The Embassy of China to Brunei Darussalam donated books to the library division under the Language and Literature Bureau (DBP) during the launch of China Book Corner and China’s Kong Rong Gave Away Bigger Pears story book yesterday.
Permanent Secretary (Sports) at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports Pengiran Mohd Amirrizal bin Pengiran Haji Mahmud, the guest of honour, launched the China Book Corner at Muara Library.
Ambassador-designate of China to Brunei Darussalam Xiao Jianguo handed over Kong Rong Gave Away Bigger Pears story book to Pengiran Mohd Amirrizal and DBP Acting Director Suip bin Haji Abdul Wahab.
The DBP acting director said, “The China Book Corner adds knowledge and value for readers to engage themselves to explore and understand culture, perspective and thinking from other countries. Building understanding through reading can help instil a sense of respect for one other and further strengthen friendship between both nations.”
Meanwhile, Xiao Jianguo highlighted, “Chinese civilisation enjoys a long history, lasting for thousands of years with an extensive and profound Chinese culture. Chinese written characters are one of the earliest written languages and currently the only still living pictographic characters in the world.”
He continued, “Books play the role as a vessel for Chinese civilisation and culture, and an important window to understand China. The embassy donated 169 books in English to the DBP library, covering China’s economy, society, culture, science and technology, literature and other fields.”
He shared, “We believe that these books will enable Bruneians to learn more about China’s past, present and future, to further perceive, understand and appreciate China. The embassy has donated Chinese books for four consecutive years to 12 Bruneian universities, secondary schools, primary schools as well as cultural organisations. We hope that we can continue to make this a success.”
“With support from Reading and Literacy Association’s Malai Zeiti binti Sheik Abdul Hamid, the series of China’s cultural story book titled, Kong Rong Gave Away Bigger Pears is now accessible to Bruneian readers. The book is a well-known old story in China about a child named Kong Rong whose humble deed of giving larger pears to his elders while leaving himself the smallest one. It contains Chinese virtues of respecting the elders and acting in good faith and being friendly to others,” he added. – James Kon
