A PRIME office location in the heart of the city\u2019s central business district has found a new purpose as a Chinese library.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will also serve as an education and history research centre for China\u2019s links to Victoria, Australia and Ballarat,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s also the importance of this place as a Chinese arts facility with the collection we have and the artists we want to invite here.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd 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.<\/p>\n
Mr Zhang said the library has been a long-time dream for its owner Haoliang Sun, chairman of the Xin Jin Shan Education Foundation.<\/p>\n
The name translates to New Gold Mountain, the name for Victoria during the goldrush.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The building comprises 16 rooms many of which are named after Chinese professors who donated their personal collections to the library.<\/p>\n
About 80 per cent of the books are in Chinese, with online translation efforts to be undertaken for select works.<\/p>\n
Mr Zhang said he hopes the library will provide a drawcard for Ballarat\u2019s multicultural profile.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want this to extend into an internationally recognised space for Chinese history, arts and culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hoping this will bring the city\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A PRIME office location in the heart of the city\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n