New library creating cultural centre

A PRIME office location in the heart of the city’s central business district has found a new purpose as a Chinese library.

Located on the north-west corner of the Sturt and Lydiard street intersection, the Xin Jin Shan Chinese Library will house the largest collection of Chinese books within Australia.

Charles Zhang, committee member for the library and president of the Chinese Australian Cultural Society Ballarat, said the space will provide a multi-purpose use.

“This will also serve as an education and history research centre for China’s links to Victoria, Australia and Ballarat,” he said.

“There’s also the importance of this place as a Chinese arts facility with the collection we have and the artists we want to invite here.

“And finally, this building will serve as a centre for our Chinese multicultural community with the potential to open our spaces up to groups of different cultures.

Mr Zhang said the library has been a long-time dream for its owner Haoliang Sun, chairman of the Xin Jin Shan Education Foundation.

The name translates to New Gold Mountain, the name for Victoria during the goldrush.

Although a launch event was held in mid-June, Mr Zhang said with over 40,000 books of the 110,000 still to be categorised, the library will open to the public within the next two months.

The building comprises 16 rooms many of which are named after Chinese professors who donated their personal collections to the library.

About 80 per cent of the books are in Chinese, with online translation efforts to be undertaken for select works.

Mr Zhang said he hopes the library will provide a drawcard for Ballarat’s multicultural profile.

“We want this to extend into an internationally recognised space for Chinese history, arts and culture,” he said.

“We’re hoping this will bring the city’s Chinese heritage into another level. We had such a colourful, rich multicultural history here in Ballarat, so this is our way of giving back to that.”