled as a book.

Welcome to the Human Library of Nanning, where people with particular stories to tell have replaced books. You can "read" them by having them tell their stories and answer your questions.

"Here you can read people who have special stories or whose work you might never encounter in your own life," said Huang Huajun, a senior college student and founder of the library.

Human Libraries started in Denmark in 2000, the brainchild of a group of young people who wanted to promote tolerance and understanding via the spoken word. In China, these novel forms of library flourish in cities like Shanghai and Chengdu, and are gaining popularity among the young.

Huang stumbled upon the concept in Hong Kong last year, and together with a like-minded schoolmate Huang Jingyan, they established the library in Nanning in April.

"There is a Chinese saying that it's better to travel thousands of miles than to read a thousand of books, but we believe reading thousands of people is even a better idea," said Huang Huajun.

Her collection so far consists of 22 "living books," who are either distinctive in their life stories or represent groups who remain largely unknown to the public.

"I read every living book myself first," said Huang. Only after making sure that the persons are truly worth reading, does she recommend them to her readers.

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