After years of living in Kunming, I’m very happy that the release of my new book A Story of Chinese Characters was a great excuse to go on a book tour of Dali, my favourite place in China.
在昆明居住多年后，我很高兴新书《汉字博物馆》发布让我有机会前往在中国我最喜爱的地方——大理，举办巡回签售。
We visited three amazing bookshops, the first being Cāngyì Library in Xǐzhōu.
我们探访了三家精彩书店，首站是喜洲的苍逸图书馆。
Founded in 1938 by Yán Zǐzhēn, legendary owner of the Yǒng Chāng Xiáng Trading Company which had branches across South and South East Asia. The bookshop is in the original building, a lovely Baizu courtyard and today is run by Zēngzēng (曾曾), who also puts out great book and Dali related videos on Tiktok (the account is 曾曾, or you can search for 苍逸图书馆).
这座书店由永昌祥商号传奇创始人严子珍于1938年创立——该商号当年遍布南亚与东南亚各地。书店仍坐落于原址，是一座精致的白族庭院，如今由曾曾主理。她在抖音（账号“曾曾”或搜索“苍逸图书馆”）持续分享优质书籍与大理生活视频。
I was really happy to see that Xizhou is still a great place to wander around, and they’ve sunk a lot into promoting local culture.
令我欣喜的是，喜洲依然是个值得漫步的宝地，当地在推动本土文化方面投入颇丰。
There was this great workshop / museum (one of many little workshop / museums!) for Báizú jiǎmǎ woodblock prints, that make small paper icons for the pantheon of local gods.
其中有个很棒的白族甲马版画工坊兼展馆（这类小微文化空间在当地很常见！），专门制作本土神祇体系的纸质符章。
The ones below are modern versions for tourists with bad puns. This is great! I truly believe this is the only way they’ll keep these traditional crafts going, so glad they are doing it.
下图这些充满谐音梗的现代版本是为游客设计的，实在有趣！我深信唯有通过这样的创新，传统工艺才能延续生机，很高兴看到这样的实践。
And, we got to stay in this lovely courtyard hotel.
此外，我们还有幸入住这家庭院式精品酒店，体验十分惬意。
Leave a Reply