The cultural seed bank of a civilization

At the showcase of picture books, visitors can see five editions of Yuemu Cizi — an ancient Chinese story recounting the tale of the patriotic Song Dynasty (960-1279) hero, and how Yue Fei's mother tattooed characters on his back as a reminder of his duty to serve the country with utmost loyalty — including the first edition from 1958 and the second from 1983. Visitors can also see the manuscripts of numerous books.

Picture books, mostly the size of an adult's palm, were easily carried. Many are adaptations of novels, but are much easier to read, making such books extremely popular in the latter half of the 20th century.

"Among all the picture books on display, Yuemu Cizi was the most popular one, with more than 4 million copies sold by the People's Fine Art Publishing House," said Wang Liming, deputy director of the Publishers Association of China, in a previous interview with China Central Television.