Rare manuscripts of the British Library to be displayed in Beijing

Objects going on display at the exhibition include a Quarto edition of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet which once belonged to King George III. [Photo: China Plus/Duan Xuelian]

A major exhibition jointly organized by the British Library and the National Library of China will open in Beijing on April 21st, and it is going to showcase some of the most precious English manuscripts to Chinese audiences for the first time.

Ten of the most cherished manuscripts in the treasure trove of the British Library will travel to China for the first time, as part of a cultural exchange project titled The British Library in China: connecting through culture and learning. The exhibition titled Shakespeare to Sherlock: 

Treasures of the British Library will include Charles Dickens' manuscript for Nicholas Nickleby and Charlotte Bronte's fair copy of her best-known work Jane Eyre.

Dr. Karen Limper-Herz, a senior curator at the British Library, recently demonstrated the unique copy of Jane Eyre at a press preview held in London.

"We've got here volume one of the manuscripts of Jane Eyre, which is by Charlotte Bronte. It is a 'fair copy' which means that it is a copy produced by her for the printers to set the text from. Being a 'fair copy', you can see her handwriting was very clear, very neat. You can also see that she made a few changes as she went along, for example here, where she crossed off half a sentence and shortened it quite significantly. The other thing you can see in this manuscript is that you can see inky fingerprints if you look quite closely which means that this manuscript was indeed used by the printers to set the text from," said the curator.

These rare English manuscripts will be displayed alongside National Library of China items, including their Chinese translations, adaptations and literary reviews to highlight its principle in bridging English and Chinese literary cultures.

"Just to give you a sense of what that might look like, that pairing of collections from China and from the UK. You can see one example, which is our pairing of a 1598 Quarto edition of Romeo and Juliet, the Quartos are the earliest known text of Shakespeare, they are amongst the most precious and rare items in our collection. And this particular Quarto, Romeo and Juliet published in Shakespeare's lifetime belonged to King George III, and it will displayed side by side with a National Library of China collection, a Ming Dynasty print copy of The Peony Pavilion by Shakespeare's great contemporary Tang Xianzu," said Jamie Andrews, head of the Culture and Learning Department at the British Library.

To better engage with Chinese audiences, Jamie Andrews says that a specially designed website, as well as a WeChat channel, will be launched at the opening of the Beijing exhibition.

"At the same time, you can log on to the website, you can look at your WeChat channel and you can virtually turn the pages of the manuscript and see films that explain a bit more about the objects, you can hear the author if they are contemporary authors, you can hear them reading their own works. So it's about those little tricks that bring the objects to life," said Andrews.

The exhibition is part of a structured long-term project, which has received 1.6 million pounds in funding from the UK government. Further pop-up exhibitions will be held in other locations around China, including Shanghai and Hong Kong.