With the warmth of spring and the fragrance of books, the library celebrated the 2025 World Book Day. The event featured five dimensions: “Exhibit, Read, Listen, Create, and Learn,” encompassing art exhibitions, intangible cultural heritage experiences, academic sharing, and more, creating a multidimensional reading feast that blends tradition and modernity.
Ink and Brush, Classics Appreciated
The Teaching Achievements Exhibition of Calligraphy, Painting & Seal Engraving grandly opened on April 22 at the Library. The exhibition showcased over 50 exquisite works created by students and faculty from the School of Art and Archaeology, the Calligraphy and Painting Society, and the Seal Carving Society. The works included various art forms such as seal script calligraphy, landscape paintings, seal carvings, and literati sketches, fully demonstrating Zhejiang University's profound heritage in traditional art education and attracting viewers to appreciate them one by one.
On the morning of May 17, the library held a special guided tour, inviting Sha Wei, Director of the Department of Fine Arts, Deputy Director Lin Ru, and professional teachers Huang Wei and Zhang Lei to the exhibition hall to provide in-depth explanations for teachers and students. The teachers interpreted the works from a professional perspective, transforming the static exhibition into a lively art class, bringing new vitality to the ink fragrance through interactive sessions. Participating students expressed, “Through professional interpretation, we discovered the poetic charm hidden in the inscriptions and the contemporary consciousness faintly visible in the landscape and bird paintings. Traditional art is far more vibrant than imagined.”
Simultaneously, the “Chinese Calligraphy and Seal Carving Art Theme Book Exhibition” in the library atrium complemented the main exhibition. The book exhibition selected classic works in the fields of calligraphy, painting, and seal carving, constructing a three-dimensional art knowledge system from the study of pre-Qin inscriptions to the interpretation of Ming and Qing literati letters. The “ Listen, I Read for You” radio program specially selected excerpts from “The Shape of Writing” and “Who Sends the Brocade Letter,” using the art of sound to interpret the charm of calligraphy, allowing traditional art to permeate the campus in diverse forms.
New Rhythms of Intangible Cultural Heritage, Reading with Vitality The Spring Blossoms and Book Rhythms
“Spring Blooms & Books – Four Arts Immersive Experience” event combined the fragrance of books with intangible cultural heritage, opening a new chapter in spring reading. On April 23, at the “Seed of Knowledge – Spring Mystery Box” event, 100 carefully prepared herb and flower seed blind boxes were given out with book loans. Readers "borrowed a book and kept a spring," allowing the nutrients of knowledge and the green vitality of life to sprout together. Now, new buds have already appeared in the library, and this unique spring fragrance is quietly growing on the desks and windowsills of every participant.
On April 24, the “Four Arts Bazaar – Heritage Meets Pages” jointly presented with Haining Library attracted many students. Students experienced the beauty of traditional clothing by wearing flower hairpins and "dressing up in front of the mirror," collected stamps of famous Haining book collectors to customize exclusive cultural bookmarks, and created unique patterns with indigo dye in the tie-dye area. An international student participating in the tie-dye activity exclaimed, “This is a wonderful way to touch Chinese culture with your fingertips.”
Intellectual Exchange, Cultural Co-construction
On the afternoon of May 9, the Zhejiang University International Campus and Zhejiang University Press Cultural Co-construction Launch Ceremony and the first famous lecture event were successfully held at the International Campus. During the ceremony, both parties signed a cultural co-construction cooperation memorandum, marking a new stage of cooperation. Subsequently, Professors Xu Zhiqiang from the School of Humanities and Fan Yun from the School of Media and International Culture engaged in a fascinating dialogue on “Literature as Life Doctrine, Love Textbook, and AI Era Literature.” Meanwhile, the “Qizhen Bookstore” officially opened in the library's first-floor coffee bar, providing a high-quality reading space for teachers and students and further enriching the campus cultural ecosystem. This cultural co-construction event is an important milestone in deepening cooperation. In the future, both parties will continue to promote campus cultural construction and academic achievement dissemination, creating a better cultural experience for teachers and students.
In another academic event, the “Weixue Lecture: Create a Lasting Legacy and Publish Your Academic Work with Wiley” was held on April 23 in the library. Wiley Senior Project Manager Meng Linglei explained the authoritative path “from manuscript to bookshelf” from the perspective of global academic publishing, providing professional guidance on journal submission and academic book publishing. The lecture was lively, with researchers engaging in in-depth discussions on hot topics such as open access.
To better serve teaching and research work, the library conducted the “Library on the Move – Link Campus @ Service” event on April 21-22. Staff visited research centers such as ZJE, ZJUI, and ZIBS, providing on-site resource retrieval guidance, cultural activities, and service consultations, bringing library services directly to teachers and students and further enhancing service efficiency.
Book and Food, Enjoy with Ease
The BOOK BITE BAY reading corner on the second floor of the cafeteria has been newly unveiled! The new cultural wall adds a reading atmosphere, and the activity bulletin board updates reading activities and lecture information in real-time, building a bridge for knowledge dissemination and interactive communication. The cafeteria reading corner aims to convey the humanistic care of “enjoying food and resting the heart,” injecting new vitality into campus cultural construction. During World Book Day, BOOK BITE BAY specially presented the classical music theme “Timeless Harmonies: Listen to Unravel Music's Greatest Mysteries,” making hearing the key to decoding time, allowing all teachers and students to enjoy good food and good music together.
The vibrant green of the seed blind boxes and the ink fragrance of the painting exhibition hall complement each other, the rational thinking of academic lectures and the emotional expression of radio programs enhance each other, jointly outlining a diverse picture of a book-fragrant campus. The library hopes to continuously deepen the cultural service connotation through these carefully designed cultural activities, nourishing the hearts of teachers and students with the fragrance of books, and making reading an enduring cultural gene of the International Campus.
Text and Images: Qin Difan